If your throat hurts the best thing is very cold drinks, popsicles, and spray some Chloreseptic. Avoid citrus juices and fruits, and other acidy things, and the menthol in cough drops would be aggravating to the area. Tonsilitis just mean swollen tonsils, itis been inflammes, so the diagnosis means not much in helping you know what is causing your illness. If you have a cold your throat will feel better within 48 hours, and then about 12 hours after you feel some relief you will begin to get a stuffy or runny nose. If it is strep throat you likely have a fever, and the throat will stay sore passed 72 hours. If your throat is still in pain by day 3, you need a throat culture and probably antibiotics. Strep throat almost never is accompanied by congestion, so that is another clue if the thrat ache persist past 3 days. If it gets better and you just have a cold you don’t need to see a doctor you can just buy some decongestant at the drug store. The one other common illness that can have a bad sore throat is mononucleosis. Antibiotics do not treat that, but some people get mono very badly, being unable to get out of bed from exhaustion, and some other possibly dangerous complications, but it doesn’t sound like you have anything like that.