I Think I Did Something Dangerous

[ronin47]

So, I had a rough time at art therapy group last night. It's difficult to explain, but I left feeling extremely tense with sweaty palms and that tight, trapped feeling in my head. I went back to my room in the hopes that I could find a way to calm myself down, but no such luck.

Since I sprained my ankle two weeks ago, I've been taking Motrim PM to go to sleep at night because it has diphenhydramine in it and, to put it plainly, having a torn ligament makes it hard to sleep.

The bottle says you're not supposed to take more than two in a 24 hour period, last night I took eleven. I woke up this morning feeling, for lack of a better word, sedated, not to mention sick to my stomach. It took about a minute for the swirling lights in front of my eyes to go away.

I'm feeling better now that I've forced myself to eat a little. I'm wondering if this breakdown was at least partially attributable to the fact that I have not been to the gym in two weeks because, as I mentioned, I've been nursing a badly sprained ankle.

I don't know. What should I do? Should I tell one of the therapists in charge of the group what happened?

Edit: Let it be understood this was NOT an attempt to harm myself, I took those pills with the sole intention of putting myself to sleep (and I don't say that as a euphemism or metaphor) fast and hard.

 

[simplekindofgirl]

Ronin47- I am sorry that you are in pain. Generally, OTC medications have the dosage on the label- but the 'safe dose' (which is the maximum that is still safe) is 800mg. A doctor can prescribe 800mg tablets and with his advice, based on your health, weight and cause of pain, a doctor may allow you to take 1600- but they will usually do blood work before and after.

In clinical trials they did use up to 3200mg in patients whose conditions warranted higher dosages, but they were monitored very closely under a doctors care. Motrin Is very hard on the kidneys! Not to mention a dose of medication at that level can potentially cause internal bleeding. You took enough pills in one night to last you 5+ days.

I think that you should address this with your doctor or who ever is in charge of the group, or anyone who can help to find a safe combination of effective medicines for you. Find out if there is an alternative medication that can be taken along with the NSAID to help you sleep instead of using the Motrin PM to do it.

Please, be careful with this. I have serious kidney trouble, and believe me when I tell you- no amount of medication is worth the physical suffering that I have endured due to my kidney problems! Do not do that to yourself.

 

[Barberian]

I think you need to be careful about this, and definitely talk to your mental health team about this. Like Simplekindofgirl said it's hard to commit suicide with OTC's, the fact that you took so many is in my opinion a cry for help. That is not a bad thing or "wimpy" thing. Nothing to be ashamed of. We all can exceed our capacity to deal with something, and those with PTSD often do.

Pain is one of the things that drive me over the edge. When my pain is REALLY bad, is when I'm most likely to flip out and/or lose it. The three times I've been hospitalized (psychiatric ward) was partly because pain filled my "stress cup" to overflowing and pushed me over the edge.

 

[sea]

You've not done any real harm to yourself. 11 Motrin PMs isn't going to do anything except give you a stomach ache. Unless you're downing over 100 mgs per kg of body weight (so you're looking at about 2-3 grams of ibuprofen to OD acutely) you're not really doing much structural damage. It's actually fairly difficult to OD on ibuprofen.

(But it is, like simplekindofgirlsaid, easy to do damage over long periods of time with ibuprofen as a main form of therapy because it eats your kidneys for lunch.) As for DPH, you can down 20 of them and not really do any major permanent harm. You will however eat a lot of invisible cereal and see zombies/ghosts/Harry Potter/spiders. You will also shit black.

So yes, you're safe - acutely. Meaning you haven't overdosed. But no, you shouldn't just do this all day every day. You'll end up with half a kidney trying to have a conversation with a toaster.

 

[simplekindofgirl]

Pain and PTSD are a tough mix indeed.

I have a tendency to agree with Barberian. It is in essence a cry for help. You need help, so to help yourself you exceeded the safe dosage of a medication and justify it because you just needed to sleep. Which you probably did need to just sleep. But taking OTC meds at that dosage are dangerous because they may not kill you, but instead can leave you with their lasting effects from misuse.

I remember seeing the movie girl interrupted (which is based on the true story)- in the first half of the movie she is adamant that she didn't attempt to commit suicide by taking a half of a bottle of aspirin and drinking vodka as a chaser and there is nothing wrong with what she did. Later in the movie when her boyfriend tries to get her to leave the hospital saying so you took a couple of aspirin, she acknowledges it finally by saying I tried to kill myself, I took a -bottle- of aspirin. Was she aware that she was making an attempt, no, she was in denial, calling for help.

I am not saying that this is the case in these particular circumstances. I just see some similarities. Taking that high of a dosage is a cry for help. Please tell your doctor or your team leader or anybody who can help you before you do damage to your body that puts you in more physical pain than you can imagine being possible to continue to live with. Because believe me, with the pain that I have endured with my kidney problems, I begged for death. Begged! Couldn't end it myself, but I did beg for it.

 

[Heather]

((((Ronin)))) I'm not judging you. My question is how did you go from taking the recommended dose of 2 Motrin-PM to 11? Did you think that 2 wouldn't be enough......so 11 would be better? I'm just trying to understand how you got from 2 to 11 is all.

I hope you talk to someone about this and DON'T do it again. Keep yourself safe. If you need something stronger for pain or sleep then go see a doctor and get a Rx. Take the appropriate dosage.

Hugs. Heather

 

[ronin47]

My question is how did you go from taking the recommended dose of 2 Motrin-PM to 11?

Thank you for your concern :)

It's hard to explain. 2 Motrin is how much you need for a normal night's sleep (presumably), but I didn't want just a normal nights sleep, I wanted to fall asleep fast and hard and wake up too drowsy to feel tense or nervous the next day, so I took all the pills that were left in the bottle.

 

[Heather]

(((((Ronin))))) Thank you for your honesty and I hope experience has taught you NOT to do that again.

Hugs.:)

 

[Srain]

Ronin,

It's good you are talking about it here but I agree that it would be a good idea to speak to your professional about this. First, because you aren't feeling you are getting enough sleep and second because of the large difference in dosages that you took, unless you have tried a larger dose prior and found that it didn't help before.

Not getting the exercise you need to sleep is frustrating so I hope that your ankle heals quickly. Good luck.
Peace,
Rain