on allergies, sneezing, and placebos

In order to bounce the lame post about hand dryers from the top of this site I've decided to publicly discuss my struggle with seasonal allergies.

In keeping with my tradition of late blooming, I developed allergies after age 16. No foods, thankfully, but many airborne plant substances cause me to collapse into a fit of sneezing. A particularly vicious pine pollen attack effected my record of 11 sneezes achieved in 1991.

Nothing is more embarrassing to me than shooting a handful of snot into my outstretched hand or onto a friends lapel. Because of this I developed a singular sneezing technique that allows me to minimize the volume of germy gelatinous projectiles. To describe the technique would be pushing the threshold of boring, but suffice it to say that my sneezes sound an awful lot like coughs.

Why don't I go to the allergist? I used to, but during my twenties when I didn't have insurance I decided to stop going and was surprised to find that my symptoms were no worse for it. In fact, I avoid taking over the counter medications unless absolutely necessary, due to my phobia of becoming dependant on anything.

Recently I believe I have become the victim of the reverse placebo affect*, as I was told by someone that Claritin is barely more effective than a placebo in blind tests. Since I heard that news Claritin won't make a dent in my sternutation.

*the term reverse placebo affect is copyright of BNN - Baritone News Network 2006. All rights reserved. Failure to pay BNN at least a million bucks for even verbalizing this phrase will result in a large glob of gooey green mucous being lobbed in your general direction.