(WAVE/WKYT) – An addiction recovery center in the metro is giving parents a warning about what they say is a dangerous trend impacting children.
Professionals at Seven Counties Services, which provides mental health and addiction support, say they’ve seen an increase in kids overdosing on Benadryl.
While it started out as a social media trend, kids are now just taking the pills to get high.
“Almost weekly, we will get a case where someone’s mentioning it,” said Crystal Howard, adolescent substance abuse program supervisor at Seven Counties.
Howard works with several teens who struggle with addiction. She said every once in a while, something will pop up that’s out of the ordinary, but in the last six months, she’s noticed a trend in Benadryl overdoses.
“Sometimes, we’re just seeing them for something else, and they just disclose in the therapy session, ‘oh, I took a bunch of Benadryl last week to try to get high.’”
And, this isn’t the first time addiction specialists have seen this issue. It spiked in 2020 as a trend on TikTok; teens made videos about trying to see who they called “the hat man” in their hallucinations.
The trend has put some teens in the hospital and also ended in some deaths, including the death of a 13-year-old in Ohio.
Howard said although Benadryl is the most common, she’s seen it happen with other allergy medications, too.
“It’s easy for them to access, it’s relatively inexpensive, they don’t need an ID to purchase it. They could even DoorDash it to the house if that’s something they have access to.
Howard added some teens don’t tell their parents or guardians about overdoses. If they disclose an overdose, unless there’s an immediate risk of death, therapists can’t tell their guardians, either.
This is why, Howard said, parents should know the signs of an overdose.
“Dilated pupils, their skin might get flushed and red, they might be disoriented or hallucinating, drowsy. And, it does typically dry them out, so they would have like an exceptionally dry mouth, might not be able to urinate. Their skin won’t be sweaty,” she said.
Howard said parents with teens who show signs of depression or suicidal tendencies should pay extra attention if they have access to medicines like Benadryl.
She recommends that parents who have concerns get their kids a mental health assessment and evaluate treatment options from there.