Most people take Benedryl to relax. It is the "active ingredient" for Sominex and all the other OTC sleeping aids. Many people take it (and doctors prescribe it) for reducing anxiety - as a mild tranquilizer.

Have you taken Benedryl in the past? How many milligrams did you take? I would suggest your calling your pharmacist to ask about this - or better, ask our OWN resource, MrsD. If she doesn't know it off the top of her head, she knows where to go to find out.

I don't know if it could be related in any sense, but when I was bitten by a rattlesnake, I immediately took 100mg of benedryl (it is a regular daily used med for me) ... and the first thing they did at the ER was hook me up to an IV and give me benedryl. And it caused me to develop a bright red streak up my arm, the length of the vein, and they d/c'd it immediately. Not the usual response, I gathered. I had no other symptoms of any kind. Don't have a clue what was happening in my body to cause that to happen.

Having the complete opposite reaction to a medication from what the USUAL reaction is that same medication is called having a Paradoxical Reaction.

A mood stabilizer (like Depakote) that normally reduces agitation and impulsiveness in MOST people will have the opposite effect (paradoxical) in SOME people, causing them to become rageful and prone to violence. However, on a different kind of mood stabilizer (another kind of anti-seizure med), that same person will have the expected "normal" response, showing that it was drug specific, not generalized to the class of medication.

It has been said that "paradoxical reaction" is why ADD/ADHD children and adults are able to settle down, focus and filter out extraneous distracting environmental input when given Ritalin. This is a paradoxical reaction to what it does to "normal children and adults" -- jazzing them up and making thoughts come quicker, giving more energy to get up and move around.

Teri