Sue Scheff: Parenting Tips on Talking to Your Teen about Inhalant Abuse

Source: Inhalant.org

• Ask your pre-teen or teenager if he or she knows about Inhalant Abuse or
is aware of other kids abusing products.

• Reinforce peer resistance skills. Tell him or her that sniffing products to get
high is not the way to fit in. Inhalants are harmful: the “high” comes with
high cost.

• Encourage your child to come to you if he or she has any questions about
Inhalants.

• Tell your child that the consequences of Inhalant Abuse are as dangerous as
those from abusing alcohol or using illegal drugs. Be absolutely clear
— emphasize that unsafe actions and risky behavior have serious consequences.

• Monitor your teen’s activities — set boundaries, ask questions. Be firm,
know his or her friends and his or her friends’ parents, know where they
meet to “hang out.”

• Educate your child about the dangers, but don’t mention specific
substances unless your child brings them up. While many youngsters know
kids are sniffing some substances, they may not know the full range of
products that can be abused; and you don’t want to give them suggestions.

• Tell your children that you love them and that their safety is your number
one priority. Tell them again…and again…and again.

Parents Universal Resource Experts - Sue Scheff - Alliance for Consumer Education

Welcome to the Alliance for Consumer Education's (ACE) inhalant abuse prevention site! ACE is a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing community health and well-being.

Did you know 1 in 5 children will abuse inhalants by the 8th grade? Inhalant abuse refers to the deliberate inhalation or sniffing of fumes, vapors or gases from common household products for the purpose of "getting high".

This site is designed to assist you in learning more about inhalant abuse prevention and giving you tools to help raise the awareness of others. While here be sure to check out our free printable resources, and post any comments or questions on ACE’s community message board.

Inhalant Abuse

I know I have Blogged a lot about Inhalant Abuse and I will continue to do so - especially after reading about the recent senseless deaths. Take a moment to read their Blog at http://inhalant-info.blogspot.com/ - Take the time to learn more and you never know when this knowledge will be necessary. http://www.inhalant.org/

The Dangers of Inhalant Abuse

By http://www.inhalant.org/

Inhaled chemicals are rapidly absorbed through the lungs into the bloodstreamand quickly distributed to the brain and other organs. Within minutes, the userexperiences intoxication, with symptoms similar to those produced by drinkingalcohol. With Inhalants, however, intoxication lasts only a few minutes, so someusers prolong the “high” by continuing to inhale repeatedly.

Short-term effects include:

headaches, muscle weakness, abdominal pain, severe mood swings and violent behavior, belligerence, slurred speech, numbness and tingling of the hands and feet, nausea, hearing loss, visual disturbances, limbspasms, fatigue, lack of coordination, apathy, impaired judgment, dizziness, lethargy, depressed reflexes, stupor, and loss of consciousness.

The Inhalant user will initially feel slightly stimulated and, after successive inhalations, will feel less inhibited and less in control. Hallucinations mayoccur and the user can lose consciousness. Worse, he or she, may even die. Please see Sudden Sniffing Death Syndrome below.

Long-term Inhalant users generally suffer from:

weight loss, muscle weakness, disorientation, inattentiveness, lack of coordination, irritability and depression. Different Inhalants produce different harmful effects, and regular abuse of these substances can result in serious harm to vital organs. Serious, but potentially reversible, effects include liver and kidney damage. Harmful irreversible effects include: hearing loss, limb spasms, bone marrow and central nervous system (including brain) damage.

Sudden Sniffing Death Syndrome:

Children can die the first time, or any time, they try an Inhalant. This is known as Sudden Sniffing Death Syndrome. While it can occur with many types of Inhalants, it is particularly associated with the abuse of air conditioning coolant, butane, propane, and the chemicals in some aerosol products. Sudden Sniffing Death Syndrome is usually associated with cardiac arrest. The Inhalant causes the heart to beat rapidly and erratically, resulting in cardiac arrest.

Learn more:

Visit http://www.inhalant.org/

http://www.helpyourteens.com/

http://www.witsendbook.com/

Sue Scheff: New England Inhalant Abuse Prevention Coalition

Inhalant Information

Click on the links below for more information about inhalant abuse, prevention, and treatment.

Prevention VideosPrevention Information

Treatment Information

Inhalant Web Sites
Our Prevention Approach Inhalants, more than any other drug, are readily available to children, and can be deadly on first use. Therefore, to do no harm, inhalant prevention messages for children should not teach them what products can be abused, how to abuse inhalants, or what their euphoric effects are. We do not want to engage their curiosity.

Today’s prevailing expert consensus about best practices recommends disconnecting inhalant abuse prevention from substance abuse prevention for children who do not already know about inhalants. Instead, education about inhalants should stress their poisonous, toxic, polluting, combustible and explosive nature and should emphasize product safety. When targeting young children who have had little or no exposure to the nature of inhalants, there is no reason to make the association for them, thereby giving them an easily accessible way to get high. When children already know about inhalants as a drug, we still teach about it as we would for a naïve child, but may add a substance abuse component. The materials in this section follow this approach.

http://www.inhalant.org/
http://www.helpyourteens.com/

Sue Scheff: KYDS Survey of Inhalant Use

A recent news story used the statistics found in the 2006 Prevention Needs Assessment Survey from the KYDS Coalition, sponsored by the Broome County Mental Health Department in Binghamton, New York.

The entire survey can be read in the link above, but it is rather long; here are some relevant data points:


Percentages of Students using Inhalants (lifetime):

7th grade

2002: 8.7%
2004: 8.1%
2006: 10.8%
Monitoring the Future survey: n/a

8th grade

2002: 11.0%
2004: 8.9%
2006: 15.2%
Monitoring the Future survey: 17.1%

9th grade

2002: 10.3%
2004: 10.7%
2006: 13.5%
Monitoring the Future survey: n/a

10th grade

2002: 7.6%
2004: 10.2%
2006: 14.6%
Monitoring the Future survey: 13.1%

11th grade

2002: 7.9%
2004: 11.6%
2006: 13.0%
Monitoring the Future survey: n/a

12th grade

2002: 8.4%
2004: 7.6%
2006: 10.5%
Monitoring the Future survey: 11.4%

Total

2002: 9.0%
2004: 9.6%
2006: 13.0%
Monitoring the Future survey: n/a
What are the highlights of this data? Well, there is an increase in every single grade for inhalant usage from 2004 data to 2006. Total inhalant usage jumped from 9.0% to 13.0% in four years.

A lot of people wonder why lifetime inhalant use reporting is higher in eighth grade than it is in other years. If someone reported using inhalants when they were 13, shouldn't they have reported a lifetime inhalant use when they are 18?

I can think of two reasons for why this may happen. First, as students get older, they might minimize the importance of inhalant usage during middle school and not report it as often, or simply forget about it after a few years.

Secondly, many of these surveys are done during school hours. If you have students abusing inhalants in eighth grade, these same students might not have stayed in school all the way until senior year. They may have moved on to other drugs and abandoned their schoolwork. Studies would have to take into account the dropout rate as well.

It will be interesting to see the results of a 2008 study.

http://www.inhalant.org/

http://www.helpyourteens.com/