A 13-year-old South Carolina girl almost lost her life for reportedly following a viral TikTok trend. The teen had attempted the “Benadryl Challenge,” a dangerous activity that has claimed lives in the past.
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WMBF talked with the teenager’s mother, who shared the horror that the family went through after her daughter overdosed on the antihistamine.
The mother noticed that her 13-year-old girl was acting strange. She was hallucinating, and her heart was beating dangerously fast. Then, under her pillow, she found Benadryl pills.
“I asked her how many she took,” the mother told the outlet. “She told me two but I didn’t believe her because the bottle was open and there were pills on the bed. My husband and I counted them, and we noticed a large amount was missing.”
After being rushed to a hospital, doctors asked the teen if she had attempted suicide. The girl said no, and reportedly said that a friend of hers had told her that she could get “high” if she took a considerable amount of Benadryl.
After inspecting her daughter’s phone, the mother found a disturbing TikTok trend: the “Benadryl Challenge.”
“They were all kids doing Benadryl, and it just kind of blew my mind,” the horrified mother said. “I thought that was a safe medication. Not something a teenager would get into.”
Benadryl Challenge: Fatal Outcomes
Turns out that the 13-year-old had secretly purchased the Benadryl pills to take part in the viral trend, which encourages users, mostly teens, to consume the antihistamine to get a quick high.
Thankfully, the girl managed to survive, but the whole incident has left her traumatized.
“It really had an impact on her not being able to remember what happened that night and the next day waking up in the hospital,” the mother said. “It scared her a lot.”
Others who have taken part in the challenge, however, were not so lucky.
As per KFOR, a 15-year-old Oklahoma girl died from a Benadryl overdose, a victim of the Benadryl Challenge. Years later, a 13-year-old boy from Ohio also died after overdosing on the medication, CNN reported.
The U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) issued a 2020 warning regarding the improper use of the allergy medication. They encouraged parents to properly store the antihistamine. Overdosing can cause hallucinations, seizures, trouble breathing, and even death, the FDA said.