There’s a determine who could greet you throughout an intense Benadryl journey.
Faceless, shrouded in black with purple 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 grow to be the image for a brand new drug development that sees younger folks intentionally taking massive doses of the drug, to not thrust back allergy symptoms, however to get excessive.
John, a 21-year-old faculty scholar who used to journey on Benadryl, by no means noticed the Hat Man. But, he says, “I might see how that would occur. It is [Benadryl] digging within the depths of your mind to seek out no matter’s making you scared. So, when you’re petrified 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 because of worry of buddies discovering out.)
When utilized in excessive doses, diphenhydramine, an ingredient in Benadryl, capabilities as a deliriant, a hallucinogenic class of medicine, which look like changing into more and more common amongst younger folks for nonmedical functions. Not like psychedelics or different hallucinogens, there’s no actual potential for a very good journey on a deliriant. Based on the folks I spoke to, each journey is unhealthy, 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 may very well be used recreationally,” one consumer tells me.
With little to no hurt discount info available about excessive ranges of consumption, issues started to rise. In Might 2020, three Texas teenagers have been handled for Benadryl overdoses in only a week, considered one of whom was simply 14 years outdated and took 14 tablets. The 14-year-old recovered and returned residence the following 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 dying. Regardless of the warning, the development appears to have continued. In 2020, there have been 4,618 circumstances reported to US Poison Facilities for Benadryl utilization; that quantity climbed to five,960 in 2023, in response to a examine revealed 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 affordable and straightforward option to get fucked up. WIRED reached out to Benadryl producer Kenvue for remark. A spokesperson for the corporate said, “This conduct is extraordinarily regarding and harmful,” and inspired customers to “rigorously learn and observe the directions on the label and call 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 concerning the potential to journey on-line. He was depressed on the time and would take 12 tablets for an enormous journey, a number of occasions a day, with every journey lasting 4 to 6 hours. As a substitute of the Hat Man, John noticed eyelash mites, small bugs that kind in clusters on the base of your eyelashes, alongside “shadows that will dart throughout your peripheral.” The journeys have been additionally tactile; John would see and really feel spiders throughout his physique, describing feeling a “foreboding tingling.”
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