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Author: Admin | 2025-04-28
Can be. Unlike other OTC antihistamines (Claritin, Allegra and Zyrtec, for example), Benadryl contains an active ingredient called diphenhydramine (DPH) that can act as a psychoactive deliriant at high doses, producing full-blown visual and auditory hallucinations that last anywhere from minutes to hours at various levels of intensity. According to Laura Hong, managing director of the virtual medication management service My Pharmacist Friend, doses higher than 300 milligrams can produce this effect, but most anecdotal accounts cite 500 milligrams as the minimum requirement to produce delirium. At that level, users can expect hallucinations, dysphoria, confusion, memory disruptions, extremely dry mouth and a maddening inability to pee, but unlike low-dose Benadryl, they’re unlikely to get off side-effect free. It’s not uncommon for high-dose recreational users to experience things like lasting sexual dysfunction, cognitive problems, blurred vision, heart issues, liver damage and addictive symptoms after their trip, and long-term use has been shown to increase the risk of both Alzheimer’s and dementia. In some cases, Hong says, overdosing on Benadryl can even lead to death. TikTok’s recent “Benadryl Challenge” was a sad reminder of just how easily Benadryl can turn from friendly to fatal. Earlier this year, teens used short, peppy videos to encourage each other to hallucinate on it, a trend that landed a handful of them in the hospital and led to the death of a 15-year-old girl in Oklahoma City. But while TikTok removed most of the videos and banned the hashtag from its search — and the FDA issued a subsequent warning against Benadryl overdose — their efforts did little to curb the social media mania that’s been percolating around the drug for years. People have always abused OTC medications — “robotripping” off the dextromethorphan in cough syrup is practically an ancient rite — but light internet sleuthing reveals it was around 2012 that Benadryl really seemed to come online as a recreational drug. Though whispers of its deliriant effects had been circulating both on and off the internet for years, that was the year that people started post trip report videos on YouTube in a big way, linking their private pastimes with their public identities to create personal brands around getting high. Benadryl — legal, relatable and ubiquitous — was a perfect target for review. Then, in 2016, YouTuber Tana Mongeau put a glossier, blonder spin on things, recounting her own experience in a viral video titled, “I OVERDOSED ON BENADRYL & TRIPPED LIKE ACID: STORYTIME.” In it, Mongeau — who was 18 at the time — describes glugging “¾ of a Benadryl bottle” after an allergy attack, rifling off the events of her unraveling with characteristic rich-girl vocal fry as if what happened to her were any other Crazy Night™. You can tell from her tone that she’s totally okay — “Well, I didn’t die, so, um, yeah!” — but it’s easy to wonder whether her nonchalance might minimize the risk for anyone who thinks blacking out at a go-kart track sounds fun. Mongeau’s video, which
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