Younger Folks Are Tripping on Benadryl—and It’s At all times a Dangerous Time

There’s a determine who could greet you throughout an intense Benadryl journey.

Faceless, shrouded in black with pink eyes and a high hat, it ominously lurks within the nook. The Benadryl Hat Man is a shared and recurring hallucination that individuals report witnessing when taking dozens of the antihistamine at a time. The determine, depicted in Halloween costumes, POV-Benadryl journey memes, and Walmart graphic tees, has turn into the image for a brand new drug development that sees younger individuals intentionally taking giant doses of the drug, to not chase away allergic reactions, however to get excessive.

John, a 21-year-old faculty pupil who used to journey on Benadryl, by no means noticed the Hat Man. But, he says, “I might see how that might occur. It is [Benadryl] digging within the depths of your mind to seek out no matter’s making you scared. So, when you’re terrified of the Hat Man, I am positive you are going to see the Hat Man.” This trying to find the disagreeable to disclose itself, whereas sounding horrible, is, actually, the aim of leisure Benadryl use. (John doesn’t need his actual title used as a result of concern of buddies discovering out.)

When utilized in excessive doses, diphenhydramine, an ingredient in Benadryl, features as a deliriant, a hallucinogenic class of medication, which seem like changing into more and more widespread amongst younger individuals for nonmedical functions. Not like psychedelics or different hallucinogens, there’s no actual potential for a very good journey on a deliriant. In keeping with the individuals I spoke to, each journey is dangerous, each journey is brutal, and that’s the purpose.

In 2020, the “Benadryl problem” gained traction on TikTok, daring individuals to take doses of at the least 12 Benadryl tablets for an intense journey. The development, which resurfaces each few years, drew consideration to the psychoactive results of deliriants. “I noticed a video about it on TikTok as soon as, so I knew it might be used recreationally,” one consumer tells me.

With little to no hurt discount data available about excessive ranges of consumption, issues started to rise. In Could 2020, three Texas teenagers had been handled for Benadryl overdoses in only a week, one among whom was simply 14 years outdated and took 14 tablets. The 14-year-old recovered and returned residence the subsequent day. In August 2020, a 15-year-old died from a seizure after overdosing on the drug in Oklahoma. In September 2020, the FDA issued a warning for folks to cover and lock up their Benadryl provide, warning of the potential danger of coronary heart issues, seizures, and, much less generally, comas and even loss of life. Regardless of the warning, the development appears to have persevered. In 2020, there have been 4,618 instances reported to US Poison Facilities for Benadryl utilization; that quantity climbed to five,960 in 2023, in line with a research printed in Pediatrics Open Science in August. Benadryl and deliriants on the whole have embedded themselves as staples on the fringes of the American youth—an inexpensive and straightforward strategy to get fucked up. WIRED reached out to Benadryl producer Kenvue for remark. A spokesperson for the corporate acknowledged, “This habits is extraordinarily regarding and harmful,” and inspired customers to “fastidiously learn and comply with the directions on the label and get in touch with their well being care skilled ought to they’ve questions.”

John began taking Benadryl recreationally in November 2024, when he was 20, after utilizing it to sleep after which listening to in regards to the potential to journey on-line. He was depressed on the time and would take 12 tablets for an enormous journey, a number of instances a day, with every journey lasting 4 to 6 hours. As an alternative of the Hat Man, John noticed eyelash mites, small bugs that type in clusters on the base of your eyelashes, alongside “shadows that will dart throughout your peripheral.” The journeys had been additionally tactile; John would see and really feel spiders throughout his physique, describing feeling a “foreboding tingling.”