An Oklahoma teenager is critically ill after trying a viral social media trend known as the “Benadryl challenge,” which has put several children in hospital.
The trend involves taking excessive amounts of over‑the‑counter allergy medicine Benadryl and attempting to stay awake through induced drowsiness to receive a high. It can cause serious side effects, including seizures and cardiac arrest.
Leah Presson, 15, is being treated in an intensive care unit in Oklahoma, KFOR in Oklahoma City reported.
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The teenager’s father, Richard Presson, told the outlet: “I don’t even want to think about a funeral because I feel like there’s still hope and everybody’s like, giving up too soon….I believe in miracles, that she’s definitely a miracle baby.
“I just want everybody to be aware of where they can educate their kids. But these challenges are just silly, and they need to be educated so it doesn’t happen again.”
Richard Presson told NewsNation’s Elizabeth Vargas Reports, a primetime cable news show, that “Leah is a very great person and she always wanted to be TikTok famous. It hurts to see that my daughter is now laying lifeless because of some challenge that couldn’t be stopped.”
‘Benadryl Challenge’
Benadryl is an over-the-counter antihistamine used most commonly to treat cold or allergy reactions. The active ingredient in Benadryl is diphenhydramine, which works by blocking the chemical in the body, histamine.
It can also be used to treat motion sickness and insomnia, as it can aid sleep.
The so-called challenge first began to circulate in 2020 but has been circulating again on social media in recent weeks. It involves social media users taking excessive amounts of the medication to try to experience a high, which can cause hallucinations.
Videos about the challenge circulated on TikTok, and in 2020, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration asked TikTok to remove the videos.
The agency said at the time it “is warning that taking higher than recommended doses of the common over-the-counter (OTC) allergy medicine diphenhydramine (Benadryl) can lead to serious heart problems, seizures, coma, or even death. We are aware of news reports of teenagers ending up in emergency rooms or dying after participating in the ‘Benadryl Challenge’ encouraged in videos posted on the social media application TikTok.”
TikTok Ban and Advice
Since 2020, the search for the term “Benadryl” has been blocked on TikTok, but young social media users have been known to bypass the blocks through searching variations on the word.
The recommended dose of Benadryl is one pill every four to six hours, and to take no more than six in a 24-hour period. Those participating in the Benadryl challenge can take around 12 pills, and sometimes more.
Taking a large dose of Benadryl can cause the heart to go out of rhythm and not pump blood effectively.
The FDA has previously recommended that anyone who takes too high a dose of diphenhydramine immediately contact poison control.
The first report of a teen death from the Benadryl challenge came in 2020, when a 15-year-old girl died in Oklahoma.
There have been multiple fatalities, and the risks in connection with the challenge are highly publicized. But it continues to pose a risk to young people. In April, Fort Worth Children’s Hospital in Texas reported that more than 100 patients visited its emergency department over the last six months because of Benadryl overdoses.
Social media trends typically involve harmless fun like dances and filters, but dangerous challenges have risked participants’ health and safety.
Previous examples include the so-called “Cha Cha Slide” trend, which saw users swerving cars as they followed instructions from the song. Social media has also amplified the dangerous subway surfing trend, which has resulted in multiple deaths and lawsuits against social media companies by grieving parents.