Meds like Claritin and Zyrtec will take a little time to get to full effect. What about a decongestant to deal with the symptoms, rather than the allergies themselves?

Decongestants help the stuffy nose, but don't help the itchy watery eyes or the coughing and sneezing. (The coughing is caused by post-nasal drip, I'm pretty sure.) The watery eyes are really bad. Like, yesterday I went shopping and the whole time I had to have a tissue at my face, because my left eye was running like a river.

take a little time to get to full effect

That means they have to build up in my body, right? That sounds like the stupefaction will become a permanent state. That's what I suspect happened to me when I was taking Zyrtec regularly and I got really depressed. I think it was the anti-H depressing my CNS.

Damn, maybe I should just deal. Invest in tissues.

There are also OTC drops for itchy, watery eyes. The generic is ketotifen; I can't remember what different brand names are. I just bought the CVS brand of ketotifen. It helped a lot with the eye thing.

Allegra and Claritin have been the best for me in terms of non-drowsiness. Zyrtec makes me drowsy so I just take it at bedtime. And if you need to really put the hammer down on symptoms, you can take any of the Allegra/Claritin/Zyrtec triad twice a day.

If your nose is stuffy, too, add the behind-the-counter Sudafed and/or a neti pot.

Hello, my name is Steph and I am allergic to the WORLD.

behind-the-counter Sudafed

Yes, that's the only decongestant that works for me at all.

There are also OTC drops for itchy, watery eyes.

I'll look for those. Thanks! I probably can't use them with contact lenses, right?

the behind-the-counter Sudafed

aka the good shit.

Zenkitty, one thing you could try is what my allergist recommended, which is to take two doses of an antihistamine just before bed. Then it won't matter if it makes you sleepy and his theory was that there was something of an allergen buildup overnight.

Dust mites are one of the most common allergies, so you can try washing your bedding in hot water frequently and getting anti-allergen covers for pillows and mattresses. I have a heavy-duty filter on my HVAC system and never open windows.

There are also OTC drops for itchy, watery eyes.

I'll look for those. Thanks! I probably can't use them with contact lenses, right?

I think you can; I think you just put the drops in your eyes and then maybe wait a minute or two before putting in your lenses. You only use the drops every 8 hours.

Zenkitty, one thing you could try is what my allergist recommended, which is to take two doses of an antihistamine just before bed. Then it won't matter if it makes you sleepy and his theory was that there was something of an allergen buildup overnight.

When I had that freaky allergic reaction a few weeks ago (which I'm pretty sure wasn't an allergic reaction but actually a vitamin D overdose), I took Zyrtec twice a day and an additional 2 Benadryl at bedtime. (Well, and when it was at its worst, I also took 1 Benadryl every 6 hours while awake, but I am at the point where 1 Benadryl doesn't make me sleepy AT ALL.)

So yeah, you can hammer hard on the allergies more than the drug labels say you can.

And finally, your doctor can prescribe Flonase or Nasonex or something, and it stops a lot of the nasal/eye stuff before it even starts.

Flonase does help my allergies. Nothing makes me sleepy.

I've had decent results with Bausch & Lomb Opcon-A Eye Allergy Relief.

Hello, my name is Steph and I am allergic to the WORLD.

Me too! Well, allergic to the world. My name is not Steph.

I've had decent results with Bausch & Lomb Opcon-A Eye Allergy Relief.

Is that one of the ketotifens? When I googled it initially, there seemed to be a bunch of brand-name ketotifens, including the one I wanted to buy just for its name: ZADITOR.

"Hello, Earthling. I am Zaditor. Take me to your histamines and I WILL VANQUISH THEM."