Inhalant Addiction: A Pre-teen's Dangerous Escape

Riley Foster became an inhalant addict or more commonly known as a “huffer.” Riley was only 12 year old and inhalants are the largest amount of drugs used by this age category. Riley would sniff gasoline in his garage for hours at a time. The first time he tried inhalants he blacked out but still wanted more. After using drugs, Riley’s attitude became aggressive and frustrated much more. His mother found him in the garage slurring words and stumbling while he ran out of the garage to the woods and was found by his father. On his way to the hospital, blood ran down his nose and he had overdosed where he now is sober after months of rehabilitation. His mother stated that she did not even know inhaling was an option something that occurred in children. She was scared for his life.

He would continually blackout and overdosed on the legal household substance of gasoline. Pre-teens have more access to household products such as cleaners and hairspray etc. so they are more likely to use these instead of other drugs such as marijuana. These kids do not have the access that older kids may have to get their hands on hard drugs.

Sudden Sniffing Death Syndrome can occur from sniffing these inhalants either the first time or after multiple times.

When this happens, the heart is affected, induced to speed up the beating process and eventually will stop beating altogether. The dangerous part about these substances is that they affect younger teens in different ways. They cause more damage to the still developing bodies of these kids and can cause affects lasting later in life including damage to important organs such as the brain and studies also show girls being more affected than boys. Memory can be one of the biggest detriments. Sometimes tolerance is not an option however withdrawal symptoms can develop for people trying to stop use because it is both a physical and psychological

dependence.
Some signs to tell if someone may be huffing might be if there are empty containers with toxic chemicals that may have been previously there or if the suspected person experiences slurred speech, stumbling and nausea as well as mimicking signs of alcohol intoxication combined with mood swings. Some other signs are if the person smells like the substance or if they have red eyes. However the most important thing to understand is why these kids are trying to escape reality and get a high. A lot of the time it is when children are not getting along with other kids or do not feel accepted into a social group. They may feel isolated. Some cases are different though like Riley who was a great student and athlete.
Kids that use these inhalants are more likely to merge towards other drugs in their lifetime. The process of drug use as a teen may grow up is that between the ages of 12 and 13, the highest percentage of kids used inhalants and at 14 and 15 turned to painkillers and finally at 16 and 17 used marijuana. The main thing we need to do to stop kids from doing any sort of drug is to educate them on the dangerous and gruesome facts about these substances as well as look for the signs to stop an addiction that may be developing or already developed.