For me, every cold brings me to bed and I doubt it's flu most of the time. I get 2-4 of them every year.
I think it's the immune system that over-reacts to the common cold. I see people at work saying 'oh I have a cold' and I wonder how can you be at work with a cold? I cannot, I need to stay at home and it is always very severe.
I was also doing some training with a rheumatologist and a patient came in with a joint pain and a cold/flu. The doctor gave him a steroids injection and he also said 'your cold will disappear too'.
Dymista is the think I was given by a doctor to put whenever I suspect a cold and so far, it has been the very first time that I have a cold and I am not at the bed. The severity of the symptoms are 10-20% of what I usually have.
I never had a 'light' cold like this, all my colds were always severe.