6 Medication Side Effects Straight Out of a Horror Movie
Most ads for prescription drugs tell you more about the side effects than they do about the intended use. They're basically three solid minutes of soft-focus couples romping in a field to vivid descriptions of diarrhea. It's pretty informative, we have to admit.
But there are some things even the commercials don't tell you. Not necessarily because the side effects are too terrifying (though some are), but simply because some of them sound more like ironic gypsy curses than anything science is capable of.

Clomipramine is an antidepressant prescribed to treat depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder. One potential side effect of the drug is decreased sexual ability, but that's nothing new: Pretty much every drug that wasn't expressly designed to cause boners accidentally takes them away.
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So if you take one clomipramine with one Viagra and then flash someone, is that half a sexual offense?
But it gets way weirder than that. One study relates the experiences of three people taking clomipramine: The first woman wanted to be taken off the drug because every time she yawned, she experienced "irresistible sexual urges." Another woman took it a step further; she had full-blown orgasms whenever she yawned. She could even achieve a real orgasm while faking the yawn -- a fact that throws literally everything we know about women on its head.
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Figuring out what this woman is doing is like a virginity test.
The last patient, a male, had occasional orgasms when he yawned, but not with any predictability. That's right: Every time he got bored or sleepy, or just saw somebody else yawning, he had to play a perverse game of Russian roulette with his own pants. The medication did help his depression, however, so he chose to continue taking it.
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I don't know why, but these constant orgasms really help my depression!
His solution? He just wore a condom. All the time. Hopefully it was ribbed, for the trousers' pleasure.

If you've never had a urinary tract infection, consider yourself lucky. The main symptoms are foul-smelling urine, the constant urge to urinate and a burning pain while doing so. It's essentially like having the alien from Alien instead of genitals. Doctors usually prescribe antibiotics to clear up the infection and something else to help manage the symptoms while the antibiotics do their work. They'll also probably tell you not to drop any acid for a while, because they don't want you to freak out and throw your dick out the window once rainbows start shooting out of it.
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"Weed is totally OK, though. Pissing is like a spiritual experience."
Urelle (and similar medications like Urised/Usept/UTA) is a combination of several medications: a painkiller, an antispasmodic and an antiseptic. Possible side effects of these drug cocktails vary, but only in color: Urelle will turn your urine and possibly your stool anywhere from a lovely verdant green ...
... to 2000 Flushes blue.
Via about.com
This is thanks to the antiseptic part of the cocktail, called methylene blue. It's a dye that turns into formaldehyde when it comes in contact with acidic substances. Methylene blue is completely harmless, though, and as such, it has been used in practical jokes for over a century. Even M*A*S*H got in on urine-manipulating good times back in the day, when Hawkeye drugged a member of a rival bowling team with the stuff. Presumably, in true M*A*S*H fashion, this levity was immediately countered by two hours of maudlin sobbing and a lecture about the horrors of war.
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"That blue piss, that was the sky once. And now it's red, red with blood, and man I should really check that out with the doctor."

We've all taken Pepto-Bismol dozens if not hundreds of times -- to settle our stomachs, to eliminate heartburn or just because we once heard that if you ingest enough calcium from the tablets, you'll get unbreakable Wolverine bones. It's in everybody's medicine cabinet; surely it can't do anything too weird to you, right?
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Although drinking much of the liquid will cause Professor X-like telepathy and hallucinations.
Just ask Max Anderson. Max, like most people, had used Pepto-Bismol many times to treat an upset stomach with no complications. Then he took it one night, just before bedtime, for an upset stomach. When he woke up in the morning, turned to his wife and yawned, she took one look at him and immediately screamed, "What happened to your tongue!?" Confused, Max ran to the bathroom and found that his mouth looked like he'd been going down on Cthulhu all night.
Via Wikipedia
The actual name of this condition is black hairy tongue, and although it looks like the start to either a flesh-eating infection or an argument about your burgeoning octopus fetish, black hairy tongue is completely harmless. Despite the name, it's not just your tongue that changes color; it's actually your entire gastrointestinal tract. Some BHT-stricken individuals also reported pooping out elongated charcoal briquettes later in the day. Hopefully they're just being descriptive there, and not holding the worst barbeque in history.
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"I can't believe you butchered and cooked the corpses of our neighbors! You're so clever."
The condition is caused when the bismuth in Pepto-Bismol reacts with sulfur, common in many foods, to create bismuth sulfide -- the black substance. Like we said, it won't hurt you, but keep in mind that the effect can last for several days. So if it happens to strike you, be prepared to either give mini-lectures on basic chemistry for an entire weekend or to live with the reproach and disgust that our society unjustly heaps on the black-tongued.
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Also, what the hell is that? A mohawk? You're barred.



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Never ever f**k with ambien. It has so many harmful interactions with other drugs that makes it foolish to purposely lose control. I was prescribed it and frequently walked around in my sleep. One of these times I consumed Alcohol while sleepwalking and ended up in a pool four miles away when the police found me. Do not mess with that drug
ReplyEverybody who watches House already knew #1. Season 5 finale!
ReplyRachel Uchitel is a co me guzzling road who re.
ReplyLoved the Memento reference.
ReplyYou're a goddamn genius.
Alien hand syndrome may be caused by the other side of the brain that's cut off from the rest of the outside world. Think about it, that part has to listen, feel, see, taste, and smell everything that happens and it can't say a thing. Wouldn't you turn a little crazy?
ReplyThat pepto thing happens every time I take it. I once took it and went to the dentist the next day. Kinda freaked her out.
ReplyI actually experienced #6 (the yawning thing) when I was on Zoloft. Fortunately (unfortunately?), I didn't get the orgasm thing, but every time I yawned I would feel the strongest sexual urges I've ever had. As soon as the yawn was over, I was back to normal. It wasn't necessarily unpleasant, just very confusing.
ReplyI disagree with the title of the article. These side effects sound awesome. I'd love to have them.
ReplyHad to take something for a UTI that turned pee bright orange and they warned it could permanently dye my contact lenses the same color.
ReplyThat paint-on eyeliner for thicker eyelashes stuff turns people's eyes permanently brown.
There is actually a cardiac/ blood pressure med called Amiodarone that can turn your skin blue. Plus, it can apparently take a very long time for it to go away because the drug stays in your system for months.
ReplyMost seem to remember the crazy ambien sex. and the doing stuff in your sleep and yet "seem perfectly normal" try "not!" when family tell repeatedly how you threw a milkshake at someone in a rage (sorry glenn) or went sleep eating something that wasn't food (listed in extended side effects) etc. I am not sure how normal that is!
ReplySo... Who's Glenn?
ah, plausible deniablity! Just go for sexomnia and forget the rest.
ReplyA year or so ago, a friend of mine wrote a song, performed it, recorded it and uploaded it to youtube while on ambien. He had no memory of it and only knew about it because of the comments in his inbox the next morning. If you watch the video (Marc with a C - You're My Princess) you can definitely tell that he's not 100% there. It's an awesome song, though, and he wanted to include it in his setlist. The only problem is that he had no idea how to play it, so he had to watch the video over and over and learn how to play... his own song.
ReplySubtle way to advertise yourself, you've got my respect.
My tongue and my poop turns black everytime I take Pepto Bismol. I just assumed it happened to everyone everytime as well.
Reply Hide All See All 3 RepliesI've never gotten the black tongue, but otherwise, same thing.
I don't notice a change in the color of my s**t, though it's probably because I just don't pay much attention to that most of the time, but I definitely get a black tongue and teeth every time I take a pepto. It's usually pretty easily taken care of, though. Brushing my teeth gets rid of all of it on my teeth and most from my tongue.
i agree about the black pooh but i never thought to compare it with my tongue so i dunno.
I've had the blue vision multiple times, but it was on anti-depressants. I took Zoloft and some others when I was younger. I also took Stillnox for insomnia, and found I was doing all sorts of weird s**t in my sleep. Yeah, my girlfriend took some with me one time when she couldn't sleep, and we both had really weird, kinky sex all night, not one wink of sleep like you're supposed to get. I don't think you can get Stillnox in Australia anymore after numerous news reports.
ReplyThe blue vision made it into a tv sitcom. can't remember what it was though.
Alien hand sounds like the perfect alibi to use when randomly unbuttoning the busty librarian's blouse.
ReplyI took clomipramine years ago and never had random orgasms.
ReplyI feel cheated
You obviously weren't taking enough.
I thought everyone got random orgasms, even without pills. I thought that was what adult diapers were for.
Huh.
i think having a alien hand would be awesome, but only if i could train it.
ReplyI believe it would be just like your other hand then.
What Sarah said.
I know Cracked deals in hyperbole, the the title of this article is comppletely retarded. None of these side effects belong in horror movies. Most of them are just plain funny and not really scary at all (although I'm sure unnerving if they happen to you).
ReplyAlso, the #1 isn't even a medication.
#1 is not a medication but specifically refers to seizure-prohibiting medications, just not by any names. Otherwise, yes I agree as far as the title goes. The article itself was great.
My sister used to take Ambien and, though normally a light sleeper, she'd end up completely out and wake up having had sex but not be aware of it. So the idea of having crazy sex on Ambien is possible but likely as they say not something you'd be able to remember.
No it refers to a surgical procedure, dumbass. The reason it happens is that when you split the two hemispheres of the brain they can no longer communicate and develop separately, so you effectively have two independently functioning brains.
Having the alien from Alien instead of genitals actually sounds pretty sexy :)
Reply