I think the hardest part - for me - was even to concieve the idea...

I think the hardest part - for me - was even to concieve the idea that Zyrtec has all of these side effects. I've been taking Zyrtec on a daily basis for about 90- 110 days a year due to really bad allergies. We live in the NY area which produce alergans most of the year. After trying almost every antihistamine, Zyrtec seemed at the time as the best drug since it handled the allergy while eliminating the drowsiness almost completely for me. Being happy that I was able to maintain normal life during allergy periods was almost a new concept for me and I was really grateful for finding this drug. Unfortunately, being almost blinded by the allergy-fighting success, I neglected the attention to the side effects. I guess I'm falling into the unlucky 2%. I had almost every side effect: Irritation, mood swings, gaining weight, dry mouth - just name it. Recently, my wife did some research because we got to the point where I would fight with her over anything. I can testify that my tolerance level hit the ground. Anyway, she got my attention for her research results which turned a red flag for me. In addition, this year my body seemed to not respond anymore to the drug and doing my own little research revealed that it is very likely that you need to rotate different drugs every few months. So I decided to get off Zyrtec and switched to Benadryl Allergy which I take every 4-6 hours. Yes, it does make me drowsy for about 15-20 minutes but it works. What's more interesting is, I've been about 10 days off Zyrtec and I am shocked to realize that I'm slowly getting rid of all the side effects associated with Zyrtec. That being said, I would like to emphasize that this was my own individual experience and it may not be the same for someone else. But it is pretty disappointing for me that i cannot use this drug anymore on a regular basis.