A few years ago when I was a teenager (and coincidentally a few years before I learned that using mind-altering drugs as a teenager is a very stupid thing to do), I was puttering around on the then-young World Wide Web, looking for new ways to get high. I came upon a site with an archived Usenet post extolling the virtues of intentionally overdosing one’s self with diphenhydramine, a.k.a. Benadryl Cold and Allergy Medication.
I discussed it with my best friend and we decided that, hey, if we can trip off a bottle of cough syrup, why not allergy medication?
The post recommended between 10 and 20 pills, but being 17 years of age, Mike and I decided to take 30 tablets apiece. About an hour after we choked them down, Mike realized that his parent-imposed curfue was in effect, so it looked like our trips would be going their seperate ways.
The next 8 hours were truly insane. At first , I got INCREDIBLY sleepy (diphenhydramine is also the active ingredient in most OTC sleep meds. Imagine taking 30 Tylenol PM’s at once.)
Then I just started seeing the most vivid hallucinations. I saw cats and dogs that weren’t there. I saw my ceiling fan slowly rise down from the ceiling and touch the floor.
Then the auditory hallucinations started. I heard people breaking into the house. I heard my mom calling me even though she had gone to sleep hours ago. Thousands and thousands of voices ringing in my ears, clear as day, but they weren’t real.
The crazy thing was, the whole time I was seeing and hearing all this stuff, I didn’t feel at all high. Not a bit.
When I woke up the next morning, I realized I had pissed my bed and didn’t remember most of the previous night. I also noticed half-charred remains in my bong. Odd, since I hadn’t smoked pot in weeks. Upon further inspection, it turned out I HAD BEEN SMOKING MATCHES!!! Like MATCHES, straight from a hotel-issued pack of friggin’ sulfur-tipped MATCHES, torn from the matchbook and stuffed in the bong!!! Geeeez! I swore at that time that I would never ever touch Benadryl again and I haven’t.
As bad as smoking matches and pissing the bed is, I got off lucky compared to my friend. Though never having previously shown any symptoms of epilepsy, the Benadryl gave him a seizure. He spent three days in the hospital. They put him on Dilantin and he wasn’t allowed to drive a car for a year.
Ouch.
Anybody else have any stupid teen drug experiences to share? Or any experience with recreational use of Benadryl?
And it turns out that as bad as a