As if we haven’t had enough to worry about with the drug “Fentanyl”, now Social Media has challenges to go viral on a dangerous trend that endangers impressionable children and teens.
Social media heightened by peer pressure can lead to dangerous consequences with stunts that have led to injuries or even death. While adults want to be liked and accepted by peers, so it is with children. The ones involved aren’t always “immature” children, but can be those who are always looking for a challenge as well as the most well-adjusted child. The need for affirmation on social media heightened by peer pressure can lead to dangerous consequences.
Recently FDA (Food and Drug Administration) made the public aware of the latest social media challenges to go viral. The latest trend is “NyQuil chicken challenge”. You say, “Isn’t NyQuil a cold and flu medication? How can this be anything to worry about?”
NyQuil is the medication taken for colds and flu but now it has become a worry as it has become a challenge that sounds silly and unappetizing. NyQuil is dumped over chicken and the chicken is cooked with the idea that it is a protein-infused cold remedy and then it is eaten. It can be very unsafe as boiling a medication can make it much more concentrated and change its properties in other ways. But, those taking this challenge feel they are now accepted by their peers.
What about those that take the Tide Pod challenge? It is a game that has been called the “Tide Pod challenge”. (Remember when people were alerted to keep the lid on and Tide up out of reach of young children, but now older kids are using the pods as a challenge.) It was the year 2018 when videos began to circulate showing kids biting into brightly colored liquid laundry detergent packets or even cooking the soap-filled capsules in frying pans, and then chewing on them before spitting the soap out. There are those that have been shown foaming at the mouth and coughing violently after doing this stunt that have showed their peers that they “can do it”. The FDA says it is dangerous.
How can Benadryl, the antihistamine that contains diphenhydramine, be dangerous? I have been given Benadryl to prevent “hives” before taking any test involving iodine, that I am allergic to and it hasn’t been called “dangerous”. However, it is dangerous when TikTok encourages people to film themselves taking large doses of Benadryl that can induce hallucinations. This challenge has caused the death of a 15 year old Oklahoma girl.
TikTok is now brought into the “challenge” pictures. TikTok is a huge part of teen and tween culture. Challenges that are harmful to human life can take off just as virally as some of the more fun or benign challenges. A few months ago, “The Doctors”, a television early morning show, had a week-long series on TikTok and some of the things that it promotes to the younger crowd. One of the most talked about were diets or plans that could make those (especially girls) that were obese, lose weight fast. The after affects were shown with what happened to some of these girls. None of them wanted to be called “fat” and therefore started these diets or plans without getting any medical advice or even telling their parents.
Girls were on these shows telling how they would eat normally, then go and throw up what they had eaten without anyone knowing what they were doing. They even did excessive exercise. They were suffering from a disorder called “bulimia” where they are fearful of becoming overweight. Yes, they might have lost weight but mentally, this had affected their brain. If death didn’t take them, they had a long time in therapy.