What Have I Become
Dimenhydrinate (Dramamine)
Citation:   Dante. "What Have I Become: An Experience with Dimenhydrinate (Dramamine) (exp48286)". Erowid.org. Feb 10, 2008. erowid.org/exp/48286

 
DOSE:
  repeated oral Dimenhydrinate (pill / tablet)
BODY WEIGHT: 200 lb
Until recently I had never really done any drugs. I smoked week a few times, and drank a lot when I was in high school. However in May of 2005 I discovered DXM. I loved DXM. I had about 15 3rd plateau trips between July and September. Realizing that I was enjoying DXM a bit too much I looked for something else to tide me over when I got the urge to trip on something. One of my buddies suggested trying dramamine. I laughed at him at first, but after reading about it online a bit decided it might be worth a try.

First trip:

In my bedroom alone, other than my cats. Parents asleep in the next room. Had lots of water ready, a few snacks and I stopped by a store and grabbed a bottle of 100 motion sickness pills and Batman Begins. Around 1:00am I popped 8 pills and put in the movie. I hadn't eaten in about 7 hours so I expected it to hit quickly. Within 20 minutes I began to feel a strange feeling throughout my body, almost like electricity running through me. It was an enjoyable feeling. It kept rolling on almost like a low dose DXM buzz for about 40 minutes and then let up, and led to an extremely relaxed feeling. I was extremely comfortable just laying there.

After that is when things got fun. The first thing I noticed was a weird chirping noise, almost like a frog. I thought it was my house gecko the first few times I heard it, but then remembered it had died over a month ago. For about an hour I heard the occasional chirp or what sounded like someone talking in the distance. On my way to the bathroom I thought I heard my mom call my name. I turned around and saw her out of the corner of my eye for a second, but she wasn’t there when I finished turning. Later that night my cat jumped up on my futon and walked towards me. When I went to reach out and pet him, he disappeared. The trip lasted about 2 1/2 hours total. I gave up on the movie after about 2 hours because I realized I had no idea what was going on.

Second trip:

The next night I convinced some friends to do it with me. We went over to a buddies house and went up in his room and distributed the pills. I took 14 this time, another took 10, and the last took 8. The other two guys both weigh around 140 lbs so I told them not to take more than 10. We downed them around 10:30pm and had our water ready and planned on staying in his room all night. Things went the same as before for about an hour, when my buddie decided we should go downstairs and watch a movie in the living room. Like idiots we all 3 went downstairs.

About 30 minutes into the movie my buddie started looking behind him and swearing someone was calling his name. He then proceeded to go back to his room and lock himself in. I went up stairs to try and get him to let us in, I could hear him talking, but he wouldn’t let us in. On the way back down the stairs I thought I was at the last step and turned to go towards the couch. To my surprise there were still 4 steps left. I smacked the wall pretty hard, but luckily didn’t wake anybody up or hurt anything. At this point me and my buddy went to the basement and rode out the rest of the trip.

I didn’t touch the stuff for about 9 days after that. The next time I did was back at my house. I again took 14 pills. About 30 minutes in I decided to take another 5. This trip was much like the previous with more odd light blobs and sounds. This was the night that I discovered a major down side to dramamine. As the buzz began to wear off I became very anxious for no reason. I was on the verge of a panic attack at one point, but calmed my self down. I also felt like I was full of energy. I couldn’t stand to sit still, much less lay down. As long as I was sitting up and doing something like shaking my legs I was fine, but if I stopped or laid down, it felt like my body was going to explode with energy.

Despite this negative, I was not turned off from dramamine. I took doses ranging from 800 to 1000 mg about every 3 nights for two weeks. I got over the feelings of anxiety, and learned to deal with the feelings of having too much energy. After I took all the pills that were in the last bottle I had bought I didn’t touch the stuff for about a week. Then I was back in the store one night and decided to get some more. This is when I went out of control.

First high dose:

That night I got home and started a bit earlier than usual. I popped 25 pills around 10:30pm, layed back on my couch and watched tv waiting on the high to kick in. It took about 45 minutes before I felt anything. When it came on this time it was like every bit of energy was sucked out of my body. It was all I could do to lift my head, or my arms. Trying to take a drink of water seemed like it took minutes. It was like moving in slow motion almost. When I had to pee it took all I had to make it to the bathroom. On the way back from the bathroom, I saw something running down the hall in front of me. At first I was stunned, but then realized it was the drugs.

About the time I made it to the door to my room, I could hear my parents talking. I stopped to see if I could make out what they were saying. I thought they were plotting against me and were going to kick me out of the house. Even though I knew it was all in my head, I suddenly became very paranoid. When I got back to my room, I realized I wasn’t quite so drained anymore, but I was extremely stoned. I was also still very paranoid. I looked out my window about every 10 minutes to make sure that there wasn’t someone outside trying to get me. I came up with the idea that everyone in my life was against me and would kill me if they got the chance. I thought I saw someone shining lights through my windows. I could hear people outside talking about trying to break into my house. Near the end of the trip it sounded like something was beating on the walls inside of my house. I eventually got in my bed and covered my head with a blanket and put headphones on playing Pink Floyd. This calmed me to a point were I came back to reality. I eventually fell asleep.

The next day I reflected on the night before, and apparently was no longer as convinced it was a bad experience as I had been the night before and I decided to do the same thing again that night. This night was much better than the previous night. I only saw odd shaped blobs of light floating around. At one point during napoleon dynamite I realized that the last 10 minutes of the movie were a complete creation of my mind. I’ve never determined whether I fell asleep for a bit, or if it all happened with my eyes open. This night was a pleasant enough experience for me to forget about the bad stuff from the night before. So I decided I was going to do it again the next night.

This night I again took 25 pills. After about an hour I didn’t feel any of the body high I usually felt, so I decided I would take another 3 pills. I had noticed on my previous binge a few weeks earlier that near the end of my binge I didn’t seem to have as strong of an effect and thought a few extra might cover for that. With 28 pills in my system I never felt the body high, but I quickly became aware that I was indeed stoned when I got up to go pee and realized I was standing outside in my underwear in 20 degree weather peeing off the porch. Luckily it was 2am and nobody knew anything about it. I quickly made my way back to my room and laid down on my couch a bit nervous about what else I might have done.

I stayed off dramamine for about 5 days and again decided it was time to do it. I decided I was going to take 30 pills this time. But this time I broke it up a bit. I took 10 pills every 25 minutes so that it didn’t hit me as hard all at once. This worked somewhat. I never got the 'so drained I can’t move’ feeling but I still felt weak. Again I had the anxious and paranoid experience that I had on the first 25 pill dose. But it was accompanied by a fear that I was going to die. I probably had to pee 20 times that night. I kept drinking water so I wouldn’t get dehydrated, but became afraid that I had drank too much water and would damage my kidneys.

I became light headed at one point and checked my pulse. It was down to 47 from the normal 60 that I run. I pulled out the thermometer and checked my temp which was up to 99.5. Nothing too high, but in my paranoid state it was enough to scare me. I broke out in sweats. I started drinking soda thinking the caffeine might bring my pulse up, but it just upset my stomach. To top all this off I forgot that my dad had to work that day. He gets up at 3:30am when he works. The first time I went to the bathroom when he was up I managed to get by without talking to, or seeing him. But I knew I couldn’t keep peeing without him asking me if I was ok. I eventually decided that I would pee in the trashcan in my room.

At this point I realized I had reached a new low in my efforts to get high. My pulse came back to normal and the paranoia and anxiety wore off after about 4 hours. I was sweaty and had the shakes for the rest of the entire next day. I felt weak, particularly hand strength, for about 3 days. Simple tasks became mentally challenging, and confusing at times. My pupils were huge for about 2 days, and I couldn’t go into a bright room, much less into the sun without my eyes hurting badly. I wore sunglasses inside when no one else was around. It’s now a bit over a week later and I’m just now starting to feel back to normal. My pupils are no longer huge, but are still larger than normal and I have trouble focusing on things closer than about 8 inches from my face.

I’ve not included all my experiences here because it would take to much time and space, but I will also say that I think dramamine is addictive. I downed over 400 dramamine total in just over a 2 month period. I am sure I have done some sort of permanent damage to my body from that much use. Will I do it again? Unfortunately I probably will. But the dosage will be no more than 12 pills, and only on rare occasions. Did any good come from using it? I'd like to think that me not downing 8oz of robotussin every 3 or 4 days is a good thing, and overall I have very little desire to be in an altered state of mind on any substance at this moment. Hopefully I don’t forget the bad that came with the good, and end up back where I was.

Exp Year: 2005ExpID: 48286
Gender: Male 
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Feb 10, 2008Views: 25,493
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Dimenhydrinate (17) : Health Problems (27), Addiction & Habituation (10), Hangover / Days After (46), Post Trip Problems (8), HPPD / Lasting Visuals (40), Retrospective / Summary (11), Various (28)

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