SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES
Dori Monson: Nasal-spray addiction is the most horrible addiction imaginable
Oct 7, 2013, 2:33 PM | Updated: 2:45 pm
Dori calls the nasal-spray addiction he had the most horrible addiction imaginable. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
(AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
After hearing Miley Cyrus’ Saturday Night Live performance which Dori noted was pretty nasally, he was inspired to share a personal story about his past nasal issues.
“That is what I sounded like,” said KIRO Radio host Dori Monson of himself at 19, leading into a troubled part of his history. “When I was 19, about Miley’s age, I had the most horrible nasal-spray addiction imaginable.”
The addiction began early in his radio career.
“I had a cold once. I had just started doing some radio stuff. I think I was doing the Husky football play-by-play for the campus radio station and I needed to clear my nose because I had a cold. I got some Afrin and then I kept using it.”
After he began using the nasal spray, from that point on, he said it seemed impossible to keep his nose clear without it.
“My nose would just completely, 100 percent be blocked,” said Dori. “Then I had to move up to the hard stuff, which was Vick’s Sinex.”
His nasal spray dependency went on for two years.
“First thing in the morning, I’d wake up, I’d reach for it,” said Dori. “I always had nasal spray in my pocket. It was horrible.”
Luckily, it was around this time that he met his wife, Suzanne.
“I think she was just disgusted by it. It got to the point, I remember I’d be at school, I’d be at the UW, be walking across campus, I’d reach in my pocket and SNIFF,” said Dori. “I’m hitting on the Vick’s Sinex constantly.”
He couldn’t go without it for long. When he’d run out of nasal spray, it would mean an immediate trip to the 7/11, which was the only 24-hour store around at the time.
“It is a horrible, horrible, awful addiction,” said Dori. “I’ve never tried heroin, but I cannot imagine that heroin is a worse addiction than nasal spray.”
To get off the stuff, Dori went to the doctor, who gave him a saline inhaler.
“It was like the nasal spray equivalent of methadone,” said Dori.
Producer Jake and Ursula had a hard time believing Dori had such a serious struggle with nasal spray, but he insisted it was a big issue.
“It is the most horrible addiction imaginable,” said Dori. “I just hope that in talking about it that I’ve helped all the people that are listening right now that suffer from similar afflictions.”
