Ever since I was in high school, I’ve suffered severe allergies, a trait I inherited from my dad. Pollen, ragweed, animals, dust mites, you name it, I’m addicted to it. For most of my life, I’ve had a persistent low-grade cough from about April to about October.

And nothing I’ve ever tried has worked, except Benadryl, which knocks me out for 14 hours. Not Allegra, not Claritin, not fexofenadine, nothing.

In 2018, I discovered Xyzal (levocetirizine), a once a day antihistamine that, by some miracle, actually worked. For seven glorious years, I’ve been mostly allergy-free, mostly.

Fast forward to last month, when out of the blue I started getting hives on my arms and sides out of nowhere. Careful, systematic experimentation revealed the culprit to be levocetirizine, which still works but makes me break out.

So I quit taking it.

Big, big mistake.

It turns out levocetirizine is physically addictive. And I’ve taken it every single day for seven years.

It also turns out that you’re not supposed to discontinue long-term use abruptly. Apparently once daily for seven years qualifies as “long-term use.”

The withdrawal from levocetirizine is absolutely brutal—anxiety, insomnia, headaches, difficulty breathing, nausea, fatigue, irritability, shortness of breath…I got the whole package, including some of the withdrawal effects WebMD calls “uncommon.”

I’ve been off it for a month now. According to WebMD, I have about 2-4 weeks of withdrawal left.

But hey, at least I’m also having allergy attacks again.

Shoot me now.