I hate Zyrtec.

I seriously despise the stuff at this point! I've been taking it daily for a couple of years now and decided a few months ago that I was ready to try going off of it. Boy was I in for a nasty surprise! I had noticed in the past that when I missed a couple of doses I would get itchy, which I found unusual since I'd never had skin allergies before I started taking it. But I dismissed it as a coincidence... Until I tried going off of it for real and just about clawed my skin off.

It started out as a small itch here and there. Scratch and it would go away. But the longer I was off the Zyrtec the worse the itching got. The night I finally figured out what was happening was seriously one of the worst nights of my life! When I laid down to go to bed the itching got worse. So I scratched. And that didn't help. So I scratched some more... Until I knew I was about to start damaging my skin! Then it moved to my back. It seems to be a couple of isolated points that itch intensely. My stomach, the tops of my legs, and my back seem to get it the worst. That night I resorted to using my hairbrush to scratch my back. And it provided no relief.

By this time - around midnight - I had put two and two together. I went downstairs and got some Benadryl, thinking that if it really was an allergic reaction that should help faster than Zyrtec. Wrong. It did NOTHING! Finally in desperation I jumped into a cold shower. That calmed the itching for the first time in about an hour. But it didn't last. About 30 seconds after laying back down I started to itch again. My brain settled on the next option after Benadryl... Something topical! So I found the Calamine lotion and proceeded to attempt to pour it down my back. (I should mention David was at work this particular night so I was left to my own devices.) All that accomplished was a bunch of pink splatters on the bathroom floor. No relief.

We are approaching 1:30 in the morning now and I have to work! So I pulled out my phone and consulted Dr Google. Turns out I'm not the only person to experience this. I was shocked by the pages of results my google query of "zyrtec itch" returned. At this point it has been at least half an hour since I tool the Benadryl and I was itching so badly I thought I was going to go insane. I was actually shaking at this point. So I went downstairs and found my zyrtec and took one then came back upstairs for a second cold shower. Thankfully the Zyrtec worked pretty quickly and my skin stopped feeling like it was on fire with itchiness. The spots where I had scratched almost raw still hurt, though.

I continued to take my Zyrtec daily for about a week while I researched the issue. Turns out if you quit cold turkey the itching can last for two weeks. TWO WEEKS?! I couldn't even survive one night! So I decided to titrate down. I took half a pill every day for a couple of weeks. Then I went to 1/4. At each step I experienced some itching but nothing like the night from hell had been.

I'm now down to 1/8 of a pill and only taking it when the itching starts instead of daily. I'm going longer between doses I think... But I had a spell of the itches tonight and they had the potential to have been just as bad as the first night. I suffered for a little while before I decided they were getting worse instead of better. And they stopped within 10 minutes of taking an 8th of a pill.

The information out there on the causes of this bizarre side effect seems to be speculative. The manufacturers deny it and there doesn't seem to be a fast answer to getting off of the drug. I don't care now if I need the antihistamine or not... I'm not going to continue putting a chemical into my body that does this to me. If you're ever considering using this handy over-the-counter med, I'd encourage you to think twice about it.

Sent from my iPhone

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