[Mari]

Hi,

I took Benadryl for what felt like an allergic response. I always have a paradoxical reaction to it --- no sleepiness.

This time, the Benadryl made me sleepy and I sent weird email to Work Buddy. The next day I asked him what I had emailed him in the last 12 hours.

He sent back what I sent him.
I spoke about
horses, pictures on walls and sand lots. . . and some other strangeness.

How embarrassing.
M

[waves]

lol it sounds like you started to go into a dream state. so bizarre.

I do not go near benadryl.

1. it has made me very sleepy before - like knockout can't keep eyes open.
2. it has also made me verrrry agitated before. (i was manic at the time, but it was pre-dx and i did not know it. I was sleeping very little and that night took the benadryl to help me sleep... )

--- So, IMHO ---

Benadryl is like a box of chocolates: you never know what you're gonna get!

i often wonder - but i've never seen any medical paper on this - whether bipolars, or certain subsets of bipolars are predisposed to paradoxical reactions to antihistamines.

in support of this... did you know that SSRI's were developed from first generation antihistamines? Yes, medications like benadryl, chlorpheniramine and brompheniramine - all chemically related, have very mild SSRI effects. This is documented and my pdoc was aware of it so it's no joke.

So this supports my idea that, perhaps, depending what state we are in we might be sensitive to that aspect... it might not be effective in depression, but it might be activating in particular if one is already activated in some way. I have had racing thoughts from chlorpheniramine but only when i'm sick (cold/flu). and then sometimes i get them anyway (oddity).

~ waves ~

[bizi]

How did you respond to his email?
bizi

[Mari]

Bizi,

I told him exactly that I was emailing while taking Benadryl and that this was the first time I reacted to it this way.
He probably had figured out that something was going on.


I think Waves was right that I was in a dream state. I got out of bed to finish a note I was working on to him. It was weird. I remember sending the email even though I was kind of out of it. I did not know I was so far away from lucid.
Also, I rarely get out of bed once I fall asleep. So weird.
M

[bizi]

this just reiterates how sensitive to medications you are.
bizi