Toxicomania - from the Greek.toxikos, which means poisonous, and mania is a passion. From a medical point of view, both substance abuse and drug addiction depend on psychoactive substances, there is no difference in them."Childhood addiction", as they call addiction, is a serious problem also because it is difficult to legally deal with it.
Gas toxicity
Gas from lighters, cartridges is inhaled mostly by teenagers, they are also the victims of volatile toxins and their curiosity. Teenagers gather in groups, and the inhalation of poisonous fumes is a way to show themselves implicated in this group, "their own".
This false sense of collectivism recruits to the ranks of drug addicts all new victims, and not all of them belong to dysfunctional families. Children of well-off parents, deprived of attention, acquire harmful experience of substance abuse, and often depend on poisonous gases.
Toxicoman deeply inhales poisonous vapors into the lungs, where they pass unimpeded through the membranes of the alveoli into the blood, thanks to the ability to dissolve fats.
This is how the gasoline pairs act:
- With the blood flow, some molecules are directly sent to the brain, where all the cellular barriers easily pass.
- Another part of the gasoline vapor enters the main bloodstream of the body, it is neutralized by the liver with the formation of dangerous metabolites.
One of the most dangerous products of the breakdown of gasoline is styrene. It is able to accumulate in the body in fatty tissues in high concentrations. Fat in the body is not only under the skin. It is part of the shells of nerve endings, brain tissue.
Styrene has a mutagenic, carcinogenic effect, affects the digestive system, blood, genital organs.
Properties of volatile poisons
Active substances of toxic inhalants are aromatic hydrocarbons, aliphatic compounds.
The effect of these substances on humans is expressed in the following changes:
- dermatitis and burns on contact with skin;
- irritation, ulceration of the mucosa, which often causes cancer;
- malignant degeneration of body cells, tumor proliferation in various internal organs.
Aliphatic compounds are used for the production of herbicides, insecticides, they pose a danger to warm-blooded animals and humans.
Components of natural gas - butane, propane, are not toxic, but displacing oxygen upon inhalation of the mixture, cause suffocation in the victim of substance abuse. Death comes from lack of oxygen.
Reasons for
There was no physical dependence on gas inhalation. The reasons for the use of household chemicals as a drug are the psychological characteristics of the adolescent and the social problems that he faces in life.
Toxicomania chooses victims from a socially disadvantaged environment, with drinking parents. The child's desire to escape from a domestic nightmare leads him to adolescent peers who sniff different substances in order to experience a "buzz".
Uniting in a group, the children reproduce the stereotype of behavior inherent in their homes - the joint use of neurotoxic substances that cause a temporary separation from reality.
By changing the nature of the use of toxin, adolescents, in fact, repeat the parental experience. It is incredibly difficult to get rid of this psychological setup, and parents can primarily help their children.
Phases
And gas addiction from cans for lighters and other inhalers, and drug addiction cause physical and mental dependence and require treatment. Physical dependence is manifested by nausea, convulsions, headache. Toxicans suffer from sleep disorders, insomnia.
Toxic effect in the use of volatile fumes develops in three stages, during which the addict gradually loses the sense of his own "I":
- The perception of the surrounding space is preserved, the consciousness is clouded. The person is relaxed.
- There is no coordination, no balance, no ability to control your body. The reality is distorted, there is a feeling of lightness that can induce a person to leave the window, jump from a height.
- Communication with reality is lost. Loses the feeling of being as a person, time freezes, reality is replaced by hallucinations, more often of a frightening character.
For toxic inhalants, the existence of tolerance, a dose-dependent effect is not reliably established. But it is known that gradually the amount of inhalation varies from once a week, to daily use of glue, gasoline, gas from the lighter.
Symptoms and signs
On external symptoms, it is difficult to determine if a teen is a substance abuse.
Changes, if you look closely, are observed in appearance:
- pupils are dilated;
- appears tremor of brushes;
- face turns red;
- area of the nasolabial triangle acquires a cyanotic hue;
- coordination of movements is violated.
How to understand that the child is a toxicant
Special tests for the detection of toxic substances in the urine are available in the pharmacy. Such a test easily confirms or refutes the parents' suspicion that their child began using inhalant toxins.
And these suspicions should arise if:
- a smell of gasoline, household chemicals appeared from the teenager's clothes;
- in a child blush, watery eyes;
- declines in school performance;
- memory degrades.
Teen boys at the age of 10-15 years are more likely to suffer from substance abuse.
Consequences of
Propane, butane, isobutane can cause atrial fibrillation by inhalation, which may be followed by death.
For 2 years, toxins, if not killed, make a person disabled with dementia. The most affected by the poisons is the brain, liver, lungs.
Chronic brain poisoning with gas leads to toxic encephalopathy. Outwardly this is manifested by a delay in development, a catastrophic decline in intelligence. The circle of interests of the teenager is limited to a single aspiration - to die once more a couple of poisons.
Adolescents are not able to concentrate on the lesson, they fall behind the program sharply, they are not able to learn new material.
Remote
With continued use of toxic gases,
- develops lung diseases - from chronic colds, pharyngitis to lung cancer;
- affects the bone marrow, which leads to leukemia, a sharp weakening of immunity;
- is destroyed by the liver - cirrhosis is a common cause of death of toxic addicts;
- is observed in brain toxic encephalopathy.
Toxicans by the gas of the hangers are often victims of accidents in the home, on the roadway. It is not uncommon among them to die from suffocation due to obstruction of the respiratory tract by vomit, pulmonary edema in response to penetration of gas vapors for lighters into bronchi and alveoli.
What happens to the brain
Toxic encephalopathy means constant fear, panic attacks, impaired visual perception. At the patient representations about real sizes of objects are distorted, ability to adequately predict a situation is broken.
Brain damages occur within six months, even when inhaled vapors of volatile household chemicals once a week.
Stopping breathing can occur directly on the breath - so quickly a couple of toxins reach the brain. The release of stress hormones into the blood causes frequent heartbeats, a violation of the nerve impulses that control the work of the heart, and death from its sudden stop.
In the video, the causes and consequences of gas addiction:
Treatment
The most important way to cure a teenager from substance abuse in the absence of dependence is a change of residence, moving, a long trip - any way to isolate the child from the usual circle of friends.
Brain destruction causes depression, which can be cured only by a specialist. Treatment is carried out on an outpatient basis or, preferably, in a specialized narcological clinic.
The patient is treated for chronic poisoning, conducting restorative treatment for the heart, lungs, inject glucose, vitamins.
The most important role in the treatment of adolescents from substance abuse belongs to psychotherapists. The scope of their tasks includes:
- development of an installation for the refusal to use toxic inhalants and psychoactive substances;
- formation of a new behavioral model that reduces the likelihood of renewal of substance abuse;
- widening the circle of interests, development of the emotional, volitional sphere of the child.
Attempts simply to protect the child from a "bad company" will not succeed. It is important to find out why a child sniffs gas, after which both parents and society as a whole should offer such adolescents something really important - their attention, love, protection.