Robitussin
I just want to throw this out there because it is important. I am not proud of the fact that I used to be a chronic drug user, but the information here is not just for drug users. I think everybody has taken Robitussin occasionally, and probably taken quite a bit when really ill. This is my story about it... Please be careful when taking cough medications.
In 1998 or so I was living the drug life. I was a drug dealer and a recovering addict of hard drugs. But I never thought that using something as simple as cough syrup could have worse effects than the hardest of drugs I had ever used. So myself and couple of friends (including a chemistry student) decided we were going to try this "robotripping" thing. I got home and over the course of an hour I drank a bottle of extra strength "Robitussin DM" and 4 pills of "Dayquil". I proceeded to get very messed up. I couldn't move my limbs, I was incredibly hot, my vision was so distorted that I didn't know up from down. I recovered from that thinking that it was interesting and not something I would probably do again.
Two months later, I got very ill with the flu. I was searching through the cabinets in my house looking for something to help my symptoms. I came across a packet of Thera-flu. I mixed it up according to the instructions and drank it down. About 20 minutes later I was unable to move from my couch. My vision was so distorted at one point I thought I had gone blind, everything went black. I eventually came to the realization that Thera-flu had Dextromethorphan in it, the same ingredient as robitussin. I thought, "well surely this will pass and I will come down..." Certainly never expected what happened instead.
I continued to be unable to move for four days. I couldn't open my eyes because the drug had so throughly depressed my motor function. My boyfriend came home after work and I remember trying to tell him I needed to go to the hospital but I was unable to verbalize anything for 5 days. Apparently when I was able to talk again my reasoning skills and speech centers were effected. He would ask me if I needed anything, and I would point to something like my shoes instead of saying "shoes" I would say "hard" or some descriptive of what it was, but in my head I would hear myself saying the right things. I was unable to understand why everyone would look at me so strangly. I knew something was wrong.
I studdered for almost a year afterwards, whenever I would get nervous, frightened or tired. I know that I have less brain fuction now than I did before I took the Thera-flu many years ago. I have completely recovered. However I can now feel parts of my brain fuction. I can kind of feel there is a part of my brain that doesn't work correctly. It is hard to explain the feeling. The best I can do is say that it feels like having something just out of your reach, but no matter how hard you try, you can't touch it.
I have talked to doctors about this and they all say that I have a sensitivity to Dextromethorphan. Apparently some people can take normal doses of it but as soon as you take a couple millegrams too much (even in normal use) you can end up with devestating effects. There is no way to tell if you are susceptable to such things. Just happens sometimes. They say that my abuse of the drug just set my sensitivity into motion.
This is all. I just want my friends to know and to be careful. How many times have you just taken a swig of cough syrup right out of the bottle, instead of measuring it with the little cup? Do be careful. Sometimes you can take the stuff and never notice that it effects you until one day you accidentally take too much. Read labels carefully, if it has Dextromethorphan in it, take it exactly the way the box says to.
Not trying to be preachy about drug use or anything, I just want to make sure no one ends up with the problems I encountered. Take care!
-Cheryl