Nasal spray addiction.. how do I get off this stuff?

When I try I get so congested I can't breath, just been using it for about two weeks, started when I had a cold. When I try to stop my nose runs, then I get so congested it hurts until I take another snort.

Should I switch to another brand, go cold turkey and suffer, ugh, or what? Is there some other way out of this?

This has happened to me as well.

There's an article on nasal spray addiction at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03...

and it's pretty scary, that might be enough to make you go cold turkey and deal with the congestion until it passes.

What I did for my nasal spray addition is to switch to saline solution for about a week. It's not as good but helped me breath and get through the rebound that happens when you stop the afrin or whatever.

    This answer selected as best and posted above

I had to seek help from my doctor... I get severe rebound after 1 use. She prescribed a nasal sray (like flonase, nasonex,nasacort) and I used both and decreased my use of the over the counter brand until I was no longer using it.
Now My use was for allergies, as yours is a cold... check to see if this will work for you as well.