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Oblivious to Sheer Potency
Diphenhydramine
Citation:   Sisyphus. "Oblivious to Sheer Potency: An Experience with Diphenhydramine (exp93945)". Erowid.org. Nov 12, 2016. erowid.org/exp/93945

 
DOSE:
T+ 0:00
600 mg oral Diphenhydramine (pill / tablet)
  T+ 24:00 700 mg oral Diphenhydramine (pill / tablet)
  T+ 24:30 100 mg oral Diphenhydramine (pill / tablet)
  T+ 24:35 100 mg oral Diphenhydramine (pill / tablet)
BODY WEIGHT: 155 lb
I'm a college art student that is 20 years old. I like experimenting. So how this escapade began was when I had virtually no cash and was craving to trip on whatever drug I could get for cheap. I was aware of OTC drugs that could be used recreationally and were dirt cheap for decent amounts. I didn't have to think twice it cost around $2.50 for a bottle of 30 50mg capsules of diphenhydramine in the form of a sleep aid. The next time I went to the store to buy groceries, I also picked up a bottle. In my head I said I would trip off it once and use the rest as sleeping aids since I have trouble falling asleep anyway.

That same night, I decided to try these suckers. I waited for my roommates to go to sleep, grabbed water, crackers, and went into my room for the night. I wasn't intending on leaving my room at all unless I had to go to the bathroom, since I heard about the realistic hallucinations one can encounter on it. I made sure I had everything I needed before I made a commitment to the insanity that lay ahead. I made sure to have my music and headphones ready, water, cigarettes of course, my sketchbook for drawing (since I always draw when I take drugs to sort of document my mindset at the time. Yeah I'm in school for art so I always kind of have to be creative.) So this is night one of two nights in a row of consuming a total 1500mg.

I take 12 pills, 600mg the first night and I am moderately disappointed with its effects. I was expecting a harder trip since I started with a heavier dose, but I still enjoyed it for what it was. Dirty trips interest me. I have a strange curiosity towards disturbing, intense, unpredictable things.
Dirty trips interest me. I have a strange curiosity towards disturbing, intense, unpredictable things.
It correlates with my artwork in a way, because I paint gore and creepy creatures and strange things. I guess I was just expecting too much to happen but I'll tell you the few interesting snippets I remember.

The effects came on in about an hour and they came on ever so slowly. First thing I noticed was when I looked at the legs of my desk chair, there appeared to be electricity running all around it. After testing out all the other objects in my room for electricity, my eyes began to do weird things. My vision was vibrating rapidly, but not the dizzy sort of eyes. It made the whole world seem foreign and uninviting. I would always hear a random sound once, and then it would repeat itself over and over again. One of them I remember distinctly was silverware clanking, but it sounded so loud like it was coming out of my head. Which was impossible but happening which made it so alien. Imagine a recorded sound effect that was played over and over.There was no variation in the volume or the pitch of the sound. I saw a giant eyeball floating in the middle of my room, which was pretty cool. It was semi-transparent and green and it kept darting all over the place. I also remember that any visual I saw was always vibrating noticeably no matter how large or small the hallucination was. I saw a green vibrating bloody pile of human remains, which was freaky and intriguing at the same time. Whenever I looked at my rug, I would see hundreds of faces in them. I would look away and look back and the faces would still be there. Everything kept vibrating super fast but not in a large scale. Hearing lots of sounds and voices of people were weird, because you couldn't tell how far away or how close they came from. It was a completely odd experience but I was relaxed the whole time and didn't even feel any physicals effects really. I got some interesting artwork done.

Now the second night was a different story. I made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and some gatorade, and ventured off into my room once more to attempt a better trip with this foreign substance. I ingested about 14 pills 700mg and waited a bit. Close to half-hour goes by and I take 100mg more, I wanted something interesting to happen and was anxious. For some reason I take the last 2 pills another five minutes later bringing my total up to 900mg. I underestimated this drug. I thought I could handle what I put in my mouth. My body was still disoriented from the night before but when you're out of your mind it's kind of hard to distinguish reality. Between the last night and the second night of dosing the only thing I can remember Is that I was talking to my roommate for a bit and she looked real. She was saying some things to me that were incriminating, like she found out about this secret area on my laptop where I keep a journal and write all of my deepest secrets. It made me paranoid as fuck because I don't have all good things written in there. I left the room and immediately deleted the journal entries I thought were incriminating. Came back and she was gone, she was asleep it was the middle of the night. I realized then that it wasn't real and I just flipped out over nothing.

Back to the second night...

I ended up in the hospital. I guess I took too much at once because the onset was almost instantaneously. It was too overwhelming and my whole body started shaking. I was beginning to lose my breath at about the fifteen minute mark, and I was crawling on the ground like a poor animal that's being gutted alive. I knew something was wrong and took immediate action. I barely could open the door to get out of my room and stumbled to the couch in the living room. I thank god or whoever that my 2 roommates were still awake and in the living room when I threw myself at them in the most frantic state I'd ever been in. I was losing my ability to form words fast. My breathing got even more labored and I kept rocking my body back and forth to keep from losing consciousness, my body wouldn't stop moving. Before my mouth turned into peanut butter, I yelled at my roommate to call an ambulance, I couldn't handle my body anymore. I never told them I was taking the pills so it took a while for me to be able to tell them what I did.

The wait for the ambulance was agonizing. I was yelling random things and rocking my body back and forth and I kept standing up and sitting down every twenty seconds. My roommates were trying to keep me still but I felt like I was dying. By the time the ambulance got there, I was convulsing and mumbling. I had severe palpitations and my heart rate grew erratic and exhausting. The paramedics put me on a gurney and took me down 2 flights of stairs in the the tight hallway of my apartment complex. I remember seeing curious neighbors outside as I got in the ambulance. I was out of my mind at this point and struggling to stabilize. The cute paramedic that rode with me jammed IV's in me and told me to focus on my breathing, so I did. I also remember squeezing his leg the whole time because I was frightened out of my mind and needed human warmth to relax me somewhat.

I finally got into a room after some time. I had a one second memory the whole night so my time is a bit warped. I was in pain and still freaking out, with even more crazy palpitations. I was hallucinating my roommates talking about me to the doctor. I could've sworn there were two people having sex behind the curtain that was to the left. When I would try to formulate a sentence in my head, it would not compute. Phrases that didn't make sense came out when the doctors were asking me for my information. I cant remember most of the night my roommates told me I was singing and I said mean things to his girlfriend, which I secretly hate in reality. I kept taking the thing off my finger for blood pressure and the heart monitor would go beeeeeeep and it would freak me out and then I would get more palpitations and my heart rate kept going way up and way down erratically. I kept taking my oxygen mask off and not remembering I did it one second later. It was freaky I thought my heart stopped beating three times for a few seconds. I heard voices, I saw faces in the curtains. My friend called me buggy cause he said my eyes were constantly darting around. They were wide open I had this frightened look on my face like a 2 year old that got lost in the store and can't find mommy.

They pumped me full of Ativan and it calmed my heart rate. Next thing I remember is morning, and the nurse asking me what I wanted to eat I barely remember eating food. I hallucinated I was drawing a picture then I noticed it was my finger on the blanket and also that I was on my laptop browsing the internet but my finger was just moving on the blanket. At around noon the next morning they wheeled me outside and I sat out there for I don't know how long waiting for my ride home. I looked like a crazy person I had no bra on and no socks when I came so I had hospital socks crossing my arms so you cant see my nipples, it was raining also, and I had blood on my leggings because I ripped out the IV before the nurse did. I had to ride home on a motorcycle in a dazed state.

I felt completely weird and horrible the next two days, I had crippling panic attacks where I breathed in a bag and called crying to my mom to help me. I couldn't sleep. I recovered over the next few days. I will definitely never forget this experience. It was quite a trip and I don't really have an intention of trying it in the future. It's been 3 months since this charade. I tried it, and there's no reason to risk another hospital bill.

Exp Year: 2011ExpID: 93945
Gender: Female 
Age at time of experience: 20
Published: Nov 12, 2016Views: 6,773
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Diphenhydramine (109) : Train Wrecks & Trip Disasters (7), Overdose (29), Health Problems (27), Alone (16)

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