> Short-term memory loss is common, and some people forget that they’ve taken a drug at all.<p>that's one of the reasons why people overdose on it. they forgot they took it and loop back to their idea of taking it and redose unintentionally.<p>> Skeptics may view this as a shared case of pareidolia, the human tendency to seek faces, figures, and familiar meanings in ambiguous stimuli (in this case, shadows). Others believe that the Hatman and his kind are paranormal creatures, akin to ghosts or aliens or demons. Some have hypothesized that shadow figures may travel from another dimension entirely.<p>those skeptics ... always so skeptical ... ;D<p>> And so long as people can buy those little pink pills at their local CVS for $7, so long as the dangers are minimized of the drugs we’re conditioned to believe are safe, the Hatman – and all the damage that comes with him – will persist.<p>weird conclusion. legalizing psychedelics would be a start as many benadryl users incompetently seek a psychedelical experience.
At a time in my life where I was not sleeping (at all, it's a long story) I would frequently see shadowy figures. It was very unnerving. There were no eyes or features to speak of - it would be like if you were in an already dark room and someone was standing there - you can't seem them except for a hint of a shape. Many times I would see one in the corner, stare at it for a long time, blink, then it would be in another or area of the room. It felt like if I fell asleep it would attack me, which only fueled the anxiety of no sleep even more.<p>It wasn't until well after I fixed those issues that I learned shadow figures are a common symptom of sleep deprivation and sleep paralysis. There's something deeply necessary yet anxiety producing about sleep. Even now I have to force myself to sleep because of all the ill effects that came from years of not sleeping.<p>- <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33573871/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33573871/</a><p>- <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_person" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_person</a><p>- <a href="https://www.sleepcycle.com/sleep-paralysis/sleep-paralysis-what-was-that-thing-in-my-room/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.sleepcycle.com/sleep-paralysis/sleep-paralysis-w...</a>
/r/DPH is a bleak and troubling place. Seems to almost exclusively be teenagers, a lot of them fully aware how neurotoxic this drug can be, but it seems like loads of them are taking it every day.<p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/DPH/comments/y1bu65/took_too_much_funny_pink_pill_go_brrrrrr_make/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.reddit.com/r/DPH/comments/y1bu65/took_too_much_f...</a><p>/r/trees is full of teenagers too but they generally aren't ending up in the hospital. There are kids posting on /r/DPH about their daily hallucinations and are being pointed to /r/HPPD - kids!
(TW: Suicidal ideation)<p>I fight with ADHD and depression and am in a relationship that’s at best moderately containing some … issues. But things are improving.<p>Sometimes when I was younger (am mid 40’s now), I would fight such depression I would not want to wake up.<p>After my first wife died when I was 31, I turned to “TheraFlu” to sleep. I’d make a hot toddy with it and honey and whiskey.<p>It never helped. But I developed this “fight the dph” ability to not sleep.<p>So eventually if I wanted to sleep, it was 2-3 dph pills and melatonin. And then a sleep routine.<p>When I’d get depressed I would think of taking more. The most I ever took was 3-4 pills. It made me anxious. Itchy. Kicky in my sleepy.<p>I could never bring myself to take more.<p>Now it’s exercise. Hydration. Therapy. Real sleep, with my cpap…<p>It scares me how people experiment like that and I wish we knew more about the benefits of minor prescribed “trips”.
Tripping on diphen is nothing new. Even twenty five years ago forums were brimming with accounts of "Get high for cheap on benadryl"<p>In my own experience, I took it one night trying to come down from whatever stimulants were in the E pills we got. I forget the dosage but its was something hefty, but not insane. Within an hour I was getting fully blown hallucinations (like seeing objects in detail that were not there), lots of bugs and flies, and these intense fractal "tears in reality" that would crop up in my vision.<p>I guess being a kid at the time it was fun in a weird/bizarre sense, but not particularly worth it.
<i>"For the most part, those that indulge in more “traditional” hallucinogens at moderate dosages are able to retain full functionality and awareness of the illusory nature of their altered perceptions."</i><p>I have no experience with this, so I wonder if it is true. It's not how I imagine the "high" state and not how it seems to me portrayed in literature and media.
I think the explanation of “shared human memory” plausible, in terms of it tapping into some primitive (possibly evolutionary) pathway (as it seems to occur in other cultures as well, so nurture is not likely).<p>We do have other perhaps similar “shared experiences” in the form of fear of snakes, which is theorized to come from primate evolution — we may even have “hard-coded” snake detection! Anecdotally and according to some studies, people can recognize a snake faster than they would even consciously realize it. This is also what snake attack survivors often tell. Maybe something similar exists for Hatman, it is just being repressed by default? Another evolutionary fear are birds as far as I know, plus fire. Some think this may be the origin of dragons (flying, fire-breathing snakes).