The truth about inhalants

Some people think that using inhalants such as paint thinners, gasoline, glue or nitrous oxide is "just fun" and not a problem. But the reality is these are dangerous substances that can lead to serious addiction.

When people think of drug abuse, they usually think cocaine, heroin and other substances they might consider to be "hard" drugs. If you ask them about inhalants such as paint thinner, gasoline, glue or nitrous oxide, many people would respond that those aren't really items that lead to drug addiction but are "just fun" things that kids do to experiment.

But the reality of the situation is that these opinions don't match up with the facts about inhalant abuse. Just like with drug or alcohol addiction, abusing inhalants is very serious and can lead to significant physical and mental health problems that can require treatment in a drug rehab program. As of 2008, more than two million teenagers each year used inhalants as a recreational drug, with 15.7 percent of all eighth-graders reporting that they had used an inhalant to get high within the past 12 months.

Using an inhalant produces a sudden high that is similar to people who wind up in alcohol rehabs, including slurred speech, lack of balance and euphoria. However, at high levels inhalants can be extremely dangerous. They can produce a loss of sensation and even unconsciousness or sudden death. The chemicals in the inhalants reduce the flow of oxygen to the brain, eventually causing long-term health problems such as hearing loss, brain damage and bone marrow damage.

Inhalant abuse is a unique form of addiction that requires its own form of drug treatment. Because of the damage that inhalant abuse causes to the brain, long-term users are frequently treated as having both an addiction and as having mental health problems. Another issue is in detoxification - because the chemicals found in inhalants are found in the body's fatty tissue, they are stored longer and therefore take more time to flush out. For this reason, an addiction center might need to spend weeks instead of days helping a patient through the initial detox process before moving on to therapy and other forms of treatment.

Nelson Conway is a freelance writer living in Pasadena, Calif. His work has been published by magazines and major online news sites.