u/Ur_a_SweetPotato

I've had a bad time of using steroids for my allergies (ex steroid nasal spray actually makes my inflammation worse now), and it's all my allergy office wants to do for my asthma. I know there are non-steroid options, but I don't know what all of them are.

I take 7mg of Zyrtec and 40mg of famotidine daily. I also do Nasalcrom. Most of my eye/nose allergies are controlled, it's just the asthma and eosinaphilic esophagitis that are a problem

Here's what I've tried:

- Spiriva: gave me brain fog/memory problems affecting my work and apparently made my ADHD *much* worse. I thought my partner was exaggerating, but I stopped the medication without telling him and he noticed almost immediately that I was better.

- Singulair: not an option. It didn't make me suicidal, it made me homicidal and paranoid.

-Advair: gave me a pronounced tremor that escalated the longer I was on the medication.

- I have an albuterol inhaler, but I am having issues breathing almost every day now so I only use it when it's really distracting. When I can't breathe I get INSANELY hungry and it's causing me to gain weight.

- ibuprofen with a Mucinex kinda helps.

Any suggestions for non-steroid prescription options would be awesome, thanks!! Sorry, the search doesn't work very well so if there's a post someone could link me to I'd be happy for that.

I probably hold my breath several hundred times a day. I initially became aware of it because it drove me crazy listening to my mom do it, like if she reaches for a glass she will hold her breath, or moves a pillow, etc. And then I realized I do the same thing. My pelvic floor PT also pointed it out and mentioned it was an issue. It's insanely hard to stop doing though. When I don't hold my breath, I feel like I'm lacking core stability and I'm going to throw my back out, or I just feel like the muscular effort of a tiny action suddenly got 15x harder, it's absurd. It's really hard and even if I'm thinking about not doing it while doing something with multiple steps, I'll still end up doing it eventually.

Has anyone been successful in quitting this habit? How'd you do it?

I was just reading an article talking about how hormonal birth control likely exacerbates allergies. My allergies have gone out of control the last 6 years, which I attributed to myltiple COVID infections but could also be partly birth control related, since I started hormonal birth control around November of 2019.

I am just frustrated by the trade-offs. If I go off birth control, I will experience hair loss (PCOS), likely weight gain, hyperprolactinemia, endometriosis, and drastically worsened cholesterol. Also periods that make me want to die. But I'm having asthma symptoms every other day (and my allergy clinic hasn't proposed anything other than pumping me full of steroids), I can never breathe through my nose properly and can barely smell. Also, I've been developing food allergies left and right and now I have Eosinaphilic Esophagitis from them.

It would be so cool to be able to breathe and like, eat spaghetti (can't do wheat, tomatoes, or several of the spices), but also I don't want to be doubled over in period pain one week of the month. Also I think the hottest version of me is the one that isn't bald - I have a weird shaped head.

Ugggh.