The Benadryl challenge has been making the rounds on social media again, and search interest in the U.S. has doubled over the past month. The trend involves teens downing a handful of allergy pills and filming themselves as the hallucinations take over. The FDA has already tied the stunt to ER visits, seizures, cardiac arrests, and several deaths.
Dr. Hamilton Gaiani, Yale-trained addiction psychiatrist and Chief Medical Officer at Firepit Health, doesn’t mince words. “The challenge involves teens taking 10–15+ Benadryl pills to induce hallucinations while filming their reactions for social media. Many experience seizures, cardiac arrest, or comas, but survivors often graduate to more dangerous substances.”
Brooks Lape, addiction specialist and founder of Start Your Recovery, says the damage stretches far beyond one reckless night. “Parents who think their child ‘learned their lesson’ after surviving these challenges are mistaken,” he explained in an email.
“These teens are actually three times more likely to develop serious substance abuse issues within two years. These kids are learning that chemical highs bring social validation, that risk-taking gets rewarded online, and that household substances can alter their mental state. It’s like giving them training wheels for drug addiction.”
The ‘Benadryl Challenge’ Is Blowing Up on TikTok—and Doctors Are Freaking Out
The red flags aren’t always obvious at first. Teens might suddenly start Googling ways to get high off “safe” products or hiding cough syrup and allergy pills in their rooms. Risk-taking bleeds past TikTok into real life, and warnings about danger get shrugged off. Their stunts get more and more dangerous, all in the hopes for more likes and attention.
Gaiani and Lape say parents should keep an eye on the medicine cabinet and notice if pills start disappearing. Pay attention if your kid looks glassy-eyed or off balance for half a day. Don’t go in swinging—questions framed with curiosity work better than accusations. Even something simple like, “Have you heard about kids overdosing on Benadryl?” can start the conversation. And when things escalate to hallucinations or breathing problems, the only move is to call for medical help immediately.
The challenge is easy to dismiss as another dumb stunt circulating online, but addiction specialists say the damage can linger long after the videos stop. Teens walk away with a dangerous equation in their heads: that pills found in the bathroom can change how they feel, and that putting their health on the line can win them attention. For many, that’s the first lesson in a much longer relationship with drugs.
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