Close-up: inhalants. (Heads up" real news about drugs and your body).

Until she was 12, Megan Hakeman had a simple life in Watertown, South Dakota, a small town with one mall and one movie theater. She described herself as a "regular, happy kid" who hung out with friends and watched TV. The only real suffering she'd known was losing her grandfather, but she said she accepted that as "part of life."

Then, things got complicated. Megan was sexually abused by a trusted friend.

"I thought about it [the attack] a lot and I didn't know what to do. I wanted it to go away," she says.

Too afraid to tell her parents and unsure of how else to cope with her feelings, Megan decided to try to escape her pain. A friend showed her how to get high using inhalants.

Inhalants are, to put it simply, poisons. Most of them are common household products, like spray paints, air fresheners, paint thinner, correction fluid, and lighter fluid. All give off toxic fumes.

HURTING HERSELF

Megan and a group of friends began "huffing" together often. They joined the 15.2% of their peers who have experimented with inhalants by the time they're in 8th grade.

But Megan's friends soon learned something terrifying: Huffing can kill you. So, they wisely quit.

Despite this scary news, Megan kept huffing alone. Her whole sense of self-worth was out of whack after the sexual abuse. "I figured why not hurt myself, if he [the attacker] hurt me," she told Scholastic.

And she was indeed hurting herself and risking many medical consequences. Dr. David Shurtleff, the Acting Director of Neuroscience and Behavioral Research at NIDA, says that inhalants can affect your ability to think, talk, remember, hear, and even walk. "Really what you're doing is destroying nerve fibers throughout the brain," he says.

HURTING MOM

It wasn't just Megan's brain cells that were in danger. She ignored her schoolwork. Her best friend dumped her because of the drug use. And she lashed out at her mom.

"I always hit my mom when I was using," says Megan. "I feel really bad because I should have never hit my mom. That's something that nobody should ever do."

These violent outbursts may have been an effect of the inhalants. According to Dr. Shurtleff, huffing can cause agitation, irritability, and even violent behavior.

EMBARRASSMENT TO THE FAMILY

Megan hit rock bottom one night. High on inhalants and other drugs, she rode on top of a friend's car, fell off, and got a concussion.

Then, rock bottom got even lower. The next night, she fought with her brother. He said she was an embarrassment to the family.

That struck a chord with Megan. "I knew it was true, but I didn't want to hear it," she says.

She was so upset that she attempted suicide. Luckily, she was rushed to the hospital in time.

After her trip to the ER, Megan finally got into treatment at a facility called Our Home, Inc., in Heron, South Dakota. Today, she's 16, and she's been inhalant free for almost two years.

A NEW LIFE

On the day we spoke to her, Megan had plans to make "play-doh" with her friends. Why would a teenager want to do something so childish? Because for Megan, smiling over something silly is what her new life is all about.

But things are not as simple as they once were. Megan still suffers from some of the effects of her inhalant abuse. "I can't really remember a lot of things" she told us. "When I'm talking I'll forget what I just said two seconds ago. It frustrates me a lot."

Whether or not her memory is restored, Megan will never be the same. She says she now appreciates every day because she knows that she is one of the lucky ones. She survived, and she easily could have died.

INHALANTS CAN KILL

You can die the first time you try inhalants.

There are a number of ways huffing can kill. The most common is called Sudden Sniffing Death syndrome. "The chemicals are acting neurologically to cause irregular heart rhythms that can lead to heart failure and then death," says Dr. Shurtleff.

You can also die by asphyxiation (lack of oxygen). When you breathe in the fumes, you fill up the cells in your lungs with poisonous chemicals, leaving no room for the oxygen we all need to breathe and live. Lack of oxygen can lead to respiratory failure and death.

In this country, approximately 100 teens die each year from inhalant abuse. Last year, Johnson Bryant became one of those teens. Still in shock, his parents talked to us about their tremendous loss.

Chris Bryant, father: "Johnson and I had an unusually close relationship.... This was a child who went to a private school, had an A-/B+ average, played varsity sports, and made a very bad decision."

Toy Bryant, mother: "It's frightening to see your son in a body bag.... When the coroner said it looked like he'd inhaled butane, I thought, `This is something I see on 20/20' ... There is no pain like losing a child.... Some mornings I can't get out of bed.... I talk to Johnson sometimes. Sometimes I yell at him. Sometimes i say `I miss you, baby.'"

WHO NEEDS MYELIN?

Inhalants can damage or destroy myelin. But who needs myelin? You do. Messages travel along the axons of your brain cells (or neurons) in the form of electricity. Think of myelin as the insulation around these electrical "wires." it's a fatty coating, or sheath, that protects the axons and helps conduct messages smoothly and speedily, ensuring that your muscles easily carry out your brain's orders.

When myelin deteriorates, this smooth flow of signals is disrupted. The result? Muscle spasms and tremors, or even permanent difficulty with basic actions like walking, bending, and talking.

Over-the-Counter Horror

Forget the idea that if you can buy it at the grocery store it's harmless. Inhalants can do serious and sometimes permanent damage to your brain, nerves, and body. Here's just some or what research tells us.

Inhalants can ...

* disrupt the flow of messages between brain cells by destroying myelin [see above].

* actually shrink parts of the brain. Where brain tissue disappears, brain cells have died. Effects may include difficulties with learning, thinking, and remembering.

* damage the lungs, kidneys, and liver.

* damage bone marrow.

* cause hearing loss.

* impair vision.

* cause limb spasms.

* cause muscle weakness.

* cause tremors and uncontrollable shaking.