[Erowid Note: The author erroneously equates Dramamine (dimenhydrinate) with Benadryl (diphenhydramine).]
This experience came after a discussion with a few friends about trying dramamine. My brother had always told me how much it sucked seeing as how realistic and frightening it can be. I let that scare me out of it for about a year, but when my interests peaked and I found a box of benadryl allergy (basically dramamine) I gave into my curiosity.
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[9:30] It was a nice spring night at my dad's house and I was in a great mood. I didn't do much in preparation, only downing all 16 caps that were left in the box with a coke. Now to give you an idea of my timeframe, it was 9:30, I figured the pills would kick in about 10:30, and I was hoping my dad (and step family) would go to sleep by then. I became nervous around 10:10 when i started to feel fairly lethargic and slow and everyone was awake still. Luckily in about 15 minutes my family was down for the count.
[10:45] The immedeate effects were extremely mellow. My body seemed to slow to a crawl, and wheather my timing was messed up or what, walking very short distances felt like a much longer time. My legs were getting hard to coordinate and my upper body bounced and swayed with my loss of balance. Most noticably, I felt like gravity had been turned way the hell up, like I was being pulled to the ground. As for my mentality, my thoughts were very random and concentrating on one task at a time became very difficult, I felt just a tiny bit euphoric (excitement of trip?) and was still in a very positive mood.
[11:15] At this point I had little motor control. I had also succumbed to being very tired. It was also now, that I first began visually hallucinating... I entered the kitchen and turned on the light, which the brightness almost seemed to creep out of the bulb and across along the room. I looked across into the family room and noticed my step sister and father sitting at the table. My heart jumped to think I could be caught, so I tried to play it cool.
I sat down with them and noticed my dad eating some kind of crackers. 'Whatcha eating?' I asked. No answer. I repeated, still nothing. He doesn't hear great so I let it go. I sat in silence with them for a moment and then asked my sister, 'What are you drawing?' I hear my dad say, 'These granola bars are great.' Turning to see him he was across the room in a chair which in no way could he have gotten to without me seeing.
Turning back, I was totally shocked to see that my sister had vanished. What was craziest of all is that even though I should have known what was happening, I was totally dumb to the now apparent fact that I was hallucinating. My only reaction was that I put my head down on the table to trace my thoughts, and I hear from my dad, 'Are you on drugs?' I began to feel scared now, and he asked over and over the same thing. I kept answering. 'No, no, no I'm not. I'm not.' I sit upright to face him and he is gone. You can imagine the confusion I felt, emotionally I still felt like I had been caught... afraid, aprehensive, and shaken. Yet for an instant I realized that I couldn't tell imagination from reality anymore. I was so shaken up that I layed down to let sleep overcome me, and for another hour or so I was extremely troubled to hear voices calling me from inside my head and I found myself answering to them out loud, only to see nothing around me.
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Benadryl and Dramamine are obviously a powerful hallucinogens. In no way is this report exaggerated, if anything it is under-exaggerated. What I saw and heard was not real, but in the mind, sight, sound and imagination are enough to be convinced of anything. I only offer for those wanting to try it, there is no way to anticipate what will happen. Imagine how easily I could have been caught having conversations with an empty room, and how would I explain? So be safe, be responsible. Later.
