How are Inhalants Used?
Previously we’ve mentioned the role of inhalants in youth cultures. What people don’t understand is that casual exposure to inhalant drugs is just as dangerous as abusing them routinely. This is because of how inhalants are used.
Inhalant abuse (a.k.a., huffing) occurs when you breathe a chemical into your lungs. This is typically done by spraying them into your nose or by soaking a cloth in the inhalant and then holding it up to your face. However, there are a few other ways huffing is done, including:
- Sniffing or snorting the chemicals directly from the container
- Soaking the inhalant in a bag then inhaling the fumes (a.k.a., bagging)
- Spraying the inhalant directly into your nose or mouth (a.k.a., spraying)
- Putting the inhalant in a balloon then inhaling it through your mouth (a.k.a., inhaling)
What are the Risk Factors for Inhalant Abuse?
There are many risk factors associated with inhalant abuse. These short-term effects include:
- Changes in blood pressure that can result in blackouts
- Lack of inhibition
- Delusions
- Numbness
- Visual hallucinations
- Drowsiness
When you continue abusing inhalants the risk factors increase. These include:
- Nausea
- Depression
- Appetite loss
- Inability to pay attention
- Dizziness
- Confusion
- Agitation
- Poor judgment
It’s important to understand that the impact of these effects depends on which type of inhalant you’ve abused.
Are Inhalants Dangerous?
Although inhalants seem harmless, they’re very risky. Many people die from this addiction every year. One of the main reasons for this is how quickly they affect your body. Their effects occur within seconds and last for a few minutes so many people will abuse them again right away. However, the way they affect all the major organs in your body makes them very dangerous.
Potential Damage to the Body from Inhalant Abuse
When you abuse inhalants over a period they start accumulating in your body and your brain so they can have an overwhelmingly negative impact on your well-being. These long-term effects include damage to your kidneys and heart, muscle weakness, impaired thinking, damage to your red blood cells, and nerve damage resulting in chronic pain. However, the way inhalants affect your brain is the worst of all these effects.
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Issues with Your Brain
Inhalant abuse can cause direct damage to your brain’s nerve cells. When this happens your brain’s nerves have a difficult time communicating. This results in muscle spasms, speech problems, and poor motor coordination.
They can also cause a condition known as hypoxia in your brain since it’s been denied oxygen. This impairment can make the part of the brain that’s impacted unable to function properly again.
Whether these issues are permanent or not depends on how long you’ve abused inhalants and how much of them you’ve abused.
Other Issues
There are also a lot of effects that depend on which type of inhalants you’ve used. For instance, if you’ve abused nitrites, you may have damaged your red blood cells, but if you abused benzenes you may have reproductive issues, a higher likelihood of developing cancer and they also lower your immune system. On the other hand, if you abuse trichloroethylene you may develop liver disease, trigger hearing, and vision loss, and cause reproductive issues.
Can Huffing Cause Brain Damage?
While the high only lasts a few minutes the damage can last forever. Inhalants place you at immediate risk for brain damage and bodily harm. This is because they interact with the chemicals in your brain which are responsible for making you feel a certain way. Even prescription medications for mood regulation, insomnia, and pain management can seriously impact you in these ways if you misuse them.
Not only do inhalants make you high they also cause mind-altering effects resulting in you acting in atypical ways. When this happens, you’re at a greater risk of getting hurt or making bad decisions – both of which can have lasting consequences.
If you become addicted to inhalants, they’ll start negatively impacting your entire body. This occurs in your brain where the chemical messages that are being sent throughout your central nervous system to tell your body how to react are interrupted. With inhalant addiction the way your brain works may be permanently changed. This is because your brain learns to tolerate the drug and eventually it’ll come to depend on it. Without the use of inhalants, you’ll feel flat, sad, and numb.
Once your brain is physically dependent on inhalants, you’ll experience an intense craving for it when the high wears off. You’ll physical and emotional withdrawal symptoms if you choose to get clean. Unfortunately, just because you’ve chosen to get clean doesn’t mean that the impact on your brain is reversible. Some effects aren’t reversible.