Cough Syrup High

A cough syrup high may occur from taking non-recommended, extremely high doses of over-the-counter cough syrup. The “high” is caused by taking a large amount of dextromethorphan, which is often abbreviated DXM, a common active ingredient found in many cough medications. This sort of abuse -- whether it's called cough medicine abuse, or dextromethorphan, or DXM abuse -- can be dangerous.

Sharon Talks About Her Son's Cough Syrup High:
"Because of the DXM [in the cough syrup], Shawn became another person. And so what little communication we had, that became null and void, there was nothing there. I felt almost like I had become the enemy and that I was almost his punching bag for his emotions.

"I believe that Shawn started using drugs, specifically cough syrup, to fill a void in his life. He was the youngest of my children, he was overweight, and he had a self-image problem. His brothers tended to pick on him a little too much. His sister was very loving of him and protective but his brothers could be quite a handful. And Sean made friends because he was so loving and girls wanted to talk to him and be his best friend. But he was still quite a lonely person and I think that that left an open door for him to try to fill that void in any way he could.

"He was not living at home when the DXM started but Shawn had his own place, his own car, his own life. But because of DXM, he lost his own place, he lost his own car, and he basically lost his life without killing himself. He did everything but kill himself and he was gone."

Watch Sharon's video.