Hypo- and Hypersalivation Induced by Psychoactive Drugs

During benzo tapering ,  I was plagued with "dry mouth" (wake up and my tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth). Now I'm experiencing just the opposite.... tons of thick ropy mucus... all day long and half the night (I don't swallow this gunk & have a spitoon by my bed).  I read about others experiencing both conditions..... aka.... Hypo- and Hypersalivation ... and I've always suspected it was because of benzos but never could get an explanation of what is going on.  Below are a couple excerts that give some explanation.

One other thing about "thick mucus"... I've read that the use of antihistamines can cause thick mucus by drying out the saliva. Makes sense as antihistamine have a drying effect on the whole body.  The reason I mention this as I have been taking a lot of Unisom & Vistaril (Hydroxyzine)... and sometime benadryl to help with sleep. Normally, the body makes up to 2 to 4 pints of saliva a day, so if you are dehydrated, that will also cause mucus to thicken up.

So I am going to try to drink more water .... and.... lay off the antihistamines and see if that improves the situation. 

Hope this helps somebody else who is experiencing this nasty sxs.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.2165%2F00023210-199911060-00004

"....Psychoactive drugs can have profound effects on salivation: apart from affecting the amount of saliva secreted (i.e. causing either hypo- or hypersalivation), they may also modify the composition of the saliva. Hyposalivation leads to the subjective experience of ‘dry mouth’ (xerostomia) which, in addition to causing subjective discomfort, may be associated with dental caries and oral infections. On the other hand, hypersalivation leads to ‘drooling’ (sialorrhoea), which can be a source of social embarrassment and can be associated with parotitis, choking and even aspiration pneumonia."

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0379073805001180

"...As the salivary secretion is a reflex response controlled by both parasympathetic and sympathetic secretomotor nerves, it can be influenced by several stimuli. Moreover, patients taking medication which influences either the central nervous system or the peripheral nervous system, or medication which mimic the latter as a side effect, will have an altered salivary composition and salivary volume. Patients suffering from certain systemic diseases may present the same salivary alterations. The circadian rhythm determines both the volume of saliva that will and can be secreted and the salivary electrolyte concentrations. Dietary influences and the patient's age also have an impact on composition and volume of saliva."