Misc Long term effects of Diphenhydramine

[belfort]

i feel bad for people that megadose dypendyhramine to get a buzz of some sort..i mean, why not just smke a little weed or drink alcohol?i just use Dipen to chill me out for sleep..

 

[Stormysea​]

Does anyone know how long it takes for the effects and withdrawals of this drug to go away after long term use? That is, if they aren't permanent. -l. I've been taking it for at least six years...I can't remember for sure how long... Its damage to my memory doesn't help. I slowly tapered off of it for months because the withdrawals were scary bad. Then I finally quit it completely 11 days ago. The symptoms I'm suffering from the most right now are inability to go, fatigue, muscle weakness and numbness.

 

[Phenpsycho]

Does anyone know how long it takes for the effects and withdrawals of this drug to go away after long term use? That is, if they aren't permanent. -l. I've been taking it for at least six years...I can't remember for sure how long... Its damage to my memory doesn't help. I slowly tapered off of it for months because the withdrawals were scary bad. Then I finally quit it completely 11 days ago. The symptoms I'm suffering from the most right now are inability to go, fatigue, muscle weakness and numbness.

Wow, this is some luck randomly coming across your fresh new comment, there's not too many experimenters who get hooked on DPH like that. I have an attraction to it too and its been a thorn in my side for years now. It keeps pulling me back in, the idea of the escape it can provide but with strong denial to the negative effects that accompany the experience always make me pick the habit back up. It's the rush too of the come-up that it provides before the dark thought spirals start that is addicting for me too, I haven't felt so enamored with anything else and i've had plenty of forays with recreational substances.

I recently was able to stay off of it for almost a year but again my depressive state has lead me to purchase another pharmacy-sized bottle of capsules to run from my thoughts. When you get so low in mood that you're starting to contemplate snuffing yourself out 'sobriety' just doesn't seem that important, but at the same time I don't wish to start habitually abusing some other things I have in my possession of which the withdrawals would make everything so much worse(benzo's for instance). It's a fucked up dilemma as I think the reason I started stockpiling so many hedonistic chemicals to begin with was because of some traumatic anxiety-ridden experiences I was unfortunate to have lived through on DPH to begin with! If you use it daily you know all too well the random nature of this drug can sometimes turn on you and the familiar chaotic mindspace that distracts you from your everyday sorrows sometimes becomes a little too threatening and instills a primal fear in you like nothing else could.

This is my third time getting back into the habit and i'm actively trying to discipline myself through meditation, doing some regular exercise and taking supplements to try and nip this bad habit in the bud before it becomes too routine again and I lose a couple more years in this haze. I can tell you I definitely notice a lot more negative side-effects coming back to it this time so it leads me to believe the damage is cumulative and I haven't fully recovered from the last round of habitual usage. I notice my concentration just vanishes mid-thought sometimes and i'll go into periods of complete confusion where my mind is completely immobilized and blank. I also get more physical side effects now like intense bloating and pain in my stomach and often nausea when forcing myself to eat food. Circadian rhythm is also completely messed up again as nighttime doses stimulate rather than sedate. Not hearing what is being said to me when i'm in conversation happens often now and I only seem to get the gist of the message but have no awareness of the details.

I have no idea when the cravings will end for you as they haven't really ended for me throughout the years i've been off and on. The acute symptoms of withdrawal have only lasted about 2 weeks for me accepting the amplification of depressive mood which is like SSRI discontinuation which can go on for about a month. I won't lie to you, if you're anything like me it will feel impossible at times to just get through the days without being in a constant chemically induced bubble but the way out of it is through it. This addiction makes you feel like shit from the get-go, no one can hold onto their sanity for ever when your strategy to escape your sorrows is to use a substance that desensitizes you to them by creating an artificial hell that rivals or exceeds the original feelings of suffering to begin with.

I haven't actually used trip-tier doses habitually and I only use medium doses multiple times a day so I don't know if taking gram doses of it all at once might be even worse for you in the long run, I wouldn't want to find that out.

 

[Jabberwocky]

What is it about the mindspace of DPH that is attractive? I have always heard the effects were unpleasant. I've taken probably upwards of 200mg+ to potentiate opioids, but never noticed anything from the DPH itself other than a kind of sedation. What doses were/are you taking?

 

[Phenpsycho]

What is it about the mindspace of DPH that is attractive? I have always heard the effects were unpleasant. I've taken probably upwards of 200mg+ to potentiate opioids, but never noticed anything from the DPH itself other than a kind of sedation. What doses were/are you taking?

I find the intensity of the mindspace in itself is an attraction. I deal with some mental afflictions that get the better of me like severe depressive thought spirals which I can only interrupt via chemical intervention, and the intensity of the DPH experience(even just thought forms without the delirium) overpowers my regular neurotic state. By no means is it a fun drug but it does a good job of getting my mind off of whatever is distressing me at the moment by forcing this strange experience on me.

When i've abused it in the past there was some redeeming qualities that were well and truly pleasant like heightened creativity, increased music appreciation and moderate stimulation but those things I don't feel so much this time around. I still get a good aphrodisiac effect(one of the strongest i've had) quite frequently and increased focus on the moment that seems to be a defining feature of the drug for me. I can be cleaning the floor tiles in my kitchen for example and will be completely focused on that task until it's completed without thinking about the past or future, i'll be completely immersed. I can also meditate for a few hours at a time on it and go much deeper into that spiritual space vs. when i'm sober and can only manage an hour if i'm lucky but that's probably because it leaves me a little spaced out and it's much easier to disconnect from everything when i'm already kind of detached. I don't get any sedation from it at all as that goes away the more you use it and it starts to do the opposite.

I take about 700mg a day but never more than 300mg at a time, usually it's something like 250mg at once. It must accumulate pretty heavily when using repeatedly because I don't need a huge dose to get the effects. Just today I was in a really uncomfortable mood after taking my morning dose which happens from time to time and makes me swear i'm never going near the stuff again but I always change my mind without fail. It's nonsensical how addictive this drug is for me considering it's a mixed bag between feeling good and feeling like shit. I have been addicted to benzos in the past and the withdrawals are brutal but once they're finished I can take it or leave it, not so with the DPH, I keep coming back to it and get hooked all over again. I probably will end up quitting again but I know I won't succeed if I don't find some other way to deal with things.

 

[Dking89]

Can someone help me understand Diphenhydramine addiction?

I started using Unisom because I wasn't sleeping several years ago. I built up a tolerance pretty quickly and within a few weeks went from one every couple of nights to needing 4-6 a night for 7 or 8 hours of sleep. Now I'm taking 12 to 15 a night for 4 hours of sleep. If my math is right that's 600-750 mg at the minimum every night and that's not including what I need to go back to sleep when I wake up after 4 hours. I know I'm addicted to it but I can't afford a doctor. I'm afraid to stop taking it because I don't sleep but I know it's causing damage

 

[Jabberwocky]

Try switching to doxylamine for a week and then switch to a moderate dose of melatonin and/or valerian.

Frankly though, the best thing I ever did in terms of dealing with insomnia was learning to work with it more skillfully. If I can't sleep, I'll get up and read or listen to podcasts. Or I'll go out and go for a walk, or just make some non-caffeinated tea and meditate. The night is also a great time for stretching, and taking care of ones body more generally.

There are so many healthier ways (as in avoiding TVs, bright screens, super intense video games, in a word stimulating activities), you'll be able to fill your time with relaxing activities. Eventually you'll just fall asleep.

If it is a more serious problem than this, you really need to work with a medical professional. There are ways for folks who cannot afford regular doctors in most places. Try getting some more appropriate psych meds from a clinic, for instance.

 

[mrmarkvile]

I take 600mg a day and have been for a good few years now. It's never made me confused, but my short-term memory and word-recall are appalling. My doctor calls it "Anticholinergic Toxicity". Because of how long i've taken high doses for he thinks I may have anticholinergic-induced dementia (not a forum diagnosis, just a theory my doctor has).
I am also prescribed Cyclizine which has similar but stronger effects.

 

[mrmarkvile]

I feel your frustration. I have the exact same thinking problems and it's so annoying (not to mention embarrassing when you switch subjects multiple times when talking, or you start a sentence and trail of saying "and um..it was uh...um..mm, I don't remember, but that's what, that's about just how it went" etc".

 

[Mickeyd660]

I once took a heavy dose about an hour or so before school which was a bad mistake i also smoked but thats just a daily thing i wasnt expecting much tbh since ive taken it b4 and felt nothing but this experience was creepy about 20 minutes in. I felt a change in my body as if i was drunk i kept stumbling around and hitting stuff just really braindead. I also had to bike it to school but during the ride to school my legs were super heavy and i kept hearing things that werent there i heard my name over and over and dogs barking me just wierd noises once i finally made it to school i was falling asleep while walking to class i could keep my eyes open i just wanted to sleep but i couldnt. Once i sat down maybe half an hour later i started to see the walls kinda like fuzzy like if gas fumes were rising kinda like that but i couldnt even hold my pencil everytime i would raise my hand to get my pencil i would bang my hand on the desk and have to wake myself up every couple of minutes. Not worth it tbh

 

[Iwetbed]

Does it actually still work for you? I've heard stuff that diphenhydramine grows a tolerance incredibly fast, and after three days of ~50 mg a night, it didn't help people any more than a placebo.

I took 50mg with empty stomach 15mins before last meal of the day for years. No placebo.

 

[Iwetbed]

I started using Unisom because I wasn't sleeping several years ago. I built up a tolerance pretty quickly and within a few weeks went from one every couple of nights to needing 4-6 a night for 7 or 8 hours of sleep. Now I'm taking 12 to 15 a night for 4 hours of sleep. If my math is right that's 600-750 mg at the minimum every night and that's not including what I need to go back to sleep when I wake up after 4 hours. I know I'm addicted to it but I can't afford a doctor. I'm afraid to stop taking it because I don't sleep but I know it's causing damage

Try 50mg with empty stomach. For sleep aid.

 

[Ganjcat]

Please switch to promethazine

Benadryl gave me restless leg, headaches, fatigue and sluggishness(and not the fun kind) and blocked me from taking any codeine this was from 25-50 mgs the night before promethazine has none of this not for me anyway it takes away anxiety like I imagine a benzo would it synergises perfectly to enhance codeine but this quickly goes away if you use them together to much plus the hallucinations on promethazine are interesting or relaxing although that could be because im always on codeine or dhc or lopermide