Childhood Your Teen or Preteen

¶ … Childhood

Your teen or preteen doesn't buy drugs or drink -- but he or she may still be getting high?

Parents today have many things to worry about. They worry about their child's success in school, Internet predators, and the availability of legal and illegal drugs on the playground. They have so much to worry about they may overlook one of the most dangerous yet easily available sources of a 'cheap' high: inhalants. Within every kitchen or garage, children can access substances that can be used in ways far different than how the manufacturer intended them to be used.

Perhaps because of their greater availability and low cost, or perhaps because teens do not regard them as 'real drugs,' inhalant use amongst younger teens is on the rise. "According to the most recent Monitoring the Future Study, relatively low proportions of 8th and 10th graders think that there is a 'great risk' in using inhalants"(Inhalants and huffing, 2010, Parents: The antidrug). More adolescents use inhalants than those who use illicit drugs, and teens tend to begin to use these drugs at younger ages than other substances. Caucasian and Hispanic adolescents are statistically more at risk.

Over one thousand common household products can be used for a cheap high, spanning everything from airplane glue to scotch-guard, Pam cooking sprays, gasoline, paint thinner, butane lighter fluid, white out -- even magic markers and rubber cement (Inhalants, 2010, Teen drug abuse). Although the substances are innocent, they can have deadly consequences, including cardiac arrhythmias, brain, kidney, and liver damage. For example, Toluene, used in paint sprays, glues, dewaxers can cause hearing loss, central nervous system damage and limb spasms "(Inhalants and huffing, 2010, Parents: The antidrug). However, because parents have not been trained to spot the signs of inhalant abuse, they may have more difficulty realizing that products within their household are being used for a quick high. Parents as well as children may even believe because they use such products for legitimate purposes, the practice cannot be so bad.

Teens often call the abuse of inhalants "huffing." They may spray aerosol fumes directly into their mouth or nose; inhale the substance inside a paper or plastic bag or on a rag; or from balloons filled with nitrous oxide. There is also a strong correlation between depression and huffing: "Between 2004 and 2006, an estimated 218,000 youths aged 12-17 used inhalants and also experienced depression in the past year," and depressed teens were more than three times as likely to start using inhalants, as "the reverse is also true, showing that teens often started using inhalants before depression began" (Inhalants and huffing, 2010, Parents: The antidrug). Besides exhibiting the symptoms of depression, such as moody or withdrawn behavior, teens who are huffing may smell like the substance they are abusing, appear drunk or uncoordinated, and slur their speech. Missing household products, rags that smell like chemicals that can be abused or other paraphernalia in the teen's room are other clues for parents.