Dramamine FAQ

A. Acknowledgements

First and foremost, I'd like to thank the UAF and friends on EFNET channels #DXM and #UAF for their help and agreement to spread this FAQ as far as it may go. I would also like to thank everybody on the alt.drug and rec.drug heirarchy newsgroups for answering my questions and sharing their experiences of anticholinergic use.

I would also like to thank those of you who e-mailed me your experiences and taught me more on the drug, along with sharing your own opinions. And also to Brian Myers for pointing out some useful information about anticholinergics and correcting part of the information contained in this FAQ. All your help has been greatly appreciated!

I would like to acknowledge the Upjohn Company, Parke-Davis and other pharmaceutical companies for giving me something to write about.

1.1 Restrictions and Disclaimer

This text covers the recreational and medical uses of diphenhydramine, dimenhydrinate, cyclizine hydrochloride and meclizine hydrochloride, drugs known as anticholinergics/ antihistamines and found in many over-the-counter (non-prescription) allergy, motion sickness, and sleep medicines. This is version 1.1.

Distribution Restrictions

1. Distribution in electronic form is permitted, free of charge, except as otherwise specified below.
2. When distributed electronically, this document may be broken up into sections, provided all sections receive the same distribution and all are distributed within 1 day.
3. When distributed by the author via Usenet, some sections may be omitted at the author's discretion. Automatic redistribution (i.e., Usenet news) may legally duplicate this pattern of omissions.
4. Sale of this document in any form (electronic or printed) by anyone other than the author is expressly forbidden.
5. When distribution in electronic form, this document must remain in the same format as received. For information regarding specific formats, please contact me.
6. Once a given version number has been released, no prior versions may be distributed without written permission. Please stick to this rule if you can; I try and keep the information in this document as up-to-date as possible.
7. This document may be cited as: Sothen, Jeffrey (1996) The Dramamine FAQ; Answers to Frequently Asked Questions about Dramamine, (v. 2.0).
8. As I do not wish my motives to be misrepresented, no citation or quotation of this document may be used so as to explicitly or implicitly suggest that I am in favor of the illegal use of any drug (legal or not), or any other illegal activity, subject to USA law. (This restriction is also present in the general copyright notice).
9. No modified version of this document may be distributed in any form. (This restriction is also present in the general copyright notice).

General Disclaimer

This text discusses some rather controversial topics. Currently, there are laws in most places of the world that make it illegal to use certain drugs for recreational purposes. The proponents of the War on Drugs (and its equivalents elsewhere) have become increasingly aggressive. One of their goals is to prevent the dissemination of information about recreational drugs (unless it's their own propaganda). As such, anyone even discussing drug use is walking on thin ice, and once you go about telling people how to do it, the ice becomes a lot thinner.

In any case, like so many others, I am walking on somewhat thin ice here, and must take certain steps to protect myself. Thus I have written the following disclaimer:

It is not my intention to influence anyone to commit an illegal act. I explicitly instruct all readers not to violate any international, national, state, regional, city, or other applicable laws governing any of the information presented in any document authored by me or made available by me through electronic or other publishing methods, including this document. Specifically, I hereby advise everyone not to take any legal or illegal drug (except for legal drugs under order of a physician), or to engage in the manufacture, distribution, synthesis, analysis, or other processing of any legal or illegal drug, regardless of anything you may see in the aforementioned documents. I advise everyone not to follow any procedures listed. All information is presented for EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY!

None of the information in this document is guaranteed to be accurate or valid in any way. Anyone attempting any such action or process takes full responsibility for any outcome resulting from such, and neither I, nor my access provider, nor any other subset of the Usenet/Internet or world community (except for the person or persons attempting the action) may be held responsible.

By proceeding past this Disclaimer, you agree to assume all responsibility for any actions, legal or not, that you may take. If any part of this disclaimer is found to be invalid, then all rights to access and distribute this information are revoked.

How to Reach the Author

Any questions or comments may be addressed to me:

Irc: I'm usually on the EFnet channel #Dxm under the nickname Gravol.

Email:
Hiya325@aol.com

I do have other Internet accounts but would rather use my AOL account to answer any email regarding this FAQ. If you wish to contact me in any other way, please let me know.

It is not my intention to cover just Dramamine, as there are many other medicines that have much the same effects. However, if I named this the Anticholinergic/Antihistamine FAQ, people would pretty much ignore it (perhaps not knowing what it means) and/or expect other anticholinergic/antihistamine sources to be discussed, such as plants, etc.

The drugs mentioned in this FAQ are Dramamine, Dramamine II, Benadryl Allergy, Marezene, and a few others. When referring to Dramamine, I am also referring to these other drugs as well. It's just a lot easier to refer to these drugs as just "Dramamine" than "diphenhydramine, dimenhydrinate, cyclizine HCl, and meclizine HCl."

Also, this FAQ is to set up to provide answers to the most frequently asked questions regarding Dramamine use and present several experiences of peoples' Dramamine trips.

2.1 What's the difference between all these drugs?

The effects of diphenhydramine HCl and dimenhydrinate are virtually the same. However, diphenhydramine HCl produces a more marked, rapid effect. Dimenhydrinate was developed to avoid those effects, but still have the H2 effects.

Dimenhydrinate is the 8-chlorotheophyllinate salt of diphenhydramine HCl. You don't have to worry too much about what that means! [if you wanna know: it means there's an additional bunch of atoms attached to each of the diphenhydramine molecules. This bunch of atoms is stripped off when it dissolves in water, so that the effect of the drug is not changed. However, it adds to the weight of the molecule, which means that the drug is less potent.] The only important difference is potency: 50mg of dimenhydrinate and cyclizine HCl is equivalent to 25mg of diphenhydramine HCl and meclizine HCl. It's basically the same drug. Of course, these drugs are more expensive as a sleep aid than as an allergy medicine, though it is the same formulation. Be sure to keep your eyes open if you want the best deal.

Some brand names of dimenhydrinate include: Calm-X, Dimetabs, Dramamine, Marmine, Nico-Vert, Tega-Vert, and Triptone. Some brand names of diphenhydramine HCl include: Aller Max, Banophen, Belix, Benadryl, Benylin Cough, Bydramine, Compoz, Diphen Cough, Dormarex-2, Genahist, Hydramine, Hydramyn, Nervine Nighttime Sleep-Aid, Nidryl, Nordryl, Nytol, Phendry, Sleep-Eze 3, Sominex 2, Tusstat, and Twilite.

Other variations may include Marezene (containing cyclizine hydrochloride 50mg per tablet) and Dramamine II (containing meclizine hydrochloride 25mg per tablet). Note that some of the above brand names are not over-the-counter medications.

Antihistamines generally, and Diphenydramine Hcl specifically, act by antagonizing histamine at the site of the H1 histamine receptor. Antihistamines dry up the secretion of the nose, throat, and eyes. They relieve itch and will help you go to sleep.

Dimenhydrinate depresses the middle-ear function, but the way in which it actually prevents nausea, vomiting, or dizziness is not known.

However, these drugs are not just antihistamines. They have a significant amount of anticholinergic activity. What does this mean? There's a chemical in the nervous system called acetylcholine, which is one of a set of substances called neurotransmitters. These chemicals transmit signals from one neuron to another. Acetylcholine is present in many different parts of the brain. Notably, it's present in areas thought to be associated with memory, and is the primary transmitter of the motor pathways leading off from the spinal cord. It plays a role in just about every system, however.

Dramamine et al work to prevent acetylcholine from transmitting its signals.

People with a prostate condition, some types of stomach ulcers, bladder problems, difficulty urinating, glaucoma, asthma, or abnormal heart rhythms should not use dimenhydrinate. Because it reduces nausea and vomiting, dimenhydrinate can hide symptoms of overdose of other medicines or the symptoms of appendicitis. Your doctor may have difficulty reaching an accurate diagnosis in these conditions unless he or she knows you are taking dimenhydrinate.

Diphenhydramine HCl should not be used if you are allergic to this drug. (That's another reason that it's a good idea to start off with really small doses.) It should be avoided or used with extreme care if you have narrow-angle glaucoma (pressure in the eye), stomach ulcer or other stomach problems, enlarged prostate, or problems passing urine. It should not be used by people who have deep-breathing problems such as asthma. Use with extra care - if at all - if you have a history of thyroid disease, heart disease, high blood pressure, or diabetes.

Taking dimenhydrinate together with alcoholic beverages, other antihistamines, tranquilizers, or other nervous-system depressants can result in excessive dizziness, drowsiness, or other signs of nervous-system depression.

3.1 How many pills should I take for my first trip?

Be prepared. Familiarize yourself with the reports in this FAQ and don't make the mistakes some of those people made. Make sure you're physically healthy and reasonably psychologically well-balanced. Absolutely do not take if you have asthma/heart problems. You should also be in a comfortable/safe environment. If you're doing it for the first time, don't leave home. It's also good (read: almost essential) to have a sober person with you to help in case you need it. It's possible for people using Dramamine to respond to hallucinations and delusions *as if they were real*, so it's sensible to have someone there to make sure you don't do something stupid.

A Dramamine trip can be very much like a dream... what you may see can be totally fantastical; however it seems very much like reality. Also, you may forget a large majority of what happened (which may be for the better).

Things appear to happen that are totally irrational, yet seem perfectly normal at the time. You have to be careful, as you may find yourself doing things you wouldn't normally try in reality (e.g. jumping out of a window to escape a "monster") and it's best to use it while your parents or anybody else that might find you is not around.

People tend to get a "heavy" feeling, one of being "pulled down" a lot while using Dramamine/Benadryl. It may also be hard to stay awake. Taking Dramamine II (meclizine HCl) may help; it was developed to reduce the sleep-inducing effects of Dramamine.

Dramamine is an non-social, experimental drug. It can't really be used for recreational purposes, since it usually isn't much fun. Great care must be taken in preparing for the trip before you actually dose on it.

The most common hallucinations of Dramamine are auditory; you frequently hear voices, sounds, and sometimes your name being called by an unknown person/thing. The auditory hallucinations can be enjoyable: listening to music, you may find yourself hearing melodies and even lyrics that just aren't there. Often, these changes are improvements!

Some users say olfactory (smell) hallucinations may be present,such as smelling food, etc. The visual hallucinations that are experienced are usually full-blown. You may find yourself talking to a person or being that is not really there. You will find yourself believing - at least temporarily - that they ARE there, and this may result in problems. Usually (not always) by touching the object/ hallucination it will vapourize and disappear. Try not to do anything you wouldn't normally do in real life. If something strange happens, think "Wait a minute... is this physically possible?"

These hallucinations can become downright scary and lead to an extremely bad trip. Just remember that they aren't truly there, and nothing can hurt you... only you yourself can. That is why it is not recommended that you take more than 12 tablets for your first trip.

Once again, your mileage may vary. Some people experience more bad effects than others; some don't get any hallucinations at all, though more than likely you will hallucinate.

The "high" you experience is not really a high. It is quite uncomfortable and can cause nausea or a severe case of "cotton-mouth." That is why people usually do this drug very infrequently (e.g. once or twice a year) along with other reasons such as possible long-term damage to the body.

Yes, in the journal of Canadian Psychiatry 1993 (38:113-116) is a section on dimenhydrinate abuse among adolescents.

To summarize, several cases are described where teens typically took 5-15 tablets (250-750 mg) at a time habitually for a year or more. The patients were described as chronically depressed and amotivated. Symptoms "remitted with successful treatment of dimenhydrinate abuse". Based on this paper abusing this OTC antihistamine appears remarkably safe. However, don't be fooled into thinking the abuse of this drug is anything NEAR safe.

Yes, one interesting and somewhat ominous thing I ran across was the story of Daniel Berrey, a Missouri University student who apparently died one October from an overdose of Benadryl. Any decent search engine will turn up his name, but essentially, authorities were stymied, at least officially, as to the cause of death at first. Descriptions in newspaper articles and on his sister's home page paint a picture of the stereotypical "college student next door", and for a while, the speculation was that he took Benadryl as medication, and suffered an allergic reaction. Eventually, though, the autopsy revealed that there was a substantial (but unspecified) amount in Daniel's system, and the newspaper article about that finding reports puzzlement at how the Benadryl was ingested or for what reason. There's no reference at all to the notion that Daniel might have tried to use Benadryl recreationally. Nor, unfortunately, would the coroner publicly say how much was found in his system.

Recent rise in the use of dextromethorphan (DXM), aka cough syrup, has caused speculation whether it is safe to take Dramamine in combination with DXM. The answer is surprisingly (for the most part) yes; however, if you have not taken DXM before, it is not advisable to combine it with something else, since you don't know how your body will react to it.

Usually when taking them in combination, the trip may become a little more comfortable and more like a typical DXM trip, with a few bad side effects (such as nausea or a dry mouth), and more intense visuals. The DXM causes an increase in CEV's (Closed Eye Visuals) and the Dramamine causes an increase in OEV's (Open Eye Visuals), along with auditory hallucinations so this would make for a very interesting trip to say the least (Check out the experiences listed in the DXM FAQ; you'll find a few relating to combined DXM and Dramamine use).

Marezene use in the last couple of years has become almost as popular as Dramamine and Benadryl use.

First, some background on anticholinergic deleriants:

These drugs are not usually regarded as psychedelic, although they have a great deal in common historically, culturally, and pharmacologically with other drugs taken for their mind-altering powers. They are called anticholinergic because they block the action of acetylcholine, a nerve transmitter substance that controls the contraction of skeletal muscles and also plays an important role in the chemistry of the brain. They are called deleriants because their effects at high doses include incoherent speech, disorientation, delusions, and hallucinations, often followed by depression and amnesia for the period of intoxication. The classical anticholinergic delirients are the belladonna alkaloids:

These tropane derivatives, the most powerful and important of which is scopolamine, are found in differing concentrations in various plants of the nightshade Family or Solanaceae, among them deadly nightshade (Atropa Belladona), mandrake (Mandragora Officinarum), black henbane (Hyoscyamus Niger), jimsonweed (Datura Stramonium), and over twenty other species of henbane and datura. Of all psychoactive drugs, only alcohol has been in use for so long over such a large part of the world. For thousands of years on all inhabited continents the belladonna alkaloids have been a tool of shamans and sorcerers, who take advantage of the sensations they evoke to leave their bodies, soar through the air, or change into an animal in their imagination. They also produce toxic organic symptoms like headache, dry throat, loss of motor control, blurred vision, and greatly increased heart rate and and body temperature; death from paralysis and respiratory may occur.

The belladonna alkaloids are so terrifying and incapacitating - the physical effects often so unpleasant, and the loss of contact with ordinary reality so complete - that they are used only with great caution and rarely for pleasure. For the same reasons, ironically, they are not regarded as a drug abuse problem and can be bought in small doses on prescription or in over-the-counter sedatives and pills for asthma, colds, and motion sickness.

If you would like more information on Anticholinergics or Anticholinergic Psychosis, please visit the following URL:

http://vh.radiology.uiowa.edu/Providers/Lectures/Conferences/CPS/22Psychosis.html

"Anticholinergic neuropyschiatric effects may occur secondary to standard or excessive doses of these compounds. This handout will discuss the presentation and management of these reactions as the result of intentional (e.g., abuse) or nonintentional ingestion."

4 Dramamine/Benadryl/Marezene Experiences

4.1 Disclaimer

All of the following stories are left the way the author typed them; I did not take time to fix spelling and grammatical errors since a few of the experiences were typed while under the influence of these drugs, and I wanted you to see what the context looked like.

The following are all Dramamine experiences. I took out the redundant stories and included the most unique experiences.

Gravol (Dramamine), which I HAVE tried. I for one would class it more as a deleriant than a hallucinogen. The trip started with a nice stoned feeling, but quickly changed. When staring at any white object (ceilings, and even cups or cupped hands) I noticed a strange clear gellatin-like substance that seemed to jiggle and spread towards me (looked a lot like the alien in the Predator movies). While doing LSD or psilocybin, I have always been able to tell reality from hallucinations. This is not the case with Dramamine. Several times I car- ried on conversations with individuals before discovering they were non- existant. I saw people and objects that were not there as well. Perhaps the worst aspect of the trip was the auditory part. I constantly heard my name being called, and sound is magnified to a very uncomfortable level. Speech (even from myself) was not only loud and difficult, but VERY slurred. Com- munication was difficult due to the fact that I would forget what I was talk- ing about in mid-sentence, and would finish most sentences off by saying "Uh, nevermind...I forgot." The amount of paranoia that prevailed throughout the trip was unbearable: especially after I saw my brother rise out of a pile of clothes in the floor to tell me that my father (who happens to be the head of a drug task force) was calling me. Maybe all of this was due to the fact that I was alone for the majority of this experience (nightmare). Definate- ly a one time experience for me. Not recomended for the weak of heart or mind. Especially at that dosage: 24 tablets!

Hello all, I would like to talk to everyone about a story.. The Camp Experience of Dramamine.

It was this summer, and I was at summer camp, I am mentally addicted to pot, and have an addiction to speed. Anyways, i went to this christian camp in misourri (Kanakuk?anyone heard of it before?) Anyways, I went there and for about 3 weeks, I was sober, I started getting used to being sober and learning to handle it, but one day I just kinda bugged out and wanted some drugs. I had always heard that if I took 12 Dramamine I would trip, I had never tripped before this experience.. So I said what the fuck I 'll pretend to be sick and then I'll sleep in the nurses office, when they goto bed i'll digest this dramamine. So I go in, the nurses say ok you can stay here to night.. I wait till they sleep, finally I go in and steal the bottle of dramamine and go back to the room that I was staying in [the infirmery], I popped 12 , waited an hour and then it didn't do anything, so I popped another 12.. [bad mistake].. Pretty soon my hand just started to wiggle. Then about 10 minutes later, the trip stopped being euphoric, and seemed like reality, I had forgotten that I took the Dramamine, and was completely out of it. I would go blank and not see anything for like 2 minutes, really freaky. I went out of the room to go to the nurse's fridge to get a drink, I looked outside, and god strike me dead a dark tree turned into a man w/a black overcoat, black beard and a low brimmed black hat walking towards me, then he turned back into the tree.... I was bugging out so I went back to the bunk bed and tried to go to sleep. I was on the bottom bunk and noone else was on the top, noone else was in the room, suddenly my friends that I had met at camp [bunk mates] , their heads would swing down from the top bunk and start talking to me, it seemed so un-euphoric and real that I started talking back to them and they'd go away and i'd get really frusturated, I don't remember what happened after that. The next thing I remember was waking up and not being able to walk straight, I was shaking heavily all over my body. The nurse said good morning and gave me a cup of orange juice, not knowing I was fucked up, then suddenly I started shaking so much that the oj spilled all over me.. I forget what happened next, next thing that I remmeber was I was lying on the nurses lap in a big blazer and I didn't know where I was or where I was going. The next thing I remember was being in the emergency room in a hospital.. They stuck an iv in me and I was totally out of it, they gave me drug tests, and luckily the three weeks that I'd been in camp took out all of the pot and speed in my urine, probably from drinking so much water b/c of the heat. When the doctor was talking to someone in the next room, I could have sworn he was talking to my sister, I actually thought my sister was here, she was crying. The doctor said 'I have found large quantities of thc in jeffrey's urine' but he really didn't say this nor was my sister there. Then this was real: The doctor was on the phone w/my dad and said that I had a 'acute psychosis' and should be admitted to the 'Springfield, Missouri psychiatric ward'!! My dad refused and said he'll come pick me up. They shot me up w/ some shit andI left and they took me to mcdonalds, there I sat down, went to tie my shoelace but instead went for the nurse's sitting next to me and tied her shoe!, then I took my straw and put it in her drink. We wen't back to camp and they called my dad. My dad flew in immediatly to pick me up. While i was waiting for my dad the dramamine wore off except for one thing new, I was itching uncontrollably all over my back, so I ripped off my shirt and looked to see what was itching me, I thought I had spiders crawling all over me, but there was nothing, just bad itching. My dad picked me up and I was fine. I will never forget those two crazy, scary, and insane days of my life.

Does anyone know what happened that night, If possible could some one give me a detailed discription of what happened. And if anyone had a similar experience or whoever has tried Dramamine, tell me what thier experience was like. Could someone please write me private or here and tell me what went on, I have yet to know. Till this day , noone knows what happened to me that day, they think i had a nervous breakdown.

This is my experience We went downstairs. I started feeling euphoric. It was REALLY REALLY wierd. My head was really light, but my legs were REALLY heavy. We were watching T.v. I was feeling the wierdest feelings. Then all of a sudden my legs start to twitch. Not a lot, but enough to be saying "What the fuck" anyhow we got bored of T.v and when I stood up I got blasted by a wierd feeling. I kinda felt like I had the flu... or something. I wasn't going to puke though.

We started for the stairs. I was going up the stairs and for 2 steps I could enough get my leg up. I tripped but didn't fall down :) We were in his room. He was feeling REAL tired. I was tired but not really. The cielling was moving . He said that this white stuff came down and seemed to almost touch him.

We turned off the. We started talking, but we would forget what we were saying in the middle of sentences. We DID have a conversation but it just wouldn't make sense to a "normal" person. He then fell asleep. I was there just "experiencing the feeling" I could say it was kind of like a fucked up version of an ACiD trip.

Then things went bad.... With the lights off, it wasn't a very friendly enviroment. I put my hand down on something. "OOOOOOOOOOH SHIT!" I thought. It moved!! It was a black thing that slithered. It was BIG too. I jumped up so fast. I couldn't keep my balance though. I turned on the light. (All was fine) Another person who was there, who wasn't doing dramamine, told me there was no snake, even though I thought it was hissssssing! I was scared shitless. But then I thought "THIS ISN'T REAL!"

Anyhow he turned off the light. I think I fell back asleep or fell unconcious.. who knows. I woke up and I thought the snake was right next to my head. I jumped up. But I didn't turn on the lights. I just sayed. "ITS NOT REAL! ITS NOT FUCKING REAL!" I had to somehow convince myself that it wasn't. It was like I was insane! I sat back down. the snake seemed to have dissapeared, and a good thing too.

I think I went to sleep or I just can't remember. I got up and tried to walk out the door. The door was THERE.. or so I thought..... I was trying to get out the other side of the room :) Anyhow... It was useless so I laid back down. I felt so alone. So cold. Anyhow I FINALLY fell asleep and didnt wake up till the next day, sometime around 2. My non- dramamine friend said I was talking about all sorts of shit, but I don't remember.

I slept all day that day. Somehow got up to eat supper.. and then the next day after that I felt tired.

I tried Gravol two nights ago, and it was interesting. I took 8 tablets (50 mg dimenhydrinate each, for a total of 400mg) at 9:45. By 10:20 or so I was feeling the buzz. Soon after this I felt very tired, like I hadn't slept for days. I fought this off and soon the fun part began. I felt very lethargic, however, motion gave a sensation of pleasure. Everything aruond me seemed to be slowed down. I began to hallucinate. The visuals were much more intense than acid (never tried shrooms), and they had a certain believability which was almost frightening. I had to keep reminding myself that I was tripping, or I would have probably freaked out. The most intense part was when I was watching an ice cream bike disassemble and reform into other shapes, like dragons and chairs. The trip lasted about an hour-and-a-half, and when it ended the only thing wrong was the fact that I was dead tired (although this could be attributed to the fact that it was close to midnight and I had worked all day). There was no headache, no lingering trip symptoms. I will definately try it again, perhaps at a higher dosage (10 or 12, to further enhance the visuals).

DXM + Cyclizine

Anonymous (male, 84kg). 600mg (7.1mg/kg) + 150mg cyclizine

I'd been playing with the combination of DXM and Cyclizine. I took 600mg of DXM (I weigh 84kg) over a period of about 2 hours. I was going slow because I wasn't sure if my body had completely recovered yet from a rather unfortunate experience a week before. When I finished off the last of the Drixorals I killed the lights and put on some music. It was a nice relaxed feeling but I didn't get any visuals (which was to be expected from such a low dose). Since my body was reacting okay, I ate three Marezine tablets (150mg Cyclizine). Then the hallucinations came on in force.

Cyclizine definitely changes the character of a DXM trip. There's a lot of motion.. and I mean a LOT! 8) I was lying there on my bed with my eyes closed and I'd feel the mattress lift up and start twisting and twirling around. I grabbed on to the bed and hung on for dear life. It was like riding a roller coaster.

I would see a bunch of abstract patterns of color and while watching it some idea would flash through my head. The colors would then come together around the idea and form a solid scene with the detail gradually increasing. It was like when you have a supersaturated solution and you drop a seed into it and crystals form around it.

When the scene reached the resolution where it became real I'd start accelerating through it. For example, one time a road came into view with me and my bed in the middle of it. Landscape then formed around the road and I took off along it zooming up and down over hills and hitting turns at immense speeds (I was surpassed that I didn't go flying from the bed at each turn). Then a brick wall appeared across the road on the horizon and I was approaching it quickly. I tried to will myself to stop but couldn't. There was nothing I could do. I thought "Oh shit I'm gonna hit the wall and get plastered all over it!" I gritted my teeth, grabbed the blankets, and watched as I zoomed toward certain death.

At the last second, the bed started braking. I slowed down and came to a halt with my nose kissing the wall. It was such a thrill.. better than any amusement park! I looked over the wall and tried to will myself over it, but couldn't seem to move. I just hovered there. Then the entire scene disintegrated and I was watching colors again.

I also noticed that the Cyclizine caused the DXM visuals to be unstable. Things were always shaking around like I was in a large earthquake. Trees would wobble around violently and the ground would rock from side to side constantly.

It was also nice because I could open my eyes and leave the DXM world and enter the Marezine hallucinations whenever I wanted. Heh, there was no escape. I opened my eyes and saw my ceiling covered with cool interference patterns. There was that jelly shit jiggling over everything and every so often bits of it would stretch of towards me.

Strange thing about Marezine... When I closed my eyes, I'd still see my room. I could lift my arms up in front of my closed eyes and see them clearly. I didn't get any auditory hallucinations this time. I guess that's because the music was going constantly... The last time I tried this stuff, I walked into my room to find my sister washing clothes in my drawer. She looked at me and asked, "Do you have any dirty white clothes?" I said, "Sure, hold on a minute." and proceeded to gather up all my dirty clothing. I returned to the desk with my arms full of clothes and my sister was no where in sight. 8)

A friend of my had brought some beer and a bong over a few days before. We had left several empty beer cans scattered about and I had been too lazy to deal with them. While I was tripping, he came back. He walked into my room (right through the closed door), gathered up all the beer cans and left. The next morning, I got up to find all the cans still in the same places they've always been in... it came as quite a shock. I was sure he had taken them.

As I was coming down I went out for a smoke. I was sitting on the steps watching some formless jelly shit moving about in the bushes when a cat came out of the bushes to my left (I think it was a real cat... I'll never know for sure tho). It stared at the jelly stuff I was looking at and crouched down and tensed up in the standard kitty ready-to-pounce position. I found this to be rather curious.. After all, I'm the only one who should be seeing my hallucinations right? As I puzzled about this, the cat darted headlong into the jelly mass, passed through it and ran up some steps to my right out of sight. I nearly dropped my cigarette. I thought the jelly might eat that poor cat.

As the cat passed through the jelly, the jelly stopped jiggling and took on the form of the cat in mid run, like a 3D snapshot. It remained like that unmoving.. I could look away and look back and would still be an image of a translucent kitty. It was just butt odd!

Anyway, I guess that's enough for now. I had fun. No psychedelic effects.. just hallucinogenic. So I guess it's a nice combo when you just want a crazy time and aren't interested in spiritual growth.

4.3 Benadryl Experiences

The following are all Benadryl experiences:

Here's a summary of my experiences with diphenhydramine, in the form of Benadryl allergy pills. Note that the ones available OTC here in Vancouver, Canada, contain 25mg diphenhydramine and 60mg pseudoephedrine each, so that probably alters the effects. Benadryl isn't really OTC; it's off-the-shelf. Gravol, the other form available here, is literally over-the-counter: you have to ask for it. Presumably there've been problems with its use.

I haven't felt much drowsiness, probably due to the very large amount of pseudoephedrine in these pills. On the contrary, I've felt very tense and jumpy. Periodically, I get what seem to be spasms: I'll be sitting still, and then suddenly all my muscles will contract, and I'll jerk quite violently. It's like the jerks one sometimes gets while lying in bed just before going to sleep, except considerably more intense. There's actually a name for these movements: they're called myoclonic jerks, and it's quite normal to get them just before falling asleep.

There's a reduction in the clarity of consciousness, so that it's harder to keep a train of thought going or to think critically. Usually I don't notice this until I try to do something intellectually demanding, such as write part of a paper, work on a program, or carry on an intellectual conversation. I just don't do as well as I normally do. It's not that I write or speak nonsense, but rather that the quality of my work is reduced.

There are some visual effects which are clearly recognizable as pseudo-hallucinations: i.e. they don't seem real. These have included what look like webs of light moving over featureless surfaces such as walls, and what look vaguely like lightning-flashes. The flashes occur both with eyes open and eyes closed.

Most visual effects, however, are true hallucinations, meaning that they seem just as real as things which actually are real. For example, on one occasion, a hanging paper decoration I have in my room appeared to move as if there was a wind blowing it around. The only way I knew that this was a hallucination was that a) nothing else in the room was moving, and b) there was nowhere for a wind to come from.

People in pictures have smiled and winked at me. Branches outside my window formed themselves into a stick-figure hanging man. I saw firemen walking in the trees. I saw my father standing behind my desk handing me a parcel. (there is only a two-inch gap between my desk and the wall.) I actually reached for the parcel before I realized how impossible all this was.

Sometimes I've heard my name being called, or thumps from around the house. Of course, these thumps may have been real, but there seem to be an awful lot more of them when I'm on diphenhydramine, so most of them are probably not real. Music becomes much more interesting for me. In fact, this is one aspect of the trip which I would call pleasurable. I hear all sorts of things in the music which aren't really there: extra melodies intertwined with the real ones, extra lyrics, even extra singers. Perhaps this effect - which I've never heard anyone else mention - is due to the large number of times I've taken dextromethorphan and experienced its music enhancement. I don't really know.

The heavy feeling which people usually describe happens to me as well, but I've never felt any difficulty breathing. My heart rate goes WAY up. It's worst after the more intense part of the trip is over. I don't know if it's the diphenhydramine, the pseudoephedrine, or the combination, but I've measured rates as high as 160. This was not associated with any panic, although I was certainly concerned about it. I discovered that smoking a cigarette brings the rate down to a more reasonable 120, probably because nicotine is an acetylcholine agonist, and would thus tend to undo what diphenhydramine does. Smoking a cigarette on diphenhydramine is even more unpleasant than it usually is for me, because the dry mouth is exacerbated by tobacco smoke.

I've also experienced dizziness upon standing up, like when you get out of bed too fast. This is probably due to very low blood pressure, which is also consistent with the high heart rate. (seems paradoxical, but the idea is that the high heart rate is an attempt to compensate for the low pressure.)

The way I took it `safely' was this: for my first time, I took all twelve that were in the packet. Not particularly safe, you say? Well, what I did was take them at one-hour intervals, so that if anything bad happened, I could stop taking them. From what I'd read, I figured that one hour would be plenty of time for me to feel the maximum effects from what I'd already taken. The next time it was half-hour intervals, then 15 minutes, then five. I've never taken them just all at one time, but I've always taken all twelve.

This is how I always deal with new drugs now: take a little, see how it's going, then take a little more, see how it goes, etc etc. This seems to be a relatively safe way of doing things, without the long waits involved in, say, taking one pill one day, taking two the next, then three..., which is, I think, the only other `safe' way of experimenting. Of course, you have to know how long it takes to come on. Imagine it with LSD. Take a hit, wait half an hour. "Nothing's happening". Take two more. Wait half an hour. "Still not much, really." Take two more... Arggh.

I don't deal well with the combination of diphenhydramine and human interaction, so these trips have been (mostly) by myself. I resolve not to leave the house; I don't even leave my room unless absolutely necessary. I don't answer people calling me until they come and knock on the door, because I don't know whether I just imagined my name called or whether it was real. Once I taped a sign to the inside of my door that said "You're tripping on Benadryl. If it's strange it's not real. Stay in here."

Well, I also fell into the trap of trying this *new* thing and I must say that I was really fucked up. I dosed 36 kaplets around 10:00pm and tripped for about twelve hours. I don't remember much of the trip but the pieces I do remember were rough. At one point during the night, I kept thinking I was talking to my friends, but in reality, I was talking to a toaster and a lamp! There were full blown hallucinations. I had a vague idea of who I was but there was a dreamy state to the trip. Also, I kept running into things because my depth perception was completely blown. Above all, it was not an enjoyable trip--but if you are in the mood to lose all touch with reality, then this is the way to go.

I took 900 mg. 30mg per tablet. Tried it again two nights ago. DON'T do this!!! I had a truly horrible time. Unlike my first experience with diphenhydramine HCl, I remember this one. My stomache hurt like hell the ENTIRE time and the only thought that kept running through my mind the entire time was: "God I wish I hadn't done this." I was thoroughly disgusted with myself for posting to a newsgroup that this stuff was okay. I slept twelve hours after it, then woke up five minutes after I was supposed to be at work. I went to work late and had to go home sick. My stomache was absolutely KILLING me. I didn't feel like I was in my right state of mind and my speech was slurred almost beyond comprehension. I went home and fell asleep again. In all, I slept 24 out of 27 hours. My mind still doesn't feel quite right. To sum it all up: PLEASE do not try this garbage. Go with the safer illegal drugs. At least they're fun!

Okay, basically in my second Benadryl post, I related my second experience with the stuff. What I didn't mention is that for the second trip, my best friend tried it, too. He took 36 caps, as well. He had to go home before the trip really kicked in, so I wasn't able to relate his experiences with the drug. This was three days ago. Today was the first time I had seen him since the incident. Basically what happened is, he went home and went to sleep. He woke up standing in his front yard at 5 AM mumbling something about having to get his paycheck. In front of him was his strict, asshole father giving him a "sobriety test." He repeatedly told his dad to fuck off, something he would never say to the man under the infleunce of any other drug for fear of the rash consequences. At this point he was told he went into seizures. He woke up in the hospital, strapped to a bed with IV's running into him and all sorts of shit stuck to his body. The doctor told him that his seizure was from undiagnosed epilepsy AND that he had had a mental breakdown in his sleep. Well, he has had several traumatic experiences in his life which I won't relate here, and they were probably the cause of the breakdown, but the diphenhydramine HCl is what set him off. His parents called around to his friends' houses. (they never called me, though. Odd...) One of the friends, in an attempt to be helpful, told his parents that I was growing 'shrooms. They mentioned me specifically by name. The police haven't exactly broken down my door yet, but I got rid of the jars, just in case. He was released from the hospital today. He is on anti-convulsant pills and can't drive a car for six months. The what-if's race still through my head at a maddening pace. He could have died from the seizure. He could have harmed himself or his family. God, I feel guilty...

But I've found Benedryl for allergies (just the stuff with diphenhydramine HCl) to be an especially psychoactive trip. After testing it out a little to see if I was sensitive to the stuff, I took a whopping dose of 36 pills (900 mg) and had a fantastic experience. It was WILD and the only time I've ever been able to hallucinate. I felt like I was floating the whole time, my friends report I was speaking with them but not making sense at all tho I thought I was at the time. I was looking at my girlfriend's eyes for quite a while and kept trying to figure out why she didn't have irises. Just big black holes as if her eyes had dialated to the point of removing all color. I had a pet cat: I don't own a cat. And spend a half hour talking to myself in the mirror. I thought I was quite intelligent. I could go on, but was wondering if anyone has recorded a B trip? What were your experiences? What did you see? How long did you have any after-effects?

The following are all Marezene experiences:

woah... i took some marizene after reading the post and.. oh my gods, it was -wacky-! whoever posted said he took 16.. i only took 6. here's what happened - the effects began in 2 hours (while i was driving). initially, only emotional effects ensued, very similar to those produced by lsd - mood swing in the upward direction, and general lack of concern for reality. a couple hours later i had auditory hallucinations, including hearing things and an increase in the pleasure of music. at night i was very tired, so i went to sleep (i took them around 3pm, went to sleep around 10, but i usually go to bed around 4am). the next morning, i had only visual hallucinations - exactly like acid. i havent taken enough acid yet to hallucinate alot, but i've seen trails and faces take feline qualities - same as marizene. around 11am it was over. anyway, i can only describe it as wacky, and for anyone who missed the related post.. you can get it at any drug store next to dramamine, and it comes in a multicolored box with a huge psychedelic spiral on it.

I used Marezine a couple of weeks ago... pretty damn wierd. I took 12 of them (1 box) and a little later felt a little wierd. I could see mild hallucinations in the wall I spent some time staring at (although they were mild enough that they could've been imagined). I was stuck in an unchanging room the whole time, so I didn't see much, but later when I finally got to leave toward the end of the trip, I saw about 10 imaginary people walking down the street, they would disappear as the bus I was on got closer. Pretty Wierd Stuff! The next day I felt pretty sick, but it wasn't too bad. I'd like to try the stuff again sometime (maybe) and take 16 or so.

Although I may try it again ("Slipping into insanity is good for the comparison"), Marezine was not a very fun drug. Lot of gravity distortions. In the opposite way of DXM. I felt very incredible heavy. Every part of me. Got off balance a lot. Walking though Borders book store when it hit me. After I sat down it was so hard to stand up, my body felt so heavy. Then I went crazy. Here's the rest of the description that I wrote sometime after it had happened. The dosage is 12 of the marezine tablets. I tried to write during the experience, but my train of thought was so interupted by the drug even a sentence was too long to keep in my mind to write it down.

to slip into insanity is a very scary thing. i was sitting on the street. waiting for rene to get out of class. talking to my bag. convinced. thinking it was ben. seeing things not there. people. talking to them. like the other wingnuts on the street. sense of balance gone. intense gravity feeling everywhere. had to balance carefully. to not fall over. no thought. jump. concentration. lost. talking and making no sense to rene. i keep thinking rene is ben. and all these other people. why do i keep talking to them when i know theyre not there. the most frustrating part. knowing youre crazy. and not being able to stop yourself. i am incoherent. know it. cant. walking the streets before it starts. it begins. i try to write. i look now. so hard to read. no sense. logic. then. next few days. never quite back. next morning. still things. at work. watching my hands hit the keys. every day it lessens. but that fear. of never coming back. going out there. insane. on marezine.

I took some Marezine when I was 16 and then went out for a walk. Woke up in an ER with a big long tube down my nose. Yuck. Don't remember anything about what happened except people on the street thought I was weird and called the cops and an ambulance.

That was one bottle of whatever size they were selling Marezine in back then. It's not fun. Talking with others the best description I can come up with is that it's a poor man's PCP. It sucks.

Jesus, I did 12 marezine pills once. I never thought that your eyes were capable of producing REAL hallucinations. I've done plently of acid, and this stuff does not cause visuals, it gives full-blown hallucinations. It doesn't make you see anything stupid like spirals or pink-elephants, but stuff like soda cans, pets, spiders, shoes that are all over the place that aren't real. It made me really dysphoric and depressed. And I had to pee every fucking 3 minutes, which I've heard is a common side-effect. Not something I would repeat. My friends all dig the idea of real hallucinations, I did too. But man, it sounds cool but I'll tell you IT'S NOT! Stick to DXM for your OTC highs.

Apparently it vary's from person to person. I did a box last night too, and after about half hour I was very light headed and .. I dunno how to describe it, but strange feeling. I wasn't that tired, but as far as hallucinations go it's about what I thought lsd would be before I had a clue. I saw way too many things to explain, for example: Me and another friend on it where walking through the woods, I saw 2 story building with 4 windows and no front door in front of me, then it vanished. I saw a set of car headlights with their brights on. I saw people walking towards me. Everything was moving, if I looked at a little spot on a table it would turn into an ant and start to walk around. The hallucinations are very vivid and real, not in your head but they appear as though the object is sitting right in front of you. Weird drug, but it apparently very's from person to person. I'd like to try it with dxm though, because when I wanted to go to sleep I got these weird surges of uncomfortableness that where really annoying and made it impossible to sleep.