16.1.07

Dimenhydrinate - Yes, It Can Make You Hallucinate

Better known to car sickness aficionados as Dramamine or Gravol, dimenhydrinate is used prevent or treat the nausea and emesis (i.e. barfing, puking, ralphing, spewing, vomiting) associated with such delightful conditions as motion sickness, radiation sickness, being under general anaesthesia, chemotherapy, and my personal favourite, Ménière's disease.

Dimenhydrinate is actually a combination preparation of two drugs. The first is diphenhydramine (also known as Benadryl), an antihistamine that produces sedation and is used to alleviate allergies, nausea and upchucking. The second drug is 8-chlorotheophylline, which is included to counteract the sedating effects of diphenhydramine (it's a derivative of theophylline, which is a chemical found in tea that is similar in both chemical structure and pharmacological effect to caffeine).

In large doses dimenhydrinate can cause seizures (young children are particularly susceptible), ataxia (i.e. loss of muscle coordination), stupor (duh what?), euphoria (feels good man), and hallucinations [1] [2]. As a result of its euphoric and hallucinogenic effects, people do abuse it to trip out (honestly, just spend the money on shrooms). Abuse of dimenhydrinate among psychiatric patients has also been reported due to its anxiolytic (i.e. anti-anxiety) effects [2].

[1] Winn RE, McDonnell KP. (1993). Fatality secondary to massive overdose of dimenhydrinate. Ann Emerg Med 22: 1481-1484.
[2] Halpert AG, Olmstead MC, Beninger RJ. (2002). Mechanisms and abuse liability of the anti-histamine dimenhydrinate. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 26: 61-67.

Addendum: The comments section of this post has inadvertently accumulated several very interesting anecdotes regarding recreational dimenhydrinate use, and comes highly recommended.

41 chemically inspired comments:

Tessa said...

Wow, I had no idea about the hallucinations, although I'm not suprised. I swear on my mother's grave that I once had hallucinations on Nyquill when I was really sick. It was wild.

CND said...

Hey Tessa. Yeah, it's actually pretty impressive how many drugs will make you hallucinate if you take enough of them. NyQuil will definitely take you on a trip, but I hear that you need to chug at least a bottle of the stuff for that to happen.

Nice comic by the way!

Anonymous said...

Dramamine will ABSOLUTELY cause hallucinations when more than the recommended dose is taken. Unfortunately, when I was a teenager, the huge fad at the time was "tripping" on Dramamine. We would generally take 8 to 12 of them at a time, and the strange effects would last for many hours. For some reason, a very common hallucination was smoke-- trailing from fingertips, emerging from walls, you name it. Anyway, I will confirm this one as fact, from personal experience.

Anonymous said...

I've tried dramaine too. It makes you incredibly tired but as soon as you let your eyes shut your body spases out and you are unable to sleep seeing as that will happen for a very long time. My cousin was in the room with me after i was finally able to sleep. My friend called to make sure I was ok and my cousin appaerntly asked me if I was ok. I responded with " is she ok? is she ok?" I dont remember that but its interesting none the less. I didnt really see anything that didnt exist but my vision was definately skewed and dream like. I couldnt stop staring at my face in the mirror because I looked so weird. Also when you talk, which I did a lot, you never think about what you are going to say before you say it. Its as if the thoughts never even came from your head. The words just shoot out of your mouth. The ironic thing is that you realize for a split secound that what you said might not have made any sense, but then instantaniously you forget all together what you just said. I'm glad I tried it but I wouldn't make it a regular thing... its not that great.

Anonymous said...

how long does this last??????

- pilss.. how long

Anonymous said...

if u wanna go with dxm take triple c's corricidan cough and cold u gotta take like a whole pack but its an interesting trip

Anonymous said...

Yea I tried it once. Its pretty cool and worth to try it once but be careful the dramamine will want you to take more then you should. I took 12 and that was my first time. You should test 4 allergic reactions though.

What happened with me was it looks like the walls are kind of melting but I did not have any really scary things pop out at me. My parents kept calling me so I had to go downstairs and my dad is like "I am not sure how I pay it like that." and I'm like you want to learn how to play it? Then he's like r u ok and u slur u words some. I then realized wut I said and I corrected myself. I no it sounds random but its like a really weird feeling. I might do it again. Be careful.

Anonymous said...

Cough medicines with Dramamine do cause you to hallucinate, however dont mix with alcohol. and its better to get just a no name brand of it so theres no other dangerous chemicals like acetaminophen, which can cause liver failure in as little as over 4-5 grams in 24 hours. one time i took 40 DM liqui gels, yes 40 (15mg Dm/gel), 600Mg of Dm.. NEVER TAKE THAT MUCH... i personally have discovered that my body is very tolerant to drugs, i even took acid and didnt hallucinate.. well the SAFEST way to do it is to "test the water," take 2 pills every 5-10 mins for an hour... wait another hour.. then take 2 more if needed

caviar said...

I have taken Dramamine since I was a child for motion sickness. I still currently take it. But I also use it now to sleep I take 4 dramamine or 4unisoms, benadryl or tylenol pm. I also tried a natural one called melatonin but it caused me to have bad nightmares.

caviar said...

oh I don't recall any hallucinations
from dramamine.

Anonymous said...

dont do triple cs' coriceden coff and cold, less you wanna puke your brains out with tha runs tha next day, if not juss die. if dxm'in it, go with active ingredent(ONLY DXM). juss chug a 3-5 oz bottle of delsym. and dramamine, shits retarded iv done it a couple times. allthough, yes it does trip you out, a very gay trip thow

katward420 said...

I was thinking if you take quite a bit more than the recommended dose, it could kill you. Doesn't sound all that dangerous to me, if people are taking so much just to trip. Maybe if you mix it with alcohol?

Anonymous said...

I've taken Dramamene and Coricidin many times. As a daily pot smoker and drinker, I've found that 'pot' can become less and less exciting. When I was around 15, I began experimenting with OTC drugs. Coricidin (Triple C's) was my favorite of them all, although they include HBP which adds a risk factor, the high was some what worh it. And it allowed me to take a break from bud including that my need for a high was satisfied with heavy amounts of alcohol and pills. I do not reccomend anyone else to fool around with OTC drugs, I overdosed once, but for the most part I was careful with my intake of narcotics. I got my tolerance up to about 35 Coricidin pills a day, and overdosed as I gambled with 49 (Which I'll never try again). I've been sober for just over a month now, and happy to say that I've welcomed Coricidin back into my life.

Anonymous said...

I took 24 dramamine my first time and tripped hard I completely forgot I took anything I thought everything I was seeing was everyday stuff some how I ended up across the street in my neighbors yard at like 2 in the morning talking to his bushes thinking they were to friends of mine he comes out and asks me what Im doing I say hanging out with my friends he's hes like what friends and I point at the bushes and say these are my friends it was hella funny.

Anonymous said...

While on 12 no name gravol pills, I hallucinated spiders and ants crawling all over me. I could see them as if they were real. I also hallucinated a family member! What was trippy is that they materialized out of other objects in the room. Even though I knew i was tripping out on drugs, to look at them was as real as anything. The bug thing was pretty cool, but I can see most people freaking out. definately be careful if you plan on trying this. BE safe!

Josh said...

Combinations of any of the substances discussed in this blog or even high enough doses of any single one of them is a recipe for death.

I have seen too many friends and acquaintances die this way.

This is NO JOKE!

I can't express in words how deadly-dangerous combining or taking too much of these over-the-counter drugs is and can be.

If you don't care enough about yourself to not play around with these deadly drugs the, PLEASE, save your friends and family the heartache of being the person to try and wake you up, only to find your cold, stiff, and lifeless body.

I am dealing with this issue right this very minute with my mom. She fails to hear my words of caution and I can only pray that God will intervene now, before it's too late.

Anonymous said...

i took 12 dramamine pills for my first time and tripped hard. it was very cool for the first couple hours. my body felt normal, not like smoking pot. everything was normal except for my perception. everything i looked at was distorted and wavy. then i fell asleep. when i woke up, i couldnt find my cousin who was sleeping right net to me. i walked on top of him and then went looking for him in the house and saw a bunch of black people walking around.. i kinda freaked and woke up my cousins parents and said 'there are black people walking around your house!' they got up and showed me nobody was there. i went back to sleep and woke up thanking god it was a dream, that is, until my cousins parents gave me a lecture about it.

i still swear to this day theyre were black people in that house. it was very cool and id like to try it again. if u do so, i advise you not to go to sleep until the high goes away.

Anonymous said...

Well Im at the end of a 15 pill no brand gravol,and my day today was pretty fucked.
But what bothers me is that I didnt hallucinate fully lately.
Oops theres a storm...or naw?There goes another frenzy of dots(flies squirting around.
8==ID, I was here deal crazy.

Anonymous said...

I tried triple Cs with 2 friends years ago when i experimented with different drugs, i didnt think i was gonna trip out the way i did. My 1st and only time, i took 16 pills, then after 20mins nothing happened so i started eatting hott cheetos and pickels and my friend told me to stop but i didnt care and continued to eat, then after an hour i started to get sleepy but as soon as i thought i was about to fall asleep i woke right up and ran outside and puked out all the hott chettos it was gross. Right after i threw up i went on this crazy trip we were all sitting in a circle outside and i thought my friends cousin could read my thoughts so i didnt wanna think anything personal haha. then i couldnt stop talking, and it was all nonsence, we were all talking to each other but it was all nonsence. I was saying all the times tables starting with 2 times 2. to 12 times 12.I felt like if i thought of something like fire id catch on fire, and i felt the fire spread all over my body. My friend felt like there was lil men walking on her and my other friend felt like bubble gum. Then when stood up to walk . It was like there wasnt any gravity and ifelt like i was walking on the moon. I went inside to the restroom and i freaked out at my reflection, i thought my face looked sooo weird. I feel asleep and woke up the next morning feeling great. IDK but my alergies cleared up. All in all id never do it again.

Anonymous said...

I recently took 14 Gravol pills and yes it makes you hallusinate. I kept seeing people and as soon as I blinked they were gone. I also couldn't make any sense when I talked, which I realized I was doing it but couldn't remember long enough to stop it, I also had so many spams that no matter what I could not fall asleep.

Anonymous said...

so im only 16 ive done all this shit and more

i have tripped on dramamine and triple c's lots of times personally i would much rather have a fun ass cracked out time on triple c's but if i wanna go out of my head dramamine is the way to go i have seen so much shit on it i have learned you dont wanna mix alcohol with dramas you WILL forget how to breath trust me it sucks unless you have an inhaler but you will see some crazy ass shit dont take em unless you know how to handle a trip remember its all just in your head so let it flow and ride the storm out haha everytime i take dramas when i start trippin everything seems to pulsate and twack out meaning you look around and colors are distorting and there is waves of shit also at times it feels like shit is crawling on you going outside is like being in a wierd horror movie but its awsome if your with friends trippin on dramamine you trip the hardest by yourself you will hear voices directed to you or people around you open eye visuals closed eye visuals i remember this one time my friend m was sitting in front of this door to the room we were all in and i swore somebody opened the door and ran out slamming it but then as soon as i looked up to check the shit out it was just her sitting in front of the door and everybody was still in the room lol i love it but trippin weekend after weekend will make you start trippin when your sober not so good also if you start feeling like you have to itch any part of your body like every 2 seconds just stand up and go do somthing outside or take a shower it helps alot! belive me you dont wanna be stuck with the dramamine itches as far as triple c's go if you take like 16 your in for a fire ass time triple c's can be just like acid, getting drunk, meth,crack,or like you just smoked hella weed its different everytime you take them the visuals i have had were crazy peoples faces melting i was once looking at the tv it was turned off and all of a sudden it flashed red with a lighting bolt and it sounded like static from a tv or white noise all in all triple c's are awsome the trip is tottaly different each time i love the acid feeling trips

Anonymous said...

this sounds stupid but i didnt mind dying at the time. i took over 50 diphenhydramine pills decided i didnt want to die so i puked and they were already dissolved so i thought i was fine went to my girls place and started feeling week almost drunk then we left and went to her friends and on the car ride i had really vivid hallucinations of being somewhere else and me and her were having conversations in these hallucinations and then i would snap out of them and finish the conversation to the real girl. this happened 3 or 4 more times until she said what the hell are you talking about and i freaked out then because i realized i was talking to myself. i should have went to the hospital but instead we arrived at her friends house and she wanted me to go to the bathroom with her so i went in his house and i walked into his kitchen and said how do we get across to the other side of this lake and she started getting worried so they tried to calm me down but i never did. i was shaking so bad i couldnt pick up a glass of water. we came to my house and i went straight to my room and she held me as i was having conversations with my family who werent there at all and they were 4 feet shorter, i also seen acouple spiders and i was hitting them as my girl told me they werent there but i didnt beleive her. a couple hours after that she left to go home i was fine now well a little disoriented because when i was on the phone with her i saw a giant rat with red eyes run through my basement and i told my grandma she had a rat in her basement. i fell asleep and woke up the next day fine. it was my worste decision ever and now just a look at triple c's dxm or benadryl makes me sick. ill put it this way i could classify my self as insane 4 to 5 months later i see things different hear things different and i am scared of life i dont drink or party much so my liver should be good now. stick to the good stuff like lsd and shrooms. please dont take these medicines. til this day i wonder if im talking to myself or not its hard for me to catch on to stuff when i am in different realities throughout a good part of the day.

Anonymous said...

when i was younger i tripped on c's, benydrel, and dramamen everyday for about 6 or 7 months straight. i can say ive lost thoughs 6 or 7 months of my life do to the lack of memory. one time me and my gf were taking c's i took two boxes, with in 10 min. was tripping so hard i couldnt walk. we went to the beach and i laid in the sand and thought it was snowing in the dead of summer. later that night i drank a bottle of robo. i went home and thought i was dieing because i would get out of bed and see myself laying on the bed, or on the floor. this was a bout 2 years ago. i still trip on dxm but not at high doses. and i sure as hell dont mix them. but i would rather trip on shrooms or acid. shrooms are byfar the best trip that you can have. if you cant find acid

Anonymous said...

I did dramamine twice the first time i did it and took 18 and 24 the second. it was much worse taking 24. I was talking to my pillo and had a full on convo wit it. and i seen my walls go down and couldn't see my stairs so when i walked to my stairs i feel right down them. It causes depression, and i felt like i was dreaming and i wanted to kill myself well that is what i told my friend. THen my friend thought that his mom was in a parked car. But my parents found out and i was rushed to the hospital. But they didn't pump my stomach and i was grounded for 2 months. Stupid shyt, ima stick wit my friend mark jane

Anonymous said...

once i tripped on gravol and it was fucked up, i saw tattoos on people, earwigs, crabs, clowns, pretty well anything i dont particularly like (with exception to the tattoo thing) i saw. i recommend not doing DXM's, be a smart druggie and buy shrooms, acid, weed whatever floats your drug induced boat.

Anon said...

Triple C's and cannabis are the best ways to go. You may not hallucinate, but it gives you an amazing feeling.
Dramamine is a gamble when you take it. You could trip hard and hallucinate hard, but you could also have no effect whatsoever. Unfortunately, from my experience and the experiences of friends, it does have one super unpleasant side effect. It gives you the most uncomfortable feeling of tenseness. It feels like you always have to move, you can't sit still, and it gives you the "Heebie Jeebies". It can get super unpleasant really fast. It also causes temporary memory loss.

anonymous said...

Dramamine and motion sickness pills will mess you up real bad on high doses. I know from lots of personal experience. I took over 20 pills at once and it kicked in about 30 minutes later. Your body feels extremely heavy and at times you feel like your completely drunk. It also makes you shake like no other! I reccomend that you DO NOT drive while on them because your vision will be blurry and wack, and yes, you will definitely hallucinate off them. Nearly everytime I have taken them I hallucinate extremely bad. It's definitely a great OTC drug to take if your looking for a good time. Use them with caution though because they have many different side effects that are all happening at once. When I'm on them I can never walk normally & my words tend to slur together along with the dizziness & drowsiness you get off them. It's a great drug, just use carefully.

Dillon S said...

Wow, the first time i tried it was yesterday June 15. i had 13 at lunch at in gym my teacher said you can use the treadmill my reply was yea sure ill have chocoholate milk and then i realized what i had said and i was trippin bad my friends said they were really scared and they were about to tell the principal to call the hospital to get my stomach pumped i STRONGLY refuse to do it ever again it is the worst feeling.

Anonymous said...

I took 40 benadryls and I'm a teenager and at first I felt paranoid. Then after a while I looked at my leg and the hairs were moving and waving around. After like 45 minutres I tryed to walk and couldn't do it. Eventually I saw a black horse staring at me but it was the size of a dog. Then in my room it was dark except for the light of the tv and then huge spiders crawled out from the dark. Then I thought my friend was there and I was talking to him and I kept seeing him but he was there and he wuldnt answer me. Finally I thought I was on the phone and I was having a conversation with no one and it was 330 and I checked my last call and it was 1 o clock so I was talking to no one then I tryed to plug in my phone which was impossible so I gave up and then it looked like there were iron shavings all over my hands and it would not get off. So finally I looked up and saw like 6 huge spiders so I closed my eyes and slept . The next day I went to church and I couldn't hear right and during the service it looked like lighting was flashing inside and then there were like 3 spiders so I just closed my eyes and slept until the service was over and then everything stopped so I was finally normal again

Anonymous said...

i wanna know how to get some of these cause ive only done really strong sleeping pills and they give you liver failure and it tripped me out the next morning walls were moving and i just had to go back to bed i was puking all day and i just told my mum i had food posioning so she didnt know but i wanna get some thing that will trip me out but no liver failure and also easy to get from chemist without conscrptions please tell me yea cause i need to loosen my life up im always stressed and you know i need to lightern up so yea gives us some names of things tell me how much to take :D thanks

Anonymous said...

I took 2 dramamine when i was on a road trip. After about 2 hours we got out of the car to go eat, and i completley walked into the door thinking it was open. After the hallucinating stopped i got really depressed. I hate dramamine

Anonymous said...

ive tripped on cs a few times. its fun to do every now and then as long as you space out your trips. and its always better if you have a tripping buddy. the first time i did it me and a couple buddies took about 20 each. at first i felt awful and sleepy. if you feel sick you should sip on something even though it doesnt feel like the right thing to do. finally i went outside and puked my guts up. after that it was awesome. ive tripped on mushrooms and acid but that first c trip was the most intense trip of my life.

Anonymous said...

I recently just took 12 Dramamine in a stupid attempt to 'trip out' and escape. Two days after I'm still feeling quite dizzy and depressed. I could not read the computer or phone screen for days, forgot who people were. It was hard to tell what was real or fake.

I don't recommend it for this purpose at all.

Anonymous said...

I tripped on Benadryl last night. I drank 295mg in liquid form and popped 25mg pills over the span of a half hour. A total of 6 pills.
I went to my friends house (with my sober friend driving) and played a board game. I would talk to them and completely forget i was playing a board game until they reminded me i was. I was staring at my friends walls because i say electricity pulsing through them and would be everywhere i looked. I grabbed a piece of candy and there was a hair on it so i tried pulling it off but i couldnt get it off.
When i had left with my sober friend we went back to my house. I have no idea but on the way home i freaked out because i thought i saw a little boy running from the car and i told my friend to STOP because he was going to hit him. My friend told me to calm down and that there was no little boy which i didn't realize until he had told me. When i was at home i kept seeing all these ppl in my house who weren't there. My sober friend told me that i thought he was a different friend all night and that i had been talking to a pillow about my life.
After my sober friend left i blacked out. I have no recollection of what happened. All i remember is i had gotten in my car and looked down at the gas pedals to watch a MILLION ants crawl all over and eat a big cockroach. I freaked out and refused to put my feet down and my friend in the passenger seat (who really wasnt there either) was laughing at me. I drove around having no clue or idea that i was driving. I thought i was asleep and content but i would keep hitting things and waking up and yelling at my friends to keep me awake. The problem was they were not there so i eventually crashed into a guard rail and thought i had reached my destination. My friends were walking all around outside, so i thought and i was chill. Eventually the cops show up and i get scared and tell my friends to calm down. I talk to the cops and tell them about my friends and i are just hanging out. They arrest me and i get charged with a DWI. It's still in the process tho so ill see what happens.
In the end it was CRAZY SHIT and i would have had more fun..if i didnt leave. If your going to do it, have a sober person watch you UNTIL YOU COME DOWN.

brent said...

In my day the brand was merazine. Same as dramamine, you have to take the whole box for full blown hallucinations. But be warned for me it lasted 10- to 12 hours accompanied with nauea. the overall experience was dark and dreary and didn't feel right for several days. To me the hallucinations were more like that of pcp, meaning one minute something is there, the next minute its gone. Don't know what is real. To me that is very dangerous. Not fun like shrooms. I do not recommend it. But if you are hell bent on trying it. Test for allergic reactions. Let somebody know you are going to do it. I felt stupid. I never did it again.

Anonymous said...

Yes, you can get hallucinations and CEVs (surprised me as well), but they are not worth the side effects IMO.

Deranged Juggalo said...

I took 42 dramamine one day and one thing i STRONGLY advise is to not take them unless you are staying away from your parents. That night i was sitting at my table eating macarooni that wasnt even there. I could also poke through walls. I was playing Xbox but i had paused it and was staring at the screen thinking i was in the game and there were tiny black people running around while i stand there In Modern Warfare 3 world. At like 4 in the morning my dad wakes up and im sitting on the couch in complete darkness talking to the black midgets in MW3 world. He tells me to come watch a video on his computer unaware that im ridicoulousy fucked up. I sit at the table in the kitchen and i look in the livingroom and see a little boy i know from school. I say Chris what the fuck are you doing in my house, My dad looks at me and said what the fuck did you just say?! I said nothing i was talking to that kid but he left, so he goes in the back room after he finds out im trippin balls and i scream "Daddy the fucking house is flooding" as i seen water quickly fill my entire house so he came running out and he said wheres it leaking i stood up and pointed where it was coming from then said oh wait thats just a bunch of bugs, Then i blacked out. If your going to do this i advise a friend to trip with and far away from adults.
-Stay Strange

Anonymous said...

ive tried dramamine many times an ive noticed that my body is VERY tolernt.i had to take 24 to see anything but when i did.......it was aalll night.at first nuthing,and then for some reason,i was playing with my fan and (im terrified of crickets) a huge cricket jumpedon me,and i saw all my friends on my porch havin a party, i was trippin on them cause my dad was upstairs.and ive also noticed i cant talk no matter how hard i try and i never think anythinng is odd till it wears off all in all,,,,,amazing and ive tried shrooms but they werent dri so.......cant wait to go hunting this summer

Anonymous said...

it really fucks with you, you dont know whats real or fake. if you start to feel sick i dont recommed trying to go to sleep because you will trip 10 times harder, and you will not be able to get out of your bed for hours. i was literally stuck in my friends bed from 11am to 730 at night, because i was fading in and out and everytime i tried to get up my body was 400 pounds and i had no strength. honestly i really like trippin on drams, i literally talked to friends and family memebers who werent even there and i was completely convinced it was a real converstation. i was so fucked up i thought i had my phone in my hand texting and when i snapped back into reality there was nothing in my hand i was imageing it all. WERID SHIT MAN

Anonymous said...

Wow. I took the recommended dose of Nyquil and it made me see things like swirling colors. It's happened twice, I think I may be allergic to it and a avoid it now. I can't imagine taking as much as the other commenters say they have...but then again I don't have a death wish...

Anonymous said...

The first time i tripped was friday last week, i took 16 c's during 6th hour (knowing we had a pep rally doing advisory period) so i figured ill be cool for class then be trippin for the rally, so i popped 10 right off, then about 45 mins laster when class ended i took 6 more in the hallway at the fountian, and proceeded to advisory. When i got there it was about 2-3 mins b4 everything got weird, i looked outside the classroom window and the light was soo bright and vivid i could barely look at it, i was talking to people around me that i didnt even know and saying: why is the sun so bright? and why isnt the window blocking out the light? there like, uhhh, idk, so while i was trippin w8ing for the announcement to leave for the rally i realised that i had super human hearing (so i thought) and its like i could hear every1 talking from like 5 class rooms away, zoning out talking to the poeple in the other class rooms my people i just met are like, r u ok? im like shhh i cant hear me while your talking to them... then i hear the announcement, trippin ballz at the rally i decide to go to the very top of the bleachers (badidea) and got stuck because i was so afriad of coming down i would move for shit, was a good trip untill the rally was over and i went into last hour, i got so parinoid and trippy i thought i was literally going to die (i guess a death trip) i tect my friend like 5 times to take me home and i thought he never texted me back, even tho he did every time saying he will. i got home and just layed on my bed and tripped for anouther good 2 hours, i love c's