Should I still avoid Benadryl even with very bad allergies ?

[TheGman6072]

So the time of the year where I start getting sick all the time is approaching. I get very bad colds and allergies. I have abused diphenhydramine several times and it is the reason why my HPPD and all this other crap has gotten worse than it already was but I am likely start getting sick all the time this winter and I could only get rid of it with allergy pills which I am now hesitant to use since abusing allergy medicine messed me up forever. 5 months of constant LSD use gave me minor HPPD and brain fog but just 3 straight nights of high doses of diphenhydramine made it all worse and then I ended up getting dp/dr as well. It would usually take like 6 pills to make allergies completely go away and a regular dose would only help a little bit. would it still be safe to take only one or two pills to relieve a few of the allergy symptoms or should I stay away from allergy medications completely and just suffer from allergies ? Are there any allergy/cold medicines that don't contain diphenhydramine or DXM ?

[tlehmbecker]

Zyrtec and Claritin come to mind regarding allergy pills that don't possess some sort of anticholinergic effect. Flonase works great if you have nasal problems as well (it's a corticosteroid that you spray into your nose that ultimately reduces inflammation from allergies which reduces stuffiness and mucus).

 

You could also look at allergy meds that contain doxylamine succinate, but the medications that contain doxylamine are usually combined with DXM in a syrup. You can find tablets of just doxylamine though. However, doxylamine is a close relative to DPH so you might want to avoid it as well.