The worst night of your life always seems to be worse than
the worst day of your life. Why is that?
I had experimented with DXM a few times before, but I never liked it too much. I especialy hated the taste of cough syrup. I had heard about an easy-to-get alternative however; Coricidin.
Coricidin is an over the counter "Cough and Cold" medication containing mostly DXM. I had taken it once before with no problems. Even though it was a really low dose (6 pills; 180mg DXM), it was a fun experience.
I've had a few bad nights, but this was by far the worst. It was sometime in January, 1999. I'm not sure why, but on this particular afternoon, I decided I wanted to "do" DXM. I was going through a really boring and lonely time in my life.
I'm in my apartment, alone except for my roommate who I don't like or talk to. I ingest eight Coricidin pills at about 3 PM. Each pill contains 30mg Dextromethorphan Hydrobromide and 4mg Chlorpheniramine. Anyone who's ever played around with DXM knows this is by no means a large dose. I'm aware that too much Chlorpheniramine can be extremely dangerous. However I've talked too people who had taken twice that amount (or more), with no bad effects.
One hour later, I feel no effects. I'm a little suprised, because in my past experiences with DXM, I usually began to feel something within a half hour.
Two hours later, I feet a little light headed but that's it.
Three hours later, still nothing.
It's now about 7 PM, four hours later. I feel really tired and lay down in my bed. I'm feeling really speedy, and generaly icky. I drift in and out of sleep. My body is tired, but my mind doesn't want to rest. This continues for about three hours.
I go into the bathroom and puke. I puke for ten minutes and feet like shit the whole time. However I am feeling a little better afterwards and decide I should eat something, so I heat up a TV Dinner and eat half of it.
11 PM, back in bed. Toss and turn for half an hour, can't sleep. I suddenly have a really bad headache and backache. An incredible feeling of nausea overcomes me. Back to the bathroom. I puke up the TV Dinner into the sink. I've felt sick before, but never like this. I dry hack for twenty minutes. My face is dripping with sweat and my entire body is shaking. The nausea fades away, but I'm still left with this awful head and back ache.
I'm feeling very dehydrated. I drink some coke and go back to bed. Thirty minutes pass and I'm back in the bathroom. Puke up the coke and dry hack for twenty minutes. This time is worse than before. I'm feeling really delusional. My shirt is drenched with sweat.
I am covered in sweat and I know I need to drink something. I drink a glass of water, and go back to bed. I'm tossing and turning, can't sleep. My entire body aches. I think I shit my pants. I don't know what happened, it just came out, and I don't have the strength to do anything about it.
I lay there for about twenty minutes before I'm able to get up. I go to the bathroom and before I have a chance to clean myself, I start puking and dry hacking again. I'm in so much pain. I'm on the floor crying and praying. Everything is so cloudy. I think about crawling out the window of my apartment and ending this. I imagine myself falling.
Next thing I remember I am in my bed, the clock says 3:30 AM. My body still aches but my stomach is feeling a little better. I get no sleep.
The next day I still felt bad; Like a bad alcohol hangover. I tried to make sense of what happened. I threw away the half empty box of Coricidin and wrote what I could remember down so I would never forget.