Huffing 2011: Have the Conversation

Do you have a felt-tip marker, deodorant spray, air freshener, or container of paint thinner in your home? How about gasoline, glue, or hair spray? Do you use compressed air to clean your computer or spray your frying pan with oil before cooking?

"Of course" is the usual reply. When used appropriately, these items allow us to accomplish a variety of routine daily tasks.

Sadly, these inexpensive and readily obtainable items are also used by young teens to get high by "huffing." This practice involves the deliberate inhaling of chemical vapor products, such as those listed above, in order to obtain a rapid buzz that resembles alcohol intoxication. 

Unfortunately, even one-time experimentation may disrupt heart rhythms, lower oxygen levels, and lead to heart failure and death.

We can't hide these substances from our kids, but we can become knowledgeable about inhalants and have parent-child conversations about the attraction and dangers of huffing.

Young Teens Most at Risk

Recent studies estimate that nearly one of every ten adolescents age 12 or older has misused an inhalant sometime during his or her life and that on any given day, approximately 44,000 teens are likely to experiment with this harmful practice.*

Most at risk are our youngest teens and older pre-teens.

Significant rates of huffing occur as early as fourth grade, and deaths resulting from this practice have been reported for 10-year-olds. One study found that nearly 7 percent of 12-year-olds have already used an inhalant to get high.

This rate of experimentation is higher than the use of cigarettes, marijuana, hallucinogens, and cocaine for this age group. Only alcohol had a higher rate of use.**

There is no reason to suspect that these figures are significantly different in South Brunswick. 

What Is Huffing?

Huffing is the practice of inhaling fumes and vapors through the nose or mouth in order to get a quick high.

The youth may sniff or snort fumes from a container, spray aerosols directly into his mouth or nose, or place a chemically soaked rag in her mouth. He or she can also choose to inhale vapors by using a balloon, paper bag, or plastic bag.

Because the inhalant "high" only lasts a few minutes, users find themselves repeating the process, often in a short period of time. It is this back-to-back huffing that creates stress on the heart and catapults it to dangerous and sometimes fatal levels. 

How It Works:

Regardless of huffing method, inhalants are absorbed quickly through the lungs and into the bloodstream, producing a fast but short-lived intoxication.

Unfortunately, in this process, air is displaced from the lungs and the body becomes deprived of oxygen. This condition, known as hypoxia, can damage brain cells. Depending upon which part of the brain is affected, a chronic inhalant user can lose the ability to learn new things or even have a hard time carrying on a conversation.

The immediate effects of inhalants are similar to alcohol, including euphoria and dizziness. Some users also report hallucinations, delusions, nausea, or vomiting. Others say they feel drowsy for several hours and/or experience a headache.***

Negative Consequences: Playing Russian Roulette

Each huffing session is an accident waiting to happen.

Even when knowledgeable about the dangers of sniffing, the user feels buoyed that "nothing bad" happened after the brief high ends. Armed with this misperception, he or she huffs again. By the time hypoxia sets in, heart failure has begun and death is close.

This syndrome, known as "sudden sniffing death," can happen to otherwise healthy kids the first time they huff or at any time thereafter.

Even if death does not occur, there are harmful and irreversible effects from chronic huffing, including hearing loss, limb spasms or peripheral neuropathies, central nervous system or brain damages, and bone marrow damage. 

Note that experimentation with inhalants by teens with respiratory problems such as asthma, bronchitis, pneumonia, and sinusitis is particularly dangerous because:

• Irritation of breathing passages results in coughing, inflammation, and nosebleeds.
• Depression of the central nervous system sometimes hinders the nerves controlling breathing.
• Dangerous shortage of oxygen in the lungs causes unconsciousness, coma, or death.*
• Having the Conversation

Signs that your teen may be huffing include: 

• Unusual breath odor or chemical smell from clothes
• A dizzy or drunk appearance
• Slurred speech or disoriented thinking
• Red eyes or a chronic runny nose
• Sudden mood changes
• Intense irritability

 As with other teen issues, the best approach is to initiate discussions about inhalant abuse before active use begins. Here are some guidelines for having the conversation: 

• Ask your child how much he or she knows about huffing and listen with an open mind to the response.
• Communicate that you understand the attractiveness of getting high and how easy it is use inhalants.
• Give the facts regarding potential consequences.
• Silently accept the fact that most teens and "tweeners" feel immortal and bullet-proof when it comes to death.
• Tell your child you love him or her and are open to further conversations.
• Then, as in all areas of raising a teen, let go and hope for the best. 

Finally, a word to those parents who fear that talking about the high associated with inhalant abuse will encourage their teen to try huffing. While this possibility exists, professionals agree that arming your child with knowledge and an open door to further discussion greatly increases the odds that he or she will say no when faced with peer pressure to huff.

* http://oas.samhsa.gov/2k10/175/175RespiratoryCond.htm

* http://www.oas.samhsa.gov/2K10/inhalents/Spotlight1001Adollnhalant.htm 

*** http://www.drugabuse.gov/infofacts/inhalants.html