DOSE:

80 mg

oral

Pharms - Promethazine

(liquid)

BODY WEIGHT:

15 st

Promethazine Nightmare

I have found very few reports or incidences online of such an experience with promethazine hydrochloride. I initially thought my dosage was in line with what was recommended, however from what I can tell, for the high dosage that I took other drugs are usually prescribed alongside it to help counter act some of the negative effects of said dosage.

I had been struggling with insomnia due to quitting weed and was also dealing with an issue with alcohol dependency. Nothing extreme but at least 3 days a week I would consume maybe 4-6 500ml bottle of high strength beer (8% alcohol). The night in question where I took the promethazine, I was recovering from bad anxiety due to being hungover. It’s worth noting that I am generally an anxious person so this reaction may have been exacerbated by my anxiety.

I had been prescribed promethazine by my doctor before to help deal with sleep issues. I was instructed to take a 25mg pill before bed to help induce sleep. On this night however I had no prescription, so I was forced to buy the oral suspension. It came in a liquid 100ml bottle with 5mg promethazine per 5 ml. I decided to chug 80 ml (80mg promethazine) worth of the liquid as the box recommended highest dosage was 75ml (however not the recommended dosage for the purposes I was using it for).

It was about 30 or 40 minutes in before I started to feel effects, however they were not the usual drowsy like effects I had felt when taking it before in smaller doses. Everything looked very sharp and I felt a bit on edge. I tried calming myself down and saying that it was just my anxiety.

It was about 2 hours in when things took a turn for the worst. The only way I can describe it was that it was like an extremely bad panic attack coupled with vivid hallucinations . I wasn’t delirious as I knew the hallucinations weren’t real but they were still very frightening.

The most prominent hallucination was every flat surface I looked at had a bunch of symbols moving across it. If anyone has tried to hack a terminal in the game fallout they might know what I am talking about. It was just a bunch of stars, asterix and brackets blinking on said surfaces.

This was followed by perceiving every speck on the wood flooring in my room as a spider. I would first see them as just a spot, but then they would grow legs and move around. I also recall seeing some rain dropping on a puddle and my mind vividly perceiving that as a metal snake lashing back and forth.

If it was just hallucinations, I was dealing with I would have been fine. The hallucinations themselves were not that scary. It was the accompanying paranoia, palpitations and anxiety propelling me towards the conclusion of insanity that had me in a twist. A twist that took a 4 hospital visit to solve.

I won’t be taking unprescribed promethazine again.

Exp Year: 2020	ExpID: 115115
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: 26
Published: Feb 4, 2021	Views: 1,734
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Pharms - Promethazine (336) : Therapeutic Intent or Outcome (49), Health Problems (27), Alone (16)