Okay my turn,
I joined this forum just now because I saw the OP post about Benadryl.
I have been taking Benadryl for sleep (to shut off) for more than 5 years now. I was sober 10 and am now sober over 5. I take a blood pressure pill and a light anti depressant (technically anti anxiety) and I take the Benadryl for sleep.
First and foremost I am here to share to help and to get help I am not here to argue or bicker about recovery issues and will not. I simply want to lay my issue out to be of service and obv to get help myself.
Here goes: Currently, I take 5-600 mg a night of Benadryl. Yep, that = 24 pills or so of the Diphenhydramine HCl 25 mg. Sometimes I take them in the 50mg gel tablets and thus take about half so 12 of them.
Of course I did not start out taking that much and did first go through the ringer with Ambien and Lunesta and I feel that I have much laymans exp with sleep issues and pills.
In a nutshell, I feel like the Benadryl is really hard to kick. I do take it for the sedation effect and I def do take it for the europhoria effect ( I mean i would be a liar if I said I did not)
The problem with Benadryl is that my doctor among other have down played it and acted like ... "take it or not .. no big deal' and as an addict and alcoholic that is just what my disease wants to hear to rationalize and justify my absolute Benydril addicition.
I feel it effects my teeth ( the dry mouth it gives me) and this would be a slow thing not a wake up one day and you have bad teeth but slow and subtle.
Like others have said if I do not have it for a couple days I def cannot sleep and so the fact that they now sell my drug of choice (how sorry is that lol) at any drug store, dollar store, conveient store, ad infinitum, Makes easy to sneak (from loved ones, family members) etc etc.
I will go ahead and post here and end my rambling etc but like I said I'm here to help (with this topic as I feel I have way to much exp with this Benadryl) and also and hopefully to be helped. Yin and Yang.
God Bless