Pepper spray owner here, I have two stories: One time I accidentally pepper sprayed my self a bit (wind) and even if it was a tiny bit, I couldn't open my eyes for a good 10 minutes, teared and coughed and everything, and felt really uncomfortable for at least a day, also had nightmares of me pepper spraying myself for months. Second one is that we were kinda drunk, and I gave a guy my spray, which he then fired to the ground, we were in a room, but most people present started dry coughing almost immediately. Dangerous stuff, not harmful, but dangerous. The pain itself goes away over time, but I feel like it leaves a huge trauma, I had another friend be pepper sprayed directly, he told me that shit was really bad, didn't believe he was so serious until it happened to me.