Young people stumble upon Benadryl, and it’s always a bad time

There is character Who might greet you during an intense Benadryl session a trip.

A faceless figure, covered in black with red eyes and a top hat, lurks ominously in the corner. The Benadryl Hat Man is a common and recurring hallucination that people report seeing when taking dozens of antihistamines at a time. Figure shown in Halloween costumes, POV-Benadryl Trip Memesand Graphic tees walmartIt became a symbol of a new drug trend, as young people deliberately took large doses of the drug, not to ward off allergies, but to get high.

John, a 21-year-old college student who used to travel on Benadryl, had never seen the Hat Man. However, he says, “I can see how that could happen. It (Benadryl) digs deep into your brain to find whatever it is that makes you afraid. So, if you’re afraid of the Hat Man, I’m sure you’ll see the Hat Man.” This search for the unpleasant to reveal itself, as terrible as it sounds, is actually the purpose of recreational use of Benadryl. (John doesn’t want to use his real name for fear of his friends finding out.)

When used in high doses, diphenhydramine, a component of Benadryl, acts as a hallucinogen, a class of hallucinogenic drugs that appears to be becoming increasingly popular among young people for non-medical purposes. Unlike psychedelics or other hallucinogens, there is no real possibility of having a good trip with someone hallucinating. According to people I’ve talked to, every trip is bad, every trip is brutal, and that’s the point.

In 2020, “The Benadryl Challenge“It gained popularity on TikTok, encouraging participants to take doses of at least 12 Benadryl pills for an intense trip. This trend, which It reappears Every few years, attention is drawn to the psychological effects of delirium. “I saw a video about it on TikTok once, so I knew it could be used for entertainment purposes,” one user told me.

With little or no harm reduction information readily available around high levels of consumption, problems are rising. In May 2020, Three teenagers from Texas They were treated for Benadryl overdoses in just one week, one of whom was just 14 years old and taking 14 pills. The 14-year-old recovered and went home the next day. In August 2020, he was 15 years old He died of an epileptic seizure after a drug overdose in Oklahoma. In September 2020, Food and Drug Administration He issued a warning to parents to hide and lock up their Benadryl stash, warning of the potential risks of heart problems, seizures, coma and, less commonly, even death. Despite the warning, this trend appears to have continued. In 2020, 4,618 cases were reported to US poison centers for Benadryl use; This number rose to 5,960 in 2023, according to A He studies Published in Pediatrics Open Science In August. Benadryl and raves in general have established themselves as staples on the fringes of American youth—a cheap and easy way to trap them. WIRED has reached out to the manufacturer of Benadryl Kenvue for comment. A company spokesperson stated, “This behavior is extremely concerning and dangerous,” and encouraged consumers to “read and follow label instructions carefully and contact their health care professional if they have questions.”

John began taking Benadryl recreationally in November 2024, when he was 20, after using it to sleep and then hearing about the possibility of taking a trip online. He was depressed at the time and was taking 12 pills on one big trip, several times a day, each trip lasting four to six hours. Instead of the Hat Man, John saw eyelash mites, tiny insects that form in clusters at the base of your eyelashes, along with “shadows that might dart across your perimeter.” The journeys were also tangible. John could see and feel spiders all over his body, describing the feeling as an “alarming tingling sensation.”