Hi, so this is my first time posting here. I used this website a few times in the past to research Norco and DXM occasionally to make sure I was informed should I abuse them. I'm not really a big drug person first of all- I'm a typical 18 year old, messing around for fun very occasionally with what I have. On Sunday night, about three days ago, I was on the way home from a relative's house and had been thinking about trying DXM for fun. I had done plenty of research, found out what amount and kind of product to use, how to only use products with just DXM alone, etc. Because I have only tried hydrocodone (Norco) before, I wanted to have an experience kind (only kind of) similar, like a spaced out, buzzing feeling. I knew friends who had done it from my old school, and was quite confident that I could pull this off easily and in a small, 'trial' amount. I stopped by CVS at around 10:30 PM and purchased the CVS brand 'Tussin Cough' Liquid Gel Caps, because I preferred those to having to drink actual syrup, and also because that was literally the ONLY product on the whole shelf that didn't have DXM + Guaifenesin or something else. I wanted to make sure there were no complications so I bought the bottle and made my way home.
Because I had just eaten, I put it off for a bit so that I wouldn't get too sick, and at 11:40 PM I calculated an appropriate amount for a first time based on research, and took 11 gel caps, or 165 mg of DXM. I figured that since most people online reported that 200 mg barely felt like much at all, this would be a beyond safe dose and little could go drastically wrong. I swallowed them in three handfuls with water. My dad had gone to bed hours ago, and my aunt was in her bedroom sleeping as well, so I decided to wait it out in the den on the couch. If they came out, I would just say I couldn't sleep. I waited, watching a few videos on my laptop and listening to music. Eventually the clock reached a bit past 1 AM and I didn't feel anything. I was pretty tired at this point and decided since it took a while to metabolize and kick in (and most medications take a while on me in the the past), I would just take a nap for an hour in my own bed and wake up before it started to work. I set the alarm on my phone for 2 AM and went to bed.
I had a restless sleep about halfway into it, felt like I was having upsetting dreams, and overall felt off and a bit sick. Around 1:50 AM, only ten minutes before I was supposed to get up, I awoke startled and confused. I felt like I was sleepwalking, and half asleep, and I expected the feeling to wear off after I stood up and started walking. It didn't. I felt like I was seeing from behind my own eyes, like they were a second screen I was watching, similar to VR? I felt nauseous and couldn't walk straight, it was awful, like I was in a different reality. I stumbled to the den and then the bathroom besides it, trying to use the restroom, and I kept grabbing onto the side of the sink because I felt so dizzy and spaced out. When I got up, I could feel it getting worse and worse, the nausea increasing twofold every time I moved one part of my body. If raised my hand to my head, it was like just that simple movement was sensory overload. I felt like I existed outside of time, my hearing was echoey and the room seemed huge. My consciousness was fine, as if it was separated from my body's symptoms, and I could think straight, but my memory was bad.
Increasingly panicked, I kept trying to 'wake up', but I couldn't. My heart was beating so fast that I couldn't calm down, it just kept getting faster. I couldn't stand the nausea anymore so I laid facedown on the couch and tried not to move as much as possible. With absolute horror I groggily realized that this must be the 'high' from the Robotussin. My alarm went off blaring and just moving my hand to turn it off sent me into full on vertigo again. The feeling of being on a dropping rollercoaster (I think it's called G-force?), or when you see something in your house and think it's a person and get scared, or when you feel like you're falling in bed, all in one, was CONSTANT and did not go away. The chorus of "High All the Time" by the Neighborhood, which was the last thing I had listened to, echoed over and over in head and I kept imagining old reels of people folk dancing in the 1800s (?) My heart was completely on edge and racing and the 'rollercoaster drop' feeling did not go away as much as I begged it to. I then began to realize that I was going to die, either by a heart attack or just overdose. I couldn't cry, and wasn't sure if I could talk, I just laid facedown and begged God to spare me and that I would never touch drugs again, and I would be a better person if I just would come out of this. I was absolutely terrified and thought vividly about my dad finding me on the couch dead in the morning, and my best friend, who had just lost her grandma, also hearing I had died the day after.
I didn't want to move, even if I could, I was terrified of calling 911 because I thought about the horror of having to be moved into a car and the intense motion vertigo it would cause. I could barely move my arm at this point without feeling like I was dying. All I wanted to do at the time was lie completely still and stay alive for a long as possible. Eventually I realized if my dad found me in the den he would force me to talk and respond, which I could barely think about doing, and so I dragged myself off the couch with my blanket, slowly stumbled outside to the backyard, and sat upright on the wet grass. It was freezing cold but that fact was so trivial compared to what I was feeling. It was 2:34 AM. Sitting in the open air seemed to make it a little easier to move, so I shakily grabbed my phone and tried to call my best friend, just so that maybe she could talk me through it. Realizing I could talk (which I previously thought I could not do) I called her desperately five times and then on the fifth, left her a message trying not to scare her too much but telling her I fucked up and I needed to just talk to her. Afterwards, I continued to panic as it dragged on and I was still 'stuck'. I finally gave up, as I would have called ANYONE to help me at that point, and called my aunt, who was in her bedroom.
She came outside and after trying to explain what was happening (I myself still didn't really know at that point), I just sat on the grass with her and she kind of talked me through it. She didn't tell my dad or get upset, she felt bad for me and just sat on the grass talking to me. Talking made me feel better as it kind of 'grounded' me, made me feel like I wasn't having an out-of-body-experience (which I was) and distracted me from my racing heart. Eventually she helped me inside because it was very cold. I was shaking so badly I could barely raise each leg to get up the stairs into the house. She sat with me for a bit and put on a movie, so the time might go by faster, and was very tired so I apologized for waking her up and told her she could just sleep. It was 3 AM now. I watched the clock and the tv, trying to concentrate on the stupid Lifetime movie that was on to avoid having a full blown panic attack. The effects were still intense but not as horrifyingly engulfing as before. I waited it out for about an hour or so (I also noted that I had a very dry mouth, I kept drinking water but it didn't go away). Being alone made me more scared again so I finished the movie and then went to my aunt's room and slept on the other side of the bed so I wouldn't be at risk of seeing my dad at around 4:30 AM. I became less and less affected as time went on, though I couldn't sleep. Eventually I made it out of it and got up at 7 AM. Throughout this time I continuously texted my friend, telling her not to listen to the voicemail and talk to me as soon as she got up so I could explain and she wouldn't get scared.
Afterwards I tried to act as normal as possible, took a shower, and tried to come out of it. My vision remained a bit blurry, my depth of field is all fucked up, and the scared, on edge feeling remained- I'm also weak and very shaky still. These symptoms persisted up to today as well. I also had a very bad headache last night, and all this morning I have strong pains in my abdomen similar to period cramps (and I'm not due to start). I'm starting to worry that I might have caused something else since i'm continuing to feel sick all week on such a small dose from Sunday. For reference, I took nortriptyline on and off for my nerve pain in my back cause by a spinal fusion I had a year ago, but the last time I ingested any was at least a week ago. I'm white and 18 years old with little to no experience of bad reactions or allergies to anything.
I know this is a long post, but I'd like to know two things:
1.) What the fuck happened to me? A bad reaction? Am I deficient of that enzyme needed to metabolize DXM?
2.) Could I have Serotonin Syndrome now because these symptoms are still happening?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Because I had just eaten, I put it off for a bit so that I wouldn't get too sick, and at 11:40 PM I calculated an appropriate amount for a first time based on research, and took 11 gel caps, or 165 mg of DXM. I figured that since most people online reported that 200 mg barely felt like much at all, this would be a beyond safe dose and little could go drastically wrong. I swallowed them in three handfuls with water. My dad had gone to bed hours ago, and my aunt was in her bedroom sleeping as well, so I decided to wait it out in the den on the couch. If they came out, I would just say I couldn't sleep. I waited, watching a few videos on my laptop and listening to music. Eventually the clock reached a bit past 1 AM and I didn't feel anything. I was pretty tired at this point and decided since it took a while to metabolize and kick in (and most medications take a while on me in the the past), I would just take a nap for an hour in my own bed and wake up before it started to work. I set the alarm on my phone for 2 AM and went to bed.
I had a restless sleep about halfway into it, felt like I was having upsetting dreams, and overall felt off and a bit sick. Around 1:50 AM, only ten minutes before I was supposed to get up, I awoke startled and confused. I felt like I was sleepwalking, and half asleep, and I expected the feeling to wear off after I stood up and started walking. It didn't. I felt like I was seeing from behind my own eyes, like they were a second screen I was watching, similar to VR? I felt nauseous and couldn't walk straight, it was awful, like I was in a different reality. I stumbled to the den and then the bathroom besides it, trying to use the restroom, and I kept grabbing onto the side of the sink because I felt so dizzy and spaced out. When I got up, I could feel it getting worse and worse, the nausea increasing twofold every time I moved one part of my body. If raised my hand to my head, it was like just that simple movement was sensory overload. I felt like I existed outside of time, my hearing was echoey and the room seemed huge. My consciousness was fine, as if it was separated from my body's symptoms, and I could think straight, but my memory was bad.
Increasingly panicked, I kept trying to 'wake up', but I couldn't. My heart was beating so fast that I couldn't calm down, it just kept getting faster. I couldn't stand the nausea anymore so I laid facedown on the couch and tried not to move as much as possible. With absolute horror I groggily realized that this must be the 'high' from the Robotussin. My alarm went off blaring and just moving my hand to turn it off sent me into full on vertigo again. The feeling of being on a dropping rollercoaster (I think it's called G-force?), or when you see something in your house and think it's a person and get scared, or when you feel like you're falling in bed, all in one, was CONSTANT and did not go away. The chorus of "High All the Time" by the Neighborhood, which was the last thing I had listened to, echoed over and over in head and I kept imagining old reels of people folk dancing in the 1800s (?) My heart was completely on edge and racing and the 'rollercoaster drop' feeling did not go away as much as I begged it to. I then began to realize that I was going to die, either by a heart attack or just overdose. I couldn't cry, and wasn't sure if I could talk, I just laid facedown and begged God to spare me and that I would never touch drugs again, and I would be a better person if I just would come out of this. I was absolutely terrified and thought vividly about my dad finding me on the couch dead in the morning, and my best friend, who had just lost her grandma, also hearing I had died the day after.
I didn't want to move, even if I could, I was terrified of calling 911 because I thought about the horror of having to be moved into a car and the intense motion vertigo it would cause. I could barely move my arm at this point without feeling like I was dying. All I wanted to do at the time was lie completely still and stay alive for a long as possible. Eventually I realized if my dad found me in the den he would force me to talk and respond, which I could barely think about doing, and so I dragged myself off the couch with my blanket, slowly stumbled outside to the backyard, and sat upright on the wet grass. It was freezing cold but that fact was so trivial compared to what I was feeling. It was 2:34 AM. Sitting in the open air seemed to make it a little easier to move, so I shakily grabbed my phone and tried to call my best friend, just so that maybe she could talk me through it. Realizing I could talk (which I previously thought I could not do) I called her desperately five times and then on the fifth, left her a message trying not to scare her too much but telling her I fucked up and I needed to just talk to her. Afterwards, I continued to panic as it dragged on and I was still 'stuck'. I finally gave up, as I would have called ANYONE to help me at that point, and called my aunt, who was in her bedroom.
She came outside and after trying to explain what was happening (I myself still didn't really know at that point), I just sat on the grass with her and she kind of talked me through it. She didn't tell my dad or get upset, she felt bad for me and just sat on the grass talking to me. Talking made me feel better as it kind of 'grounded' me, made me feel like I wasn't having an out-of-body-experience (which I was) and distracted me from my racing heart. Eventually she helped me inside because it was very cold. I was shaking so badly I could barely raise each leg to get up the stairs into the house. She sat with me for a bit and put on a movie, so the time might go by faster, and was very tired so I apologized for waking her up and told her she could just sleep. It was 3 AM now. I watched the clock and the tv, trying to concentrate on the stupid Lifetime movie that was on to avoid having a full blown panic attack. The effects were still intense but not as horrifyingly engulfing as before. I waited it out for about an hour or so (I also noted that I had a very dry mouth, I kept drinking water but it didn't go away). Being alone made me more scared again so I finished the movie and then went to my aunt's room and slept on the other side of the bed so I wouldn't be at risk of seeing my dad at around 4:30 AM. I became less and less affected as time went on, though I couldn't sleep. Eventually I made it out of it and got up at 7 AM. Throughout this time I continuously texted my friend, telling her not to listen to the voicemail and talk to me as soon as she got up so I could explain and she wouldn't get scared.
Afterwards I tried to act as normal as possible, took a shower, and tried to come out of it. My vision remained a bit blurry, my depth of field is all fucked up, and the scared, on edge feeling remained- I'm also weak and very shaky still. These symptoms persisted up to today as well. I also had a very bad headache last night, and all this morning I have strong pains in my abdomen similar to period cramps (and I'm not due to start). I'm starting to worry that I might have caused something else since i'm continuing to feel sick all week on such a small dose from Sunday. For reference, I took nortriptyline on and off for my nerve pain in my back cause by a spinal fusion I had a year ago, but the last time I ingested any was at least a week ago. I'm white and 18 years old with little to no experience of bad reactions or allergies to anything.
I know this is a long post, but I'd like to know two things:
1.) What the fuck happened to me? A bad reaction? Am I deficient of that enzyme needed to metabolize DXM?
2.) Could I have Serotonin Syndrome now because these symptoms are still happening?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
It's good to know that someone else has had the same experience, it was really scary going through that when so many other people wouldn't bat an eye at that small of a dose... hopefully I can just eat and drink well and get it out of my system. Boy, am I tired though. Not the best thing to be feeling when it's finals week hahaha.