More than two years after we first heard about the “Benadryl Challenge” on TikTok, it is unfortunately back in the news—this time because of the death a 13-year-old Ohio boy who overdosed after taking more than a dozen Benadryl pills as part of the challenge. His friends recorded him attempting the challenge until his body started seizing; he died after six days on a ventilator.
As far back as 2020, young people on TikTok have been encouraging each other to take a dozen or more of the allergy pills in order to get high and hallucinate. In a July 2020 blog post, Cook Children’s Health Care System in Fort Worth said it treated three teenagers for Benadryl overdoses:
“What struck me was that we had three teens come in for the same thing in one week,” said Amber Jewison, a hospitalist nurse practitioner at Cook Children’s Medical Center. “None of these patients were trying to harm themselves. They all said they saw videos on TikTok and were curious to try it.”
What these patients didn’t realize is that not only can a Benadryl overdose be harmful to your health, it can also be deadly.
Participating in the challenge was also deadly for a 15-year-old Oklahoma teenager in the summer of 2020, according to television station KFOR. Scott Schaeffer, director of the Oklahoma Center for Poison Control and Drug Information, told reporters that “large doses of Benadryl can cause seizures and, particularly, problems with the heart. The heart tends to go out of rhythm and not pump blood effectively.”
Here’s one example of someone tagging their TikTok video with #benadryl. There are also posts warning others not to do this challenge, which is good—but even some of those warnings can make teenagers curious to try it.
Teenagers are notorious for thinking they’re invincible, and they may incorrectly think an over-the-counter drug can’t be that dangerous. If your kids are on social media, and on TikTok in particular, ask if they’ve heard about the Benadryl challenge and share the above news stories with them so they understand that taking more than the recommended dose, as needed, is dangerous.
The father of the 13-year-old Jacob Stevens told a local ABC outlet that it’s now his life’s goal to get lawmakers to enact age restrictions on buying medications like Benadryl to help prevent this from happening to another child.
This post was originally published on Sept. 2, 2020. It was updated on April 21, 2023.
