DOSE:

600 mg

oral

Diphenhydramine

(pill / tablet)

BODY WEIGHT:

118 lb

This was the first time I took diphenhydramine, and this was my most intense experience. I was in a bad place mentally and I had what I can only describe as a non-consenting sitter. Mistakes to learn from I guess. At time of taking I hadn't eaten for about 6 hours.

At about 6:30pm I took the full 600mg dose. For the first half hour I was mostly aware of dry mouth and anxiety, though I put both of those feelings down to the physical act of swallowing 24 tablets. I drank some water and browsed the internet for a while. I texted a friend to explain what I had done and agreed to meet her for breakfast the next day.

At 7:30 I attended a roll call with no issue, able to navigate stairs and corridors easily, make short conversation and respond to my name. I felt slightly spacey and separate from my body, I also felt quite paranoid, because of this I didn't try to get back up the stairs to my bedroom and instead went to a small computer room hoping I would be left alone for an hour or two. I tried to work on a piece of writing for about an hour.

My short-term memory was absolutely destroyed, as were my fine motor skills. Trying to write was very frustrating, I remember making lots of typos because my hands were shaking badly, but when I would delete the word to try again I'd forgotten what I was trying to say. When I went to review my writing the next day it was complete gibberish with repeated words and nonsense sentences.

For this hour I continued to feel out of it and was easily startled. I started to experience open eye hallucinations, mostly just moving shadows. By about 8:30 I was seeing something moving behind some papers stuck up on the wall. I still knew it was a hallucination and didn't physically react, but I was aware I was starting to trip properly and wanted to get back to my room.

Getting back up the stairs wasn't difficult but I was aware that my gross motor function was beginning to be impaired. I tried to talk to a friend online but I found it nearly impossible to communicate, I also couldn't read the letters on the screen as my eye movement was very erratic and I found it hard to focus on the right thing. They rang me and I was slurred and slow to speak. I have no memory of this phone call.

At this point my heart rate was very high and my mouth was so dry it was painful. I got into bed and tried to calm down. At around 9pm I found it difficult to tell the difference between reality and hallucinations. My hallucinations ranged from the banal: trying to plug my laptop charger in, being frustrated that I couldn't grab onto the charger, only to blink and realise neither my charger nor laptop were there. To the unnerving: a swarm of spiders walking towards me seemingly 'separate' from the real world, walking straight towards me but never quite reaching me.

I also had conversations with people I would suddenly realise weren't really there. I also found while I thought I was speaking aloud I wasn't really, and when I actually spoke aloud the sound of my own voice would surprise me. This section of the experience was very frightening, as while I knew I was tripping I couldn't hold onto that thought and kept jumping between unreality and realisation. Through this my body felt very heavy, my perception of time was very confused, my heart rate was very high and my feeling of dry mouth only got more overwhelming, I felt like I wanted to sleep but did not feel tired.

This calmed down a bit and by about 1am I felt slightly more stable, and was aware of an overwhelming desire to urinate. I stood up and very nearly fell straight over, I was very unbalanced and dizzy. I managed to walk to the bathroom holding onto walls for support, I had a pain in my lower abdomen (probably my poor liver trying to handle the situation) at this point I was legitimately afraid for my life. Urination was physically quite difficult but happened without issue. My hands were still very shaky and I had a tingling feeling through much of my body. I got back into bed and I was over the worst of it. I had a very broken night's sleep interspersed with more hallucinations, mostly bugs crawling on me.

The next day I felt incredibly physically ill, nauseous and incredibly tired. At breakfast my friend noticed I was disorientated and slow. I ate very little and felt very ill still. I don't remember much of the next day, I was definitely still tripping to some degree as I remember sitting beside and talking to someone I later found out didn't see me at all that day. I was incredibly tired and shaky. The next day I still felt slightly ill, like a very mild hangover.

In short it was unsettling, at times frightening and had possibly the worst body effects of anything I've experienced, even now taking chalky tablets reminds me of that horrible dry mouth and I feel nauseated. The next day was a complete write off. It was very immersive. I have gone on to use diphenhydramine recreationally multiple times. It's not fun, there's no euphoria, the best thing I can say is that it gets my adrenaline up.

Exp Year: 2017	ExpID: 114563
Gender: Female
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Aug 31, 2023	Views: 379
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Diphenhydramine (109) : Alone (16), Health Problems (27), Difficult Experiences (5), First Times (2), General (1)