For some, trying to quit taking the allergy medication, Zyrtec, causes such horrible, itchy withdrawals that they are nearly driven to madness.
The antihistamine is prescribed to treat symptoms of allergies - including itching itself.
But for some, including writer Jessica Misener, who chronicled her unbearable itch for Medium, trying to get off the over-the-counter drug after an allergy season, means spiraling into an unbearable withdrawal.
Its a well-documented phenomenon, but not one that the drug's maker, Johnson & Johnson, has not bothered to warn consumers about on Zyrtec's packaging in the US.
Zyrtech is a popular over-the-counter allergy medication and, although it isn't addictive, the body can become dependent on it, leading to awful itchy withdrawal symptoms
Zyrtec is among the arsenal of drugs that brings much needed relief to the more than 50 million Americans that suffer through months of allergies.
But after the season is over, the big itch starts up.
Online forums abound with horror stories as well as confusion over what's happening.
One poster, fire_thorn, describes developing migraines when they stopped taking Zyrtec.
'I also get hives all over. I'm at the point now where I don't know if that's actually withdrawal or if it's proof that the Zyrtec works and I need to stay on it. When I have stopped it for allergy testing, my skin is so reactive that they can't test me anyhow,' they wrote.
This is the paradoxical trap that these users fall into.
In 2016, a Netherlands study documented 12 cases of what it dramatically called 'Unbearable Pruritus After Withdrawal of (Levo)cetirizine,' the generic name for Zyrtec.
The people suffering terrible itches were of all ages (19-95) and were mostly women and one man.
They had all been taking Zyrtec long-term and most started itching within a few days of quitting the allergy med.
A majority of the withdrawal sufferers had tried multiple times to quit Zyrtec, but finally given up and just popped half a pill or more because the itch was simply too unbearable.
There's long been a debate surrounding antihistamines and addiction.
With older, first generation antihistamines, the most serious concern was over their sedative effects.
Further, antihistamines are among a longer list of over the counter remedies that patients can misuse, overuse, and even on some level get addicted to
Dr Anna Lembke, Stanford University addiction expert
But newer medications - including Zyrtec - have been reformulated so that they are less likely to make users drowsy and in such a way that they don't cross the blood-brain barrier.
Ostensibly, those alterations made the drugs minimally addictive and safer.
So in the 2000s, Zyrtec became an over-the-counter drug. Doctors and the US Food and Drug Administration deemed patients capable of diagnosing themselves with allergies and the treatments safe enough for them to pick up at the pharmacy without
