There’s a determine who might greet you throughout an intense Benadryl journey.
Faceless, shrouded in black with purple eyes and a prime hat, it ominously lurks within the nook. The Benadryl Hat Man is a shared and recurring hallucination that folks 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 pattern that sees younger individuals intentionally taking massive doses of the drug, to not keep off allergic reactions, however to get excessive.
John, a 21-year-old school 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 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, in actual fact, the aim of leisure Benadryl use. (John doesn’t need his actual title used attributable to worry of pals discovering out.)
When utilized in excessive doses, diphenhydramine, an ingredient in Benadryl, features as a deliriant, a hallucinogenic class of medicine, which look like changing into more and more widespread amongst younger individuals for nonmedical functions. In contrast to psychedelics or different hallucinogens, there’s no actual potential for an excellent journey on a deliriant. Based on 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 members to take doses of a minimum of 12 Benadryl tablets for an intense journey. The pattern, 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 data 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, certainly one of whom was simply 14 years previous and took 14 tablets. The 14-year-old recovered and returned dwelling 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 threat of coronary heart issues, seizures, and, much less generally, comas and even demise. Regardless of the warning, the pattern 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 keeping with a research revealed in Pediatrics Open Science in August. Benadryl and deliriants generally have embedded themselves as staples on the fringes of the American youth—an affordable and simple approach to get fucked up. WIRED reached out to Benadryl producer Kenvue for remark. A spokesperson for the corporate said, “This habits is extraordinarily regarding and harmful,” and inspired customers to “fastidiously learn and observe the directions on the label and make contact 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 a substitute of the Hat Man, John noticed eyelash mites, small bugs that type in clusters on the base of your eyelashes, alongside “shadows that may 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.”