how much diphenhydramine is an overdose?

I have been prescribed with diphenhydramine for my troubles with sleeping. I was taking it 50 mg every six hours. But what has happened? I have missed the dose and I took two at once. I know that I should not do that and I don't know what I was thinking about while taking it but it has happened. I am afraid of overdose. How much of diphenhydramine is an overdose?

No one can claim how much is enough for overdose. Every man reacts differently on each medication and the time and strength of reaction varies. Doubling the dose is not smart thing to do but it happens. Other most common reason of overdose is taking two similar medications or taking diphenhydramine orally and topically for instance. You could report what you have done to your doctor or to wait for the signs of overdose. Symptoms may include hallucinations, loss of consciousness, seizures, tremor and weakness.

although I'm usually reluctant to challenge to expert opinion of an online MD.. who I'm sure is well versed in every aspect of pharmachemistry, i do feel compelled to put your serious overdose risk in proportionate perspective. let me assure you, as a person who frequently takes 4 capsules of 50mg diphenhydramine, being the active ingredient in benadryl, which comes in 25mg capsules which would be like taking 8 benadryls, as does my mother, and my partner, and none of us in the hundreds of times taking that large of a dose, has ever had any remote adverse effects. I'm not suggesting that the average person exceed the recommended dose to the extent that we do, I'm simply attempting to put a relatively benign substance in perspective. however the point made about the variance in body chemistry is something to consider and while the average person would probably find it difficult to overdose on benadryl, someone with a less common body chemistry could possible have a serious reaction to just one benadryl, but if your that certain type, chances are, by the time you reached adulthood you would have already somehow found that out. so basically, if taking one didnt send you into anaphylactic shock, then 2 or 3 probably wouldn't hurt you either.

to Guest who feels its "benign" to take so much of that stuff.. my sister, an otherwise very healthy 38 year old, suddenly died and we had no idea why or how until the autopsy came back. She'd simply taken too much benadryl! That stuff can KILL YOU. Stop taking so much please, as it DOES build up in your gallbladder and other organs and can cause harm. My sister left behind a husband and two small boys, over some stupid over the counter benadryl!

Overdose from 100mg is highly unlikely. in fact, 50-100mg is the standard dose in other countries such as the UK.
however, to the person taking the equivalent of 8 benadryl at once, know that diphenhydramine citrate is a drug for which most people build tolerance. your reaction now that you have the drug built up in your system is very different from the reaction someone who rarely takes the drug would have. personally, 50mg puts me to sleep in less than 30 minutes, and 100mg can make my heart race while also putting me to sleep for at least 12 hours. it is very uncomfortable. I imagine 200mg would cause more serious side-effects, but i am not going to test the theory.

I do not sleep very well at all... i get around 3 to 4 hrs of sleep, after a while, that is not good. i can not aford to go to doctors, so I take diphenhydramine to help me sleep, i take 50mg tablets, 1 did not do anything for me, nither did 2, 3 of them i could call a sleep in 3 hrs or so, 4 of them. within 2hrs i can sleep. that is 200mg. and i can sleep for 6 to 9 hrs.

Unfortunately, I found out the hard way what OD on benadryl is like. I was taking consecutive doses that were more than the recommended dose, because I have never had a bad experience and the heaviness and sleepiness were the desired effects. This stuff does cause full blown delirium. Pupils dilate. Within a 2 day period I consumed an entire bottle of 100 25mg capsules. The last of the bottle causes full blown hallucinations. I was having conversations with friends and family that were not there. I would zone out during a conversation with my mom, for example (we do not live in the same city) and go to look for her only to realize that she had never been there. Later the same evening I ended up venturing out on foot, with only my t-shirt and underwear on to catch up with friends walking down the street (there were no people out at 10:30 pm, much less friends who are not locales). I left my home entirely unlocked, wandered across a major highway, and found myself talking to someone who turned before my very eyes into a tree (which is what I was actually talking to). I put myself in harms way, and ended up being returned safely to my home by a local friendly police officer. I sought out the officer, because upon returning to my home by myself I found an intruder in my home going through my belongings. There was no intruder, but I fled because the hallucinations are life-like and for all sensable perceptions real to the person experiencing them. I only found out the next day that this is indeed a symtom of benadryl OD, and it is due to the strong anti-cholergic effect of this class of antihistamine. Dramamine is also another, weaker, type in this class. The phenomenon is anticholergic delirium, and because of the heart complications and likelihood of acting on a seemingly real hallucination (visual), very dangerous. The next day I did some research and found that people actually take too much benadryl for "recreational trips"! You can read more about this on erwoid.org. As for me, it was simply a mistake. I was trying to sedate myself because I was depressed and trying to escape anxiety by sleeping more than I naturally do. While that is stupid, the lesson is important and interesting. Most of these recreational users take anywhere from 10-40 25mg pills in one dose, so the likelihood of lethal dose is extremely minimal. Anti-cholergics like benadryl are especially potent to geriatric patients (the elderly). I am 33 and a female weighing 155 lbs.

As a psychiatrist, I can tell you that 100mgs of Diphenhydramine HCL is NOT an overdose. 100mgs is the maxium dose in a twenty-four hour period. At 100mgs, you would just experience fatigue, nausea, and dizziness.

a little background
my names adam
im 15 years old
male
6 feet tall
160 pounds


Alright basically.
on 8 different occasions
I have taken 20-30 benadryl 25mg tabs
at once to trip
because it does cause quite a bit of hallucinations
Talking to people who aren't there
thinking you are holding things
thinking you're in a different place
and all that
its also extremely hard to think about anything
and when you try to talk
you usually forget what you were talking about
half way through a sentence
movement is also quite difficult
almost like being drunk without
the drunk part
basically EVERYTHING you do
becomes a task
and a very difficult one at that
your mouth also gets EXTREMELY dry
basically
we'd just stock up on shitloads of water
cause you have to be drinking it ALOT.
we will never touch the stuff ever again
last time
A friend of mine went to the hospital
after tripping three nights in a row
and what we found out was that
the ingredient
Diphenydramine
no matter how much taken
That specific ingredient will not cause hallucinations
every time we did it
we were merely overdosing on the drug
it wasn't making us trip
we were just ODing
All of us are extremely lucky to be alive
and are never going to take it again
Because it's christmas ever right now
my friend and her brother are stuck at the hospital
and they may go into foster care.

Don't worry, I tried to commit suicide when I was 15 and took over 1500 mg and I'm still alive and perfect in every way.