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Worst Night of My Life
Dimenhydrinate (Dramamine)
Citation:   MurderCityDevil. "Worst Night of My Life: An Experience with Dimenhydrinate (Dramamine) (exp36520)". Erowid.org. Jan 8, 2008. erowid.org/exp/36520

 
DOSE:
900 mg oral Dimenhydrinate (pill / tablet)
BODY WEIGHT: 120 lb
It happened 2 days ago, on a Thursday night. That day was my first day of my junior year in high school. Everything had gone fine, and I was reasonably happy. However, I had a psychyatrist appointment where I was going to be diagnosed for depression. In the end, I did get a sample of Effexor XR and a perscription to get more of the medication in 2 weeks. I was happy that I would finally be able to get my life back in order, but sort of scared at the actualy realization that I was clinically depressed.

Anyway, after we got home and I had done my homework, I got to thinking that maybe I would do something that night to get fucked up. I didn't want to get caught obviously, especially with everything that had happened recently, but I figured that if I actually thought of something that could work and didn't have a lot of risk involved, then it was fine. I thought about different drugs, but after realizing that I couldn't get a hold of any real drugs, I decided I might as well turn to otc drugs. I didn't want to do dxm, the clear choice, because I had decided to stop doing it a while ago. I also didn't want to do nutmeg, or poppy tea, or benedryl or anything like that, since I had no experience with them and didn't feel like researching it.

I then thought about Dramamine. Now, I hated dramamine, so I really had no reason to try it again. I had done dramamine twice in the past, the first time with my best friend, where we both took about 10 pills and felt heavy, drowsy, tired, but couldn't go to sleep because of itching and leg spasms (the worst part about dramamine that I utterly loathe). However, we didn't have any hallucinations or feel any delirium-like state, so it wasn't the worst possible experience that we could have had. The second time, I had gotten drunk and upon searching my stash, located 7 pills of dramamine which I had hastily taken, not really expecting anything to happen. I was right, and quickly fell asleep, luckily before the leg spasms started. Now though, I was thinking that maybe those negative effects could be avoided by a higher dose, in a safe environment with a happier mindset. I asked my friend Steve's brother, Frank, how his experience with 1700mg had been and he said that it was intense, but fun. I figured if this little kid could handle it and still be in perfect condition, then there was no reason for me to do it. Besides, at this point I hadn't started taking the Effexor, so there was nothing in my system that would create a bad mix if I did end up taking the dramamine.

Steve, Frank, and I walked to the store, where we got the pills. I decided I should get 2 tubes worth to get a decent dose. I didn't want to overdo it though, so I took less than twice as much as I had my very first time, a total of 16 pills. Although each pill has 50mg, it still wasn't that much, and I didn't expect my trip to be very intense. Unfortunately, it ended up being very bad. When I said good-bye to Steve and Frank, I started walking home, and decided I would take the pills after dinner, at about 8 pm. I figured I should start sort of early because I knew that they take a while to begin working. Everything went well. I took the pills with some ice tea and settled down, waiting for the effects to start. After about an hour, I knew that the dramamine was starting to kick in, with the usual physical changes that I had experienced before. My body got really heavy, making my walking slow and lethargic, and fucking up my balance pretty badly. My eyes weren't dilated like they were previously though, which made me think that for some reason I might not trip at all. I felt no nausea (obviously) or any bad effects though, except for getting really drowsy and tired. This was normal though.

Anyway, that was about it. I realized that because I wasn't experiencing any hallucinations or 'delirium' that I wouldn't get anything more out of the drug that night, so I decided to listen to some music and try to fall asleep. However, to my extreme disappointment and disgust, the leg twitches started up again as soon as I try to lay still. Every 15-20 seconds, I would get a horrible inner itch in my right leg and the only cure would be to quickly jerk it. These leg spasms continued for a long time. I lay in bed, tired but completely unable to fall asleep for a long, miserable 3-4 hours. It was about 1:30 AM at this point, and I was furious at myself for taking this gay piece of shit drug because I had to go to school the next morning, and I still didn't know how long I would have to lay there before going to sleep. However, the bad part was only about to begin.

At some point, while I was laying in bed, the leg twitches seemed to have stopped, and I was drifting off. Unfortunately, this is when the hallucinations and delirium began. And believe me, it was not fun at all. There I was, drifting off, when I felt something prickly on my left hand. I thought it was nothing, but it didn't go away. I was sort of drowsy, so I didn't think much of it, until I felt a sharp prick on my hand, between my thumb and index finger, much like a bite. I was instantly awake, fearing that I had been bitten by a spider or some sort of insect, so I turned on the lights, flung back the covers and laying there by my hand, was a long, hairy, bright green centipede. I was really freaked out because I had no idea how one of these had gotten into bed, because, by the looks of it, it looked exotic and not native to where I lived. For another thing, the color made me think that it was probably poisonous.

I threw back the sheets, and to my utter horror, I discovered several other hairy centipedes, which were black and not as big. I was really freaking out at this point. I still had no idea how these had gotten into my bed, or why, and I had not even considered the possibility that they were a hallucination. For one thing, this COULD be possible, no matter how strange. I mean, it's not impossible for an insect to end up in my bed, and it's not impossible for it to maybe bite me. I took a book and tried to kill the centipedes with it, but to my horror, when I lifted it back up, there was nothing there.

I considered the possibility that they were dodging it or somehow getting out of the way (I was after all, still feeling very heavy and probably moving very slowly). In one of my attempts, after thinking about the possibility of them jumping out of the way, I actually DID see the centipede fly out of the way and into the covers, and actually heard the soft thumping sound of it hitting the sheets. When I looked under them though, it was gone already. I was really getting scared now, because as far as I knew, I was dealing with poisonous insects that I couldn't kill for one reason or another.

I then thought that I should ask my parents to remove them for me. I still didn't know they were hallucinations, and that's why dramamine trips are so scary and disturbing, because I get hallucinations that I honestly can't tell apart from real life. I see/feel/hear things that are completely possible and happen in real life, but I can't tell that it's my mind creating them. It's not like an acid trip, where I see images that are obvious hallucinations, like purple rabbits or something jumping around the room.

I went into my parents' room and told them what I had seen. They were really skeptical, and when they came into my room to look, they knew that I was on something. I pointed at what I thought were the black centipedes, which my mom looked at and said, 'there's absolutely nothing there.' and when she said that, I realized I was looking at a small black crease in the sheets that was caused by a fold in the fabric. My vision was pretty blurry, which made it easy for small things like that to appear like something different. I pointed to the bright green centipede, and it was again confirmed that there was nothing there. I was going insane I thought.

Then my mom noticed that I was shaking pretty badly, and that my heart rate was WAY up. She knew I was hallucinating. My parents got concerned that I was seeing things and they told me to tell them what I had taken. My mom said they wouldn't punish me or anything, they just wanted to know for my own safety. After claiming that I didn't do anything, I finally admitted that I had taken the dramamine. After that, more hallucinations began. I began seeing spiders everywhere, taking the place of the centipedes. This was even more horrifying, because they would appear on my skin, and crawl all over my hands and legs, often biting me. At one point, (and this was probably the scariest part of the trip), I saw a spider on my hand, but tried to ignore it, thinking the hallucination would go away. I then saw it bite me and disappear, but in its place I could see a bright red dot where apparently, it had bitten me. Then, to make things worse, I felt a numbing sensation spread across my arm, as if toxin was entering my blood stream.

How could this drug create such a sensation, I wondered? And what was I supposed to do? Ignore it? What if that was a REAL spider and I actually had been bitten? What if I didn't go to a hospital and it got worse? Eventually though, the numbing went away, but the fact that my mind could create something so realistic still scares me. I would see tiny little spiders that looked like black widow hatchlings, thin spiders with long legs, and spiders that looked poisonous because they were black with bright orange markings. These kept appearing all over my bed and my body. That was the worst part, that I could feel them on me. The touch sensory hallucinations were easily the worst part, because I could't just ignore something that I see and feel as a hallucination, as far as I knew, it WAS a real spider.

Eventually, my mom went to sleep and my dad stayed with me to talk about ending my drug usage forever. I agreed, I didn't want to ever do anything again after what happened. He stayed there until about 5 in the morning, while I kept battling the spiders all over me. Eventually, they went away and it was time to go to school. I won't get into what my parents thought about all this, but I am definately not ever doing dramamine again, and I don't think I would want to try hallucinogens for a long, long time, or ever for that matter. It is one of the worst drugs I could choose to do and it is in no way a fun experience.

Exp Year: 2004ExpID: 36520
Gender: Not Specified 
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Jan 8, 2008Views: 18,647
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Dimenhydrinate (17) : General (1), Difficult Experiences (5), Bad Trips (6), Alone (16)

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