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I Couldn't Control My Heart
Diphenhydramine & Cannabis
by Ben
Citation:   Ben. "I Couldn't Control My Heart: An Experience with Diphenhydramine & Cannabis (exp66688)". Erowid.org. Feb 17, 2019. erowid.org/exp/66688

 
DOSE:
T+ 0:00
175 mg oral Diphenhydramine
  T+ 0:00 3.5 g oral Pharms - Ibuprofen
  T+ 1:00 1 bowl smoked Cannabis
BODY WEIGHT: 240 lb
Prior to this experience, I had taken many sleep aids, including xanax, ambien, and diphenhydramine. I am also a regular cannabis smoker and have experimented with nitrous and mild doses of mushrooms.

It was a mellow saturday night, and I had just gotten back from a wedding with my family. At the wedding I had a few drinks, but the buzz had pretty much worn off by the time I got home. Since I had nothing better to do, I decided to take 7 Advil PM. Over the past couple of weeks I had been taking about 125 mg of diphenhydramine every night before sleep and feeling a bit of the effects, but I decided to try the full experience that night. I had read up on the numerous bad experiences but decided that I was in a pretty good place and would have a good trip.

About 45 minutes after taking the pills I started to feel a little bit different, with a kind of haze over everything. I was browsing around the computer and found myself staring at the icons on my desktop for long periods of time. Outlines became more defined, and each icon had a story to tell. I then looked at my background, which is a picture of a kiwi cut open, and noticed that the kiwi seeds had started marching up and out of the kiwi in formation. I sat and watched this march for about 15 minutes before getting up to go to the bathroom.

After going to the bathroom, I visit for a while with some friends who are staying at my house, and they comment that I am acting a little weird. At this point there is a definite haze over everything, and walking is very difficult. I say goodnight to the friend and go back to my room, where I am very tempted to fall asleep. I decide to stay awake and experience whatever else may come. In retrospect, this was a very bad idea. While I am sitting on my bed, I start to see movement out of the corner of my eyes, but when I turn to look, there is nothing there. I figured I needed to calm down a little, so I smoked a bowl of some decent cannabis.
I figured I needed to calm down a little, so I smoked a bowl of some decent cannabis.


This is where things started to go wrong. I decided to lie down and listen to some music, so I turned on Iron and Wine and closed my eyes. I started to get the spins, and decided to open my eyes again. I became aware of a mild pain in my lower abdomen and decided to turn the light off and go to sleep. When I closed my eyes this time, I started to experience mild CEV's. The CEV's were mostly made up of green and blue circles arranged in rows, and I let these go for what seemed to be 10 minutes.

When I opened my eyes again, the pain in my stomach had increased dramatically and I was very thirsty. I went into the bathroom to get a glass of water and noticed that my heart was beating extremely fast and very hard. I went back into my room, put the music back on, and started controlled breathing to lower my heart rate. After 10 rounds of controlled breathing and no improvement, I ventured into the study and set out a yoga mat. I lit some candles and tried a very relaxing and open pose. I stayed in this pose for 15 minutes with no effect, all the while listening to music and experiencing the same mild CEV's.

After 15 minutes my heart rate had only increased, and I was beginning to worry. My mind started going through scenarios of hospital trips and rehab, and I became very nervous. I decided that the best thing to do was to wake up my mother, a nurse, and explain my situation to her.

I went into my parents bedroom, woke them up, and told them that my heart was beating extremely fast. They asked me what drugs I was on, as I am fairly open with them, and I explained that I had taken Advil PM and smoked a bit. They are both fairly experienced in psychoactives, and helped me to calm down. Though I was starting to feel a bit more calm, my heart rate, which I later learned was at 210 beats per minute, was not slowing down. My mom got me a glass of chamomile tea, a blanket, and my cat, and led me through some more controlled breathing exercises.
My mom got me a glass of chamomile tea, a blanket, and my cat, and led me through some more controlled breathing exercises.
After 30 minutes of breathing exercises and sitting with my cat, I started to doze off to sleep.

I woke up the next morning and took my pulse. It was still at about 150 BPM, but slowing down by the minute. My parents talked to me about my drug use, and though they werent happy I had taken diphenhydramine, they understood my situation and were glad I was alright.

Overall, I found this experience to be more trouble than it was worth, and I think this ends my experimentation with sleep aids.

Exp Year: 2007ExpID: 66688
Gender: Male 
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Feb 17, 2019Views: 6,837
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Diphenhydramine (109), Cannabis (1) : Families (41), Combinations (3), Alone (16)

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