A Night of Terror
Diphenhydramine
Citation:   Cheshire. "A Night of Terror: An Experience with Diphenhydramine (exp39982)". Erowid.org. Feb 7, 2005. erowid.org/exp/39982

 
DOSE:
T+ 0:59
250 mg oral Diphenhydramine (pill / tablet)
  T+ 0:30 50 mg oral Diphenhydramine (pill / tablet)
  T+ 0:59 125 mg oral Diphenhydramine (pill / tablet)
BODY WEIGHT: 91 kg
Having been interested in Acid and other hallucinogens in the past, but being unable to obtain them, when I found out about Diphenhydramine, I was immediately interested. So, one night, when I didn't have school the next day, I bought a pack of Benadryl Allergy. My roomate was in the room for the trip, but unaware that I was tripping. I didn't want to alarm him (he wouldn't have turned me in, but I didn't want to be a bother), but I figured, if worse came to worse, he would be there if I needed him.

I started off slow, with 10 tablets (250 mg). After about an hour or so, nothing happened. It was at this time that my roomate turned off the lights and went to bed (only lights now being from the window, and my computer). I took 2 more tablets, and waited half an hour. Having read another report, and computing the dosages taken, I took 5 more tablets, for a total of 425 mg in my system. Then, I lay down and waited for it to begin. My limbs were trembly, and spasmed every now and then. Laying down was very uncomfortable.

About a half hour later, the ceiling took on a weird gelatinous appearance, consistant with other reports. I then decided to get up, and listen to a little music. I didn't hear any distortion of the music, but I could hear my name being called over it. After turning off the music, I turned to see a black woman in a cape and a large fur hat sitting next to my roomate. She explained to me that he was very sick, and that she needed to heal him. She also told me not to be alarmed, so I turned back to the computer. This episode took about a half hour.

At this point, the trip turned nasty. I can't explain why, although I believe it may be because the additional 5 pills hit my system. I am notorious for leaving dirty dishes around the room, and the light from my computer fell on one of them, but it wasn't normal. It was moving. On closer inspection, it was filled with thousands of clear baby spiders. I screamed, but it was only in my head, as my roomate didn't wake up. Looking away, I tried to focus on the computer. I felt something brush my foot, but didn't look down. However, I saw a flicker of movement near the edge of my desk. Slowly, what looked like a huge, furry pipecleaner rose of up from the edge. It then tensed itself, and pulled up a giant wolf spider, whose body was about the size of my head, with gigantic legs. Looking away, I could see 4 or 5 more of them, all running very fast, like cheetah speed, along the floor. Gritting my teeth, I slipped on my shoes, and ran quickly outside my room. I was in the main hall of my floor, where it was considerably brighter.

Now I was fully locked in a delusional reality. I went to the bathroom nervously checking around for spiders. Urination was painful, but was over quickly. I went to the drinking fountain, drank, and heard a growl from my left. There was a blue tabby cat, with distorted features and big fangs. It growled at me, and ran very fast and lept at me. I put up my arm, and it exploded in midair. The fragments turned into long, beaked flatworms, with beady red eyes. They huddled together, and screamed shrilly at me. I closed my eyes, and when I opened them, they were gone. I couldn't stay in this hallway, but was not about to go back to the spiders (opening up my door confirmed that they were still there.) I decided to go into the main lounge of the building...into public (or at least, public at 1:30 AM)

Running quickly down the stairs, I reached the lounge with no more events. I sat down for a moment, because I was badly dizzy and my heart was racing. I would've measured my pulse, but I didn't have a clock nearby. Three people walked by, and asked what I was doing. I said that I couldn't sleep, and that I was down here to keep from waking up. Both my voice and theirs sounded hollow and echoey, and I was slurring very badly. They eventually gave up, and walked away. I'm almost sure that they were real, because closing my eyes didn't remove them (although it didn't remove the spiders either.) I paced around the lounge for a while, but upon seeing a pair of spiders fighting (normal sized ones this time), I walked quickly in the oposite direction. I found out shortly that I was walking in the direction of the most horrifying hallucination yet.

Reaching a series of benches, I was about to sit down, when I saw movement. Under the bench, in the shadows, was a large, bumpy shape. I moved a little to see what it was. I couldn't scream. It was a giant crab, about the size of my torso, excluding legs and claws. The claws were about the size of my arms, and clicked together horribly. It had a pug's face, with beady yellow eyes. One of the worms from before, now brown, protruded from the back of the shell. There were other, smaller, more normal crabs behind it. One of the claws would spasm from time to time. Although I had no grip on time, I must have stared at it, barely breathing, for 10 minutes or more. I ran full speed back to were the spiders were battling.

It was then that I realized that one of them was not a spider at all. It was one of the worms, this time green, with thousands of gossamer-thin legs, that it used to spin silk into thin nets and lassos. I saw about 4 or 5 more of them through the course of my trip. I spent the rest of the night pacing back between these two horrors, until I could see the sun coming up outside. I then went back to my room, where the spiders had dissapeared, and went promptly to bed. I can't remember if I dreamed or not.

The next day, I felt very fatigued, and my arms shook, like Parkinson's disease. I felt very sick to my stomach. No hallucinations persisted, although I had trouble balancing, and sometimes seemed to 'slip' while walking. These symptoms faded after a few hours.

Although this was a terrible, nightmarish experience, I've not ruled out using it again, after some time has passed, probably at a lower dosage as well. Should a second bad trip occur, it will likely end my experimentation with this drug. However, I can not, in good concience, recommend this experience to anyone else. This definately has a harsh quality about it, even without the nightmarish hallucinations.

Exp Year: 2005ExpID: 39982
Gender: Male 
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Feb 7, 2005Views: 113,262
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Diphenhydramine (109) : First Times (2), Hangover / Days After (46), Bad Trips (6), Alone (16)

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