Diphenhydramine (Benadryl) physical dangers

[Voxide]

Apart from the generally terrible feeling of a DPH trip, as well as the unpleasant side effects, how does a trip-inducing dose fare in it's ability to actually cause very serious health issues? I'm not talking about long-term use, nor am I talking about the scary hallucinations. What I'm trying to say is, will a 500-600mg dose kill a man?

This is not a "how many do I take to get fucked up" thread. This is simply to assess the risks.

 

[NeighborhoodThreat]

I know heart failure is a health risk that comes with massive overdose. I don't know about 500-600mg, but rapid heartbeat is certainly common at those dosages.

I did a PubMed search on "diphenhydramine overdose" and found some papers talking about tachycardia and status epilepticus (seizures) occuring as the result of a diphenhydramine overdose.

This article on PubMed may also be of interest to you.

I know that those dosages have safely been taken by many people, but individual reaction to such high doses of diphenhydramine is extremely random. Given that the risks of heart issues and seizures as mentioned in the papers linked, I'd say that overdosing on DPH is a really really bad idea.

Not to mention the short term health issues caused by side effects, dry mouth, constipation, problems urinating, delusions, etc.

 

[Methadone84]

It has fucked up my blood circulation.

 

[Voxide]

I know heart failure is a health risk that comes with massive overdose. I don't know about 500-600mg, but rapid heartbeat is certainly common at those dosages.

I did a PubMed search on "diphenhydramine overdose" and found some papers talking about tachycardia and status epilepticus (seizures) occuring as the result of a diphenhydramine overdose.

This article on PubMed may also be of interest to you.

I know that those dosages have safely been taken by many people, but individual reaction to such high doses of diphenhydramine is extremely random. Given that the risks of heart issues and seizures as mentioned in the papers linked, I'd say that overdosing on DPH is a really really bad idea.

Not to mention the short term health issues caused by side effects, dry mouth, constipation, problems urinating, delusions, etc.

The limit seems to vary for everyone, it seems, whether it comes to OD'ing or just tripping too hard. People on erowid have gotten full blown auditory hallucinations off of 250mg, others take 500mg and just get knocked out. DPH has been known to lower the seizure threshold, but I wonder how this would effect a person without and epilepsy condition.

It has fucked up my blood circulation.

Shit, how? How high of a dose did you take and for how long?

 

[MyWayIsTheHighWay]

Don't know if this is the right thread to post this in. It does relate to the dangers of Benadryl doses. Every time I try to have a trip I take some feel light effects, but nothing others describe. I've been worried bout jumping into Benadryl too fast and being overwhelmed I've taken around 350mg each time I've tried. Is it safe to redose a couple hours getting into the ranges of 600-700. This is basically the same as the post question.

Is Benadryl like shrooms in that if u take a little you develop a quick tolerance. I'm asking this because someone could take a dose with minimal effects and then take more every few hours trying and not reach the effects the want while consuming a dangerous amount of Benadryl in the mean time. Basically im asking if it is possible to reach a significant effect with repeated doses hours apart . I would think that baby stepping into the desired effects could potentially be more dangerous than taking one larger dose.

 

[First Bad Comedown]

Just thought I would mention that 100mg of benedryl 2 days after taking MDMA fucked me up bad. I'm pretty sure I ended up with serotonin syndrome, something you do NOT want to experience. It could have killed me.

To be fair, I rolled two weekends in a row, which wasn't bright either.
But 100 mg of benedryl was WAY too much. I normally only take 25 mg.
Don't know what I was thinking...
Afterwards I find out that benedryl in high doses inhibits the reuptake of serotonin!

Holy shit.
I am certain the benedryl was the final straw...

 

[rickolasnice]

It made me live out my nightmares and want to hang myself.. i also tried to walk thru a wall the top of some stairs.. which nearly made me fall down them.. i'd say it would be very easy to walk into traffic etc

 

[StaySedated]

words to live by: just say no to diphenhydramine.

 

[Psychedelic Jay]

Three things to worry about on diphenhydramine: Dehydration, Heart Failure, Body temperature.

Seizures are really only gonna happen if there is an instance where you are seizure prone. (Epilepsy)(GABA-a agonist WD: This is where most take over 100 mg in one sitting to try to go to sleep and percipitate a seizure.)

 

[Voxide]

Three things to worry about on diphenhydramine: Dehydration, Heart Failure, Body temperature.

Seizures are really only gonna happen if there is an instance where you are seizure prone. (Epilepsy)(GABA-a agonist WD: This is where most take over 100 mg in one sitting to try to go to sleep and percipitate a seizure.)

I've heard that pissing on it is quite the experience...I wonder if this is due to the dehydration itself.

 

[NeighborhoodThreat]

I've heard that pissing on it is quite the experience...I wonder if this is due to the dehydration itself.

If you mean "pissing is the hardest thing to do in the world" by "pissing on it is quite the experience" then yes, you are correct.

The dry mouth makes you drink water constantly, and then the urinary retention makes it really really hard to take a piss, not a good combination.

 

[kanucme]

are most of the risks of heart issues due to high dose?

I take 25mg at a time to help with histamine response from opiates, is there any risks doing this maybe 2 times a week over a long period of time?

 

[Voxide]

If you mean "pissing is the hardest thing to do in the world" by "pissing on it is quite the experience" then yes, you are correct.

The dry mouth makes you drink water constantly, and then the urinary retention makes it really really hard to take a piss, not a good combination.

The ultimate catch22. Perhaps gum or biotin mouthwash could attenuate this. Someone should try it.

are most of the risks of heart issues due to high dose?

I take 25mg at a time to help with histamine response from opiates, is there any risks doing this maybe 2 times a week over a long period of time?

Doubt it. Cardiac failure is possible in massive OD's. The LD50 for rats is like 500mg/kg. Obviously that's way off for humans. People have died from 2000mg's.

 

[NeighborhoodThreat]

....
Doubt it. Cardiac failure is possible in massive OD's. The LD50 for rats is like 500mg/kg. Obviously that's way off for humans. People have died from 2000mg's.

I agree. Doses from 12.5 - 75mg (or even 100mg in some countries) is still considered to be within medical reasonableness and within the directions of the OTC packaging. 25mg daily for a week shouldn't cause any problems.

I know people with really bad hay fever who take 25mg daily for a month every year because diphenhydramine is the only anti-histamine that works and they're yet to have any medical issues.

In medically therapeutic dosages, diphenhydramine is a safe drug.

 

[Anon54]

take dextromethorphan if u wanna play around with OTC psychodelics.
buy coough syrup. robotussin DX has only the active ingredient DXM with no sorbitol. i think theres another cough medicine that only has DXM as its active ingredient (never take cough meds tha dont have the only active ingredient as DXM
Dont take any of the ones that also contain sorbital as laxative. it causes diarea. u dont want that.
u can read about dxm on www.erowid.com
take 100-150mg for a stimulant MDA like feeling.
150-300mg feel like a trippy version of alcohol
take more & u'll be feeling a dissasociative effect like ketamine.
dxm can be very euphoric. remeber ya trying to take drugs to have a good time not a horrible experience u wanna forget.

delerients are poison. they're a really bad idea. u'll blank out most of the time & get weird visuals & wont know what is realy or not. its very dangerous unless ya taking the recomended dose for insomnia/allergies.

 

[Lauraann7798]

My diphen story. Me my boyfriend & his best friend took unisom. 50mg of diphen. I took 12 my boyfriend probably took 16 and his friend around 20. For awhile we felt no effects. I never did. & they both said they didn't. His friend Sam (not real name) was fine for a long time, just playing tiny wings on his tablet. We were all sitting on the couch at sams. His girlfriend was at her dads. But anyways we were all sitting on the couch and Sam was playing on his tablet. I was between him and my boyfriend. All of a sudden sam started hitting me with his arm & I jumped up and my boyfriend was yelling his name. He had slipped into a seizure (& no he was not epileptic or anything) his whole body tensed up & he was making scary noises. I called his girlfriend & her & her dad rushed over. When he came out of it it was like he went retarded. He couldn't talk. Anything we told him to do, we had to show him how to do it. He went to the ER. & ended up in ICU for a day & a half. On mine & my boyfriends way to the hospital he was swerving all over the road. & I asked why and he said he was trying to swerve around the people walking. There was no people out. So there you go. Diphen can be extremely dangerous. & this just happened the other weekend.

 

[tubsalicious]

Probably some rules against gravedigging here, but whatever, this is pretty important. A couple months ago I was experiencing withdrawal from duloxetine (Cymbalta), 120mg/day. I ran out, had no insurance, and stopped cold turkey. Worst three months of my LIFE. During that time, I got desperate to not be sober and tried DPH for recreational purposes. DUMBEST FUCKING THING I'VE EVER DONE. And I've jumped off a third-story building onto a trampoline. So for several days in a row, I would take 200-300mg doses at least twice a day. Perhaps not surprisingly, DPH can build up in your system (at these dosages, but I am relatively sure that 50/mg per day is good, or else unisom wouldn't be something you can use everyday). I didn't know that at the time, and wasn't getting anything out of it. No trip, no hallucinations, just this awful sort of anxiety and agitation a couple hours in that I HATED, but which I forgot every time it was over, apparently, because I'm just that fuckin' stupid. I didn't really notice the tachycardia from those doses, but it was there. Then I decided that I would push the limits of what erowid had to say and take 800mg. Within a couple hours I was having one constant muscle spasm. I could sort of move and sit up, so it wasn't really a grand mal seizure, but my hands were the worst; if they were relaxed, they only shook a little, but if I tried to do anything - hold anything, tense any of the muscles - they would shake so bad that it made Parkinson's look steady. I felt so fucking awful, I was convinced I was dying, looked some shit up online, etc. realized that doses like that thicken your blood to the point where your heart will nearly fail just trying to pump it around your body. Now, I also have panic attacks, and if you've ever had one, the first time you think you're having a heart attack. So when I actually DID have a heart attack (several small ones that night), I didn't realize it, because it didn't feel like the panic attack that I was used to. But when I saw how dangerous it was to have blood that thick, I took 650mg (2 normal pills) of aspirin, which is probably the only reason I am not dead right now. I did permanent, serious damage to my heart. I now have tachycardia; my resting heart rate never drops below 100 and I am having circulatory problems that result in numb feet and hands. I can feel my heart pounding almost all the time, and it's been several months since then. Please, find another way to get high.

 

[Nixiam]

Apart from the generally terrible feeling of a DPH trip, as well as the unpleasant side effects, how does a trip-inducing dose fare in it's ability to actually cause very serious health issues? I'm not talking about long-term use, nor am I talking about the scary hallucinations. What I'm trying to say is, will a 500-600mg dose kill a man?

This is not a "how many do I take to get fucked up" thread. This is simply to assess the risks.

I went to get clothes from my dresser, but my hand went straight through the damn thing. I don't notice a difference between 350mg and 200mg, but the line is clear when you get over 400.

I tend to just feel snaky and laugh for no reason on 200mg.

Just get kratom.

 

[theGirlWithBlueHair]

The ultimate catch22. Perhaps gum or biotin mouthwash could attenuate this. Someone should try it.

Doubt it. Cardiac failure is possible in massive OD's. The LD50 for rats is like 500mg/kg. Obviously that's way off for humans. People have died from 2000mg's.

Do you have a source for that? The only deaths I've heard of have been upwards of 2 grams. I myself have taken 2.5 grams (a full 100 count bottle) by accident due to amnesia from the drug after ingestion.

 

[Amaraline]

Wow, that's really bizarre. I've been taking Diphenhydramine for 25 years in the spring and fall for really bad allergies, but it also mellows me out. But I've never taken more than 100 MG at once. I had no idea doses higher than that could do so much damage.