What's the difference in OTC sleeping pills?

[Ds]

So I'm at "Rite Aid" and I'm looking for something good to put me to sleep. I noticed that all of the sleeping medicines? (Simply Sleep, Nytol, Sominex, Unisom SleepTabs, Unisom, Wallsom, Tylenol PM, Advil PM, Etc..)
Ok so they are mostly all "Diphenhydramine".

My question is whats the difference between:
Diphenhydramine HCI
Diphenhydramine Citrate
Diphenhydramine Succinate
Diphenhydramine Tannate

So are they all the same? I noticed Unisom is Diphenhydramine HCI, and Wal-Som is Diphenhydramine Succinate. Are they both the exact same medicine? Is one better than the other? ?
Thanks

 

[johanneschimpo]

They are different salts of the same medicine. They all contain the same drug. Go with whatever is cheapest.

 

[Ds]

So basically they are all the exact same drug? Why don't they just say they are all Diphenhydramine HCI? Is it some kind of gimmic. I got the IBrophin/ Diphenhydramine Succinate. I was just courious. thanks^

 

[johanneschimpo]

Imagine table salt - sodium chloride. A positive and a negative charge coming together to form a 'salt.' In this case, super-simplified, we want to eat sodium. If you ate pure sodium metal it would probably burn a hole through your body. But when you combine the charged (positive) sodium to the (negatively) charged chlorine, you get something you can eat. Call it a sodium delivery system, if you wish.
It's in a similar (and oversimplified) way that most drugs are made into salts. The drug itself is made into the charged form, which when consumed has the same effect as the desired drug. In the case of diphenhydramine, it is given a positive charge then combined with a negatively charged counterion - hydrochloric acid (HCl), citric acid (citrate)succinic acid (succinate) and so on. The reasons its made into a salt are many, but its mainly for stability. So its not a gimmick, probably just the way each company makes it, and they all work fine. Since they are different substances, they will have slight pharmacological differences, but probably nothing worth noting.
I just started rambling so I'll stop now.

 

[Ds]

wow. that answered the question. I now understand. Funny how I noticed that when I was looking for the cheapest sleep medicine. It's funny as hell with unisom, is the same as the rite-aid'som. unisom is like $10.00 for 30 pills and the generic is like $4, and I have change to buy gummy bears. I also found out that benadryl is Diphenhydramine HCI, and it's cheaper than the other sleep medicines. I usually pop the caps and parachute a few pills, (No more than 100mg at a time.) It usually does the trick. but thanks john

 

[Fluid0484]

Definitely this was a great answer. This site is always such a huge help to me when I have questions regarding what substances are really about, what they do, and how they can hurt you.

If you would like to hear some first hand experience and not someone telling you how to get messed up doing, then READ ON:

SO, funny enough: I'm just getting home from a 3 day long, outdoor, Psytrance Festival... AKA "3 day, non-stop, Rite Aid" too! I was one of the people that didn't eat or sleep enough. (as anyone who's ever gone to a psytrance show can easily understand how easy that is to let happen).

So anyway, enough ramble. I obviously chose the cheapest pills after i checked the mg's. I was wondering what the difference was, and that is now answered. :D

Can I talk about my experience after I took it? Hope so, don't know when I'll be able to check this again;

So I'm getting home and take 3 of the liquidcaps (150 mg total). After about 30-40 minutes I literally started to hallucinate.

Things I saw:

1) Everything was MAGNIFIED. I thought I had dog hair stuck on my arm by the looks of it, then when I went to brush it off and my hand went though it. There was no dog hair, only my own that looked much larger.

2) About that time, I realized there was a decent sized swarm of gnats. Turns out it was just extremely fine little dust particles. The trend to cause serious magnification continues.

3) Flipped on some bass beating tunes, and suddenly I noticed the blanket lying on the floor next to my computer was intensly moving/swarming. Again, obviously not really, but it appeared to me this way.

4) Inability to walk straight. Confusion of several things your body should do normally.

5) These next two are what actually made this over the counter drug (sleep aid) kind of scary. At what I'm guessing was the peak of this "trap", I started seeing people that physically were not there (I live alone with 2 dogs). All of the people I "saw" were built like midgets - below average height, but with perfect resemblance to someone who is the average. Anyway - Saw two visuals of people for sure. First one was when I was looking up information on Dip. , when a shadow appeared in the door behind me. That really jolted me out of my chair in surprise! Then that same "person", next time I saw him, was trying to climb out my office window....(?).

6) Another person that really creeped me out was the sudden appearance of a little dark skinned. She was so close to me, and I was surprised to see it, so I immediately jumped out of my chair again and tried to grab hold of her. And of course my hands go right through and she faded in to the mist. This was just so close and nuts that I had to bring it up.

7) Did I mention above that the floor looked like it had fumes coming off of it, and that pretty much everything had a fume/energy coming off it - including me.

6) The next thing I did was go to the bathroom mirror to check out my pupils. Sure as shit, they were fully dilated (always such a fun look!)


Please keep in mind that I had massive sleep deprivation prior to this point, as well as physical exhaustion. I'm positive that was as much of a reason as any why I had such a low tolerance to Diphenhydramine HCI. I had no intent of it making me hallucinate. It also lasted about 90 minutes before I was just drowsy. During the 90 minute span, I found it quite impossible to 'snap out' of it. It felt like it had the same grip on my mind and was twisting it in a way similar to acid and being drunk.


So for those of you that are considering taking an overdose of Sleep Meds, please do your research before hand. I will tell you from experience that this is a FUCKED UP "TRAP-OUT". I've never seen: people who weren't there, bugs flying all around me, or some kind of energy radiating off everything. You will have full blown melting walls, ceilings, and carpet. This would be a very scary experience for someone who was not moderately experienced in mental states like this.

Let me know if there is anything else anyone wants to know.

 

[hungrymonkey]

benzos !

 

[Jabberwocky]

Can I talk about my experience after I took it? Hope so, don't know when I'll be able to check this again;

hey, i'm glad you're finding bluelight such a great resource of information; we really are a step above the rest

however, we try and keep threads on topic in OD, though sometimes it doesn't always happen. there's really no need to give us all a big trip report, especially when reviving an older thread like this there's a trip reports section where you can write up your trip report and share it in there if you weren't aware.

you're not in any trouble (yet) but yeah just a friendly reminder for the future

benzos !

please don't type one word responses, especially when it's got nothing to do with the thread topic.

if you're trying to reach bluelighter status then check out the social forums and threads, though beware your posts are likely to be unapproved if you continue to post one word responses which have nothing to do with said topic.

check out the BLUA and OD rules and posting standards by clicking on the links in my signature

 

[ECU7]

Some of the Unisom has doxylamine succinate in it as opposed to diph. Maybe it isn't sold everywhere? The drugstore near me has the Unisom/diphenhydramine and Unisom/doxylamine succinate side by side. Confusing!

 

[toolfan420]

this is a really old thread but i'll answer ECU7. Doxylamine is supposed to be a short acting sedative (gets you to sleep) vs diphenhydramine (keeps you asleep). That being said, doxylamine never really worked for me at all so I would recommend diphen. but everyone is different :]

 

[Fluid0484]

hey, i'm glad you're finding bluelight such a great resource of information; we really are a step above the rest

however, we try and keep threads on topic in OD, though sometimes it doesn't always happen. there's really no need to give us all a big trip report, especially when reviving an older thread like this there's a trip reports section where you can write up your trip report and share it in there if you weren't aware.

you're not in any trouble (yet) but yeah just a friendly reminder for the future

Trip Report.... um... DUH ME?

I definitely want to get involved with this site. It's really helped me. You know as well as I do that nearly everyone who has ever done drugs has attempted to research the pros/cons and dangers of it. How I never found this site before a few weeks ago, I'll never know.

So on to the topic at hand here:

Why is this topic not being talked about more? I still randomly hear ignorant high school kids bring up robo-tripping and taking whole bottles of sleep aid.

Can anyone explain to me why a legal sleep aid can cause you to trip out? Does the psycho-active drug in them have government ties or something?

I experimented with Robo and Sleep Aids when I was around 16, and bought them all at my local grocery store (year 2000).

 

[pallidamors]

hey, i'm glad you're finding bluelight such a great resource of information; we really are a step above the rest

however, we try and keep threads on topic in OD, though sometimes it doesn't always happen. there's really no need to give us all a big trip report, especially when reviving an older thread like this there's a trip reports section where you can write up your trip report and share it in there if you weren't aware.

you're not in any trouble (yet) but yeah just a friendly reminder for the future

Trip Report.... um... DUH ME?

I definitely want to get involved with this site. It's really helped me. You know as well as I do that nearly everyone who has ever done drugs has attempted to research the pros/cons and dangers of it. How I never found this site before a few weeks ago, I'll never know.

So on to the topic at hand here:

Why is this topic not being talked about more? I still randomly hear ignorant high school kids bring up robo-tripping and taking whole bottles of sleep aid.

Can anyone explain to me why a legal sleep aid can cause you to trip out? Does the psycho-active drug in them have government ties or something?

I experimented with Robo and Sleep Aids when I was around 16, and bought them all at my local grocery store (year 2000).

while i'm sure pharm companies donate heavily to politicians, there is no conspiracy thats stocking the shelves with diphenhydramine. its probably just the least addictive thing out there that will put you to sleep, and most people dont enjoy a benadryl trip, so despite what you might think, most people find it unabusable. same goes for dxm. its just an antitussive that is less appealing to most folks than codeine. a small percentage of the population will enjoy abusing it, but not many.

 

[Cane2theLeft]

^spot on.

Most find anticholinergics and dxm unbearable in recreational doses and far from pleasant... At least on their own, potentiation/synergism is a different story.

And Palli is certainly right, there is no government conspiracy to stock the shelves with diph... Or anything else for that matter.