no dont break them up, just pop as many as u can swallow at a time, what you should do is find whatever cough medicine you have and look at the mg dextromethorphan in each pill or if its syrup the mg of dxm per ml. then add it up to whatever kind of dose you want 200-300 low 400-500 med 600+ high for your first time, youll grow a tolerance over time so itll take more in the future