Girl Nearly Overdoses While Attempting Social Media ‘Benadryl’ Challenge

A 13-year-old girl from Horry County, S.C., nearly overdosed on Benadryl pills after taking more than the recommended dosage based on an online challenge, her mother said.

The anonymous teen’s mother, who did not release her daughter’s name for privacy, told local outlet WMBF News that her daughter began hallucinating last week and her heart rate reached nearly 200 beats per minute.

The teen girl’s parents rushed her to the hospital after finding the spilled pill bottle under her pillow, where they found a significant amount of the pills missing, her mother told the news station.

“I asked her how many she took, and she told me two but I didn’t believe her because the bottle was open and there were pills on the bed,” the teen’s mother said. “My husband and I counted them, and we noticed a large amount was missing.”

The girl reportedly told doctors that a friend told her she could get high if she took enough Benadryl. The mother claimed she found a series of viral videos on her daughter’s social media feed about teenagers allegedly consuming the common over-the-counter medication in an attempt to experience a high.

PEOPLE has reached out to Benadryl for comment.

“They were all kids doing Benadryl, and it just kind of blew my mind. I thought that was a safe medication. Not something a teenager would get into.”

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She told the outlet that she tried reporting the videos; however, they did not violate the app’s policies. The mother then said she found out her daughter had gone into a store by herself to purchase batteries when she allegedly bought the pills without her mother knowing.

“It was really hard,” the mother said. “It was really scary. It was one of the hardest things we have been through. It really had an impact on her not being able to remember what happened that night and the next day waking up in the hospital. It scared her a lot.”

She went on to encourage other parents to be on high alert for the viral trend. “I just don’t want any other parent to go through this,” she said.

In 2020, the FDA issued a warning against “taking higher than recommended doses” of Benadryl. The “FDA is aware of news reports of teenagers ending up in emergency rooms or dying after participating in the “Benadryl Challenge,” ” the agency said at the time, adding that it could “lead to serious heart problems, seizures, coma, or even death.”