In this day and age, it seems like social media and peer pressure have teamed up to pose quite the threat to our children. Especially when it comes to playin’ around with medicines they ought not to be messin’ with.
There are new trends on social media platforms that relyheavily on peer pressure. Folks are sharin’ video clips of themselves takin’ nonprescription medications all willy-nilly and, if you can believe it, they’re encouragin’ others to do the same. These video challenges, more often than not, set their sights on the young, the consequences can be dire, sometimes even leadin’ to tragedy.
These nonprescription drugs, sometimes they go by the name of over-the-counter or OTC meds, are as common as a glass of sweet tea on a hot summer day, and that makes these challenges even more dangerous. These OTC drugs can pack quite a punch if they’re used in ways they weren’t intended for.
Let’s talk about the perilous predicament we find ourselves in with these social media challenges involvin’ drugs. Last year the new hot video challenge was to scoop 12-14 OTC medications at once and watch to find out what would happen. Then the crazy video challenge that got folks tryin’ to cook up chicken in NyQuil. Yes, you heard me right, NyQuil – that concoction with acetaminophen, dextromethorphan, and doxylamine. They’re cookin’ with’ this medicine and fixin’ to eat it. Now, that just sounds downright silly and unappetizin’. But here’s the rub’, boilin’ a medication like that can make it a whole lot more potent, and it might just change its properties in ways we can’t rightly predict. Even if you ain’t plannin’ on nibblin’ on that chicken, inhaling them medication fumes while cookin’ could send a heap of them drugs straight into your body. And it could do a number on your lungs too. To put it plain and simple, someone might end up takin’ a dangerously high dose OTC medications without even realizin’ it.
A devilishly dangerous TikTok challenge trending in 2023 is tellin’ folks to take massive amounts of allergy medicine called diphenhydramine, Benadryl. They were tryin’ to see things that weren’t really there, callin’ them hallucinations. Well, as the story goes, some young’uns ended up in the emergency room, and some didn’t make it out alive after takin’ way too much of that medicine. Tragically, a 13-year-old boy in Ohio lost his life to a Benadryl challenge. The reasons behind such a loss, only the good Lord knows. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, they haveto stepped in to warn folks ’bout the dangers of swallowin’ too much diphenhydramine.
If you’re wonderin’ what you can do to protect your young’uns from fallin’ into these traps? First and foremost, you gotta keep them OTC and prescription medicines locked away, far from the reach of curious little hands. And sit down with em’ and have a good, ol’ fashioned heart-to-heart ’bout the dangers of misusin’ medicines and how them social media trends can lead to real, and sometimes, irreversible harm. You gotta remind ’em that overdoses can happen just as easily with OTC medicines as with prescription ones.
If you ever find yourself in a pickle, and you think your child’s taken too much medicine and is seein’ things they ought not to be, can’t seem to wake up, or are havin’ a seizure, havin’ trouble breathin’, collapsin’, or showin’ any signs of drug misuse, you best not dilly-dally. Pick up that phone, and call 911 quicker than green grass through a goose. Or you can get in touch with poison control at 1-800-222-1222, or give ’em a holler online.
When it comes to usin’ OTC medicines, whether there’s a social media challenge goin’ ’round or not, you gotta be as careful. Always read that Drug Facts Label. It’ll tell you what the medicine’s supposed to do, who should and shouldn’t be takin’ it, and how to go about it. The Drug Facts Label is as plain and easy as pie to read, designed to help folks pick the right medicine and follow them dosage instructions.
And if you ever find yourself with a question ’bout a medicine. Give your healthcare provider or pharmacist a holler, or ring up the FDA’s Division of Drug Information. Them DDI pharmacists are standin’ by, ready to help keep you and your family safe. You can also send ’em an email at [email protected], or you can give ’em a call at 1-855-543-DRUG (3784) or 301-796-3400.
And if, heaven forbid, you or someone you know has an adverse event with any medicine, you can report it to the FDA’s MedWatch Safety Information and Adverse Event Reporting Program. You can fill out that report online or fetch yourself a form by callin’ 1-800-332-1088, they’ll send it to you in the mail. Then, you can fill it out and send it back or even fax it over to 1-800-FDA-0178.
