DANGER: Inhalant Hazards.

One teen's struggle with the deadly fumes of inhalants 

As elementary school kids, Amy(*) and her friends used to laugh at the strange sight of "Huffer." He was a wiry man with long black hair who lived in a rickety cabin on the Standing Rock Reservation in South Dakota. When their school bus passed by, they'd watch him kick and swat the air as if wrestling imaginary monsters. The kids dubbed him Huffer, because the monsters were hallucinations brought on by "huffing"--or inhaling--gasoline.

Amy, 13, doesn't laugh anymore. For the past two years, she has struggled with her own inhalant abuse. "I'm still terrified that one day I'll end up like him," she says.

Luckily, Amy is receiving help in a residential drug treatment center. At Our Home Inc.'s substance abuse program in Heron, South Dakota, she's learning to understand why she turned to inhalants. And she's dealing directly with the anguish she once tried to wipe out with deadly vapors.

SCARED AND CURIOUS

Amy's struggle with inhalants started casually. One afternoon in July 1997, she ran into some older friends down at a creek bed. On the ground were a gas can and some white plastic bags. "We're huffing," one girl said to Amy. "Would you like to try it?"

"I was scared and curious at the same time," Amy recalls. "I really wanted them to like me and not to think I was one of those girls who thinks she's better than everyone else. So I said `Yes.'

"The gas burned my throat, and I started to feel dizzy and lightheaded. I got really scared. I didn't know what was going on. Then I started hallucinating. I saw a duck walking toward us in the mud. I said, `Look at those duck tracks.' Everyone started laughing at me. Someone said, `She's acting like Huffer.' Then I heard voices coming from the trees. I couldn't make out what they were saying. It was really frightening."

Amy's 8-year-old brother stumbled on the group and spied the gas can. "I'm telling Mom!" he screamed, dashing toward their home. "We threw the gas can into the woods and took off," Amy says.

MOM DOESN'T CARE

Amy slunk home, but was stunned when her mother seemed unconcerned. Though she sent Amy to her room and later ordered her to do the dishes and laundry, "she didn't seem that angry, and we never talked about what I had done," Amy recalls. "I thought she didn't really care much about it."

For Amy, her mother's blase reaction was her passport to self-destruction. A week later, she "huffed" with a friend who siphoned gasoline from an abandoned car. Then another kid slipped a can of air freshener into her house. As Amy huffed the fumes it seemed that the walls spoke to her. "They were saying, `Amy, Amy.'"

Soon she inhaled fumes whenever she could. After each episode she was racked with worry, fear, shame, confusion, guilt, and regret.

ESCAPE FROM HOME LIFE

For Amy, getting high became an escape from her home life. Her parents, who were separated, drank heavily and argued. She was the oldest of seven children who were often neglected.

In March 1998, when a number of her siblings were found abandoned in a car, Amy and her brothers and sisters were shuttled temporarily into foster care. Heartbroken and homesick, Amy sneaked cans of air freshener and carpet cleaner into the house. Later that month, she was caught huffing and was sent to a juvenile group home.

Over the next year Amy longed for her family, but her trips home were disasters. During one visit to her family, her mother, who was drunk, left to keep drinking with friends, leaving Amy to round up and watch six siblings. "I was so angry I just started crying," she says. "I didn't want to feel anything. I found some air freshener, and I started huffing in my brother's room. I kept huffing until the can was empty. I thought, `Why should I work so hard to quit huffing if my mom's not working to stop drinking?"

When Amy's group parent caught her with inhalants in August 1999, she sent her to the inhalant treatment center. By this time, Amy says, huffing had taken a physical toll on her body. When she tried to climb stairs or play basketball, her reactions were slow. Still, she felt lucky when she saw how inhalants had impacted other kids at the treatment center.

Amy also learned about chemical addiction. (Although few inhalant users become physically addicted, many become psychologically dependent on the fumes.) Most important, Amy found that the drug counselors really cared about her. "They listened to me," she says. "I talked about how hurt I was that my mother didn't take care of us and about how I wanted my family to be normal."

FIGHTING TEMPTATION

By October, Amy's parents had reunited and were working to stay sober. Her mom and dad came to the center for a three-day program for family members of patients. There, Amy apologized to them for her destructive decision to abuse inhalants. Then she read from a letter she had written them: "I am hurt and angry that you made promises you couldn't keep and that you got high with others and didn't make sure we were safe at home. I am angry because you made me watch the kids, and I never got a chance to be a kid." Her mother broke into tears.

This month Amy's treatment will end, and she hopes to return home. She's determined to struggle against temptations that are everywhere. On a recent group trip, the counselors pulled their van into a gas station. "I smelled the gas and my mouth watered," Amy recalls. "I wanted to huff." Amy knows that when feelings of frustration, anger, or loneliness overwhelm her, her cravings may increase.

To fight the temptation, Amy vows to avoid other huffers and make friends who don't use inhalants or other substances. She's also learned to talk through her feelings instead of huffing them away. "I know I can always call the counselors here," she says. "Before, I didn't have anyone." In her mind, the choice is Clear. Amy says, "I never want to huff again."

What are inhalants?

Inhalants aren't drugs. They are an assortment of chemicals and toxins that, when inhaled, are poisonous to the brain and body. They include common household items such as spray paints, air fresheners, glues, correction fluids, lighter fluids, and hair sprays.

Why do teens use inhalants?

Some teens mistakenly confuse the body's reaction to being poisoned with a high.

Brain Damage

Solvents in some inhalants, such as nail-polish remover, may dissolve the myelin sheath (fatty white layer) that protects and surrounds the brain's nerve cells. When the myelin sheath is damaged, chronic abusers may experience permanent difficulty with such simple tasks as bending over, walking, and talking.

RELATED ARTICLE: The Word on Inhalants

1. How do inhalants affect the body?

Inhalants, which are breathed through the nose or mouth, can cause disorientation, hallucinations, memory loss, and lack of coordination. "You're breathing something other than the air and the oxygen you need to exist, grow, and survive" says Earl Seigal, director of the Drug and Poison Information Center in Cincinnati, Ohio. Instead of oxygen, the brain and body fill with toxic gas.

Some inhalants also contain glues, sealants, or glue-like chemicals. Inhaled into the lungs, these substances literally seal out the transfer of oxygen to the bloodstream. The body can simply suffocate from lack of oxygen.

2. What are other inhalant effects?

Inhalants contain a wide variety of toxins, which target different body parts, from the brain and skin to the liver and kidneys.

* Toluene (TALL-yu-een), which is found in correction fluids, paint thinners, and some nail-polish removers, causes a loss of brain tissue. It also can cause kidney problems, hearing and vision loss, and chromosomal damage.

* Benzene (BEN-zeen), a gasoline additive, causes serious injury to bone marrow and to the immune system. It is toxic to reproductive organs and thought to be linked to an increased risk of leukemia.

* Trichloethylene (tri-klo-EH-tha-leen), found in glues, sealants, and paints, causes liver damage, injury to heart muscles and reproductive organs, and even miscarriage during pregnancy.

3. What is sudden sniffing death?

Inhalants slow the functioning of the central nervous system. Any exertion--such as running or even getting scared---can lead to the release of the hormone adrenaline. Adrenaline causes the heart to pump harder and rush more oxygen to the brain. To comply, the heart may experience sudden rhythmic surges. "A person high on inhalants can feel playful one minute" Seigal says, "and in two minutes be dead."

RELATED ARTICLE: signs of Inhalant Use

* breath and clothing that smell like chemicals

* spots or sores around the mouth

* paint or stains on body or clothing

* dazed or glassy-eyed look

* nausea or loss of appetite 

* anxiety, excitability, or irritability

* slurred speech

* red or runny nose 

[CHART OMITTED]

If You Think someone you know is using inhalants, alert an adult, call the National Inhalant Prevention Coalition's HOTLINE [phone], or visit www.inhalants.org.

SEND A LETTER TO AMY You can address it to: Amy, c/o Our Home Inc., Box 914, Heron, S.D. 57350

(*) Amy's last name is withheld to protect her identity.