Author: John Carter
Whippits 10 Facts to Know About Inhaling Nitrous Oxide
Nitrous oxide also affects blood pressure and heart rate, making it dangerous for anyone, but especially those with even minor heart conditions. But, if you take nitrous oxide, or know someone who does, all these symptoms could indicate a nitrous oxide overdose. They breathe directly from the balloon, taking a little or a lot at one time. There is no accurate way to determine how much N2O someone has inhaled, or how long it has been in their system.
If you use a lot of nitrous oxide, it messes with your oxygen supply. The drug can cut off your oxygen and cause you to pass out or die. Whippets aren’t physically addictive, but you can develop a psychological addiction to them. This happens because your brain likes the high from nitrous oxide.
Treatment Process
In a medical setting, staff may look out for muscle weakness or a lack of response to nerve impulses. They may also check for ataxia, which means a lack of coordination that can affect speech, eye movements, and even how you walk. It’s important to remember that every time you inhale nitrous oxide, you’re depriving your body of oxygen.
Whippet use can harm your overall health, family life, career, education, your relationships, and finances. If these drugs begin to affect you or a loved one’s well-being, it’s important to get help. Don’t open whippet canisters around flammable substances, open flames, or cigarettes. If you’re addicted to whippets, you have a higher chance of dying from them.
These highs change your brain’s reward center and make you crave it more. About 11.8 million participants in the 2016 survey reported past misuse of nitrous oxide or whippits. That’s nearly double the number of people who reported using the next most common inhalant. Nitrous oxide can also cause withdrawal symptoms when a person reduces or stops their use of the drug.
People Consume Whippits with Balloons
Many people dread surgery, so nitrous oxide is always on hand in clinics to calm patients down and alleviate the anxiety and the pain that comes from certain dental and surgical procedures. Neuroscience News explains that when nitrous oxide is properly used, it is harmless; when the patient stops inhaling the gas, it leaves their body very quickly. But the antidepressant effects of nitrous oxide “may linger in the brain long after the drug is out of the body,” which can potentially set the stage for someone who cannot control their compulsion to experience the euphoria more. Also known as “hippy crack”, “whip-its”, and “nitro,” whippets are cartridges of nitrous oxide, a psychoactive inhalant drug. Nitrous oxide is used to charge whipped cream canisters and is also used as a sedative and anesthetic by dentists and doctors, where it is commonly referred to as laughing gas.
- It can also cause frostbite because the gas gets extremely cold when it leaves a pressurized container.
- Even the knowing distribution or use of nitrous oxide for recreational purposes is only a misdemeanor; since the gas is not a controlled substance, its illicit use is punishable by six months in jail.
- While it is possible to achieve sobriety and recovery alone, most people achieve better results when a trained medical professional leads the recovery process.
- If you’ve ever been curious about whippets, their legality, their risks, or how to use them safely, read on for our full guide to the drug.
- Without that oxygen, people who take straight nitrous oxide are in danger of developing immediate hypoxia, decreased oxygen content in the blood.
The Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology & Biological Psychiatry journal noted that some doctors have tried using lamotrigine, an anticonvulsant, to help people addicted to nitrous oxide get off the gas. The 21-year-old man who had been inhaling nitrous oxide for four years received both lamotrigine and individual and behavioral psychotherapy. The therapy proved ineffective, but a daily dose of lamotrigine for six months was successful in helping him discontinue his nitrous oxide abuse. For some people, detoxing from whippet drugs can be very dangerous and requires medical supervision. Potential withdrawal symptoms include intense drug cravings, vomiting, sweating, insomnia, anxiety, and hallucinations.
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This can lead to burns on the lips or fingers for those inexperienced at dealing with high-pressure compressed gas. Users may take the gas directly from a canister, usually by filling a balloon or other flexible vessel. The first symptoms to exhibit themselves, usually 3-12 hours after Nitrous Oxide withdrawal starts proper are headaches, tremors, sweating, itching, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, fever and total confusion with anxiety or depression. BetterHelp is the world’s largest therapy service, and it’s 100% online. With BetterHelp, you get the same professionalism and quality you expect from in-office therapy, but with access to a huge network of therapists, more scheduling flexibility, and at a more affordable cost.
Whippets aren’t risk-free; they can cause fainting or cardiac arrest when using other depressants or stimulant drugs. If inhaled directly, the drug can cause frostbite, given the pressurized canisters they are dispensed from can reach temperatures as cold as negative 40 degrees Fahrenheit. By inhaling or huffing nitrous oxide from canisters, cartridges, or from a balloon filled with the gas. Nitrous oxide also affects a person’s B12 levels, a vitamin that is essential for red blood cell production as well as neurological and physical health. Although nitrous oxide is not as addictive as opioids are, inhaling it results in a short-lived high that lasts for up to five minutes which may lead to repeated or binge use. Nitrous oxide also has hallucinogenic properties which may be attractive to certain people and motivate them to keep using it.
At elevated temperatures, nitrous oxide is a powerful oxidiser similar to molecular oxygen. To help with your treatment, it’s important to be honest about your mental and physical health. The more honest you are about your past, including what you’ve used and how often you’ve used it, the better counselors and therapists will be able to help. While it is possible to achieve sobriety and recovery alone, most people achieve better results when a trained medical professional leads the recovery process. Just like you wouldn’t stitch up a stab wound in your chest by yourself, you shouldn’t try to treat your addiction alone. While nitrous oxide is safe when administered by a medical professional, it is possible to overdose on nitrous oxide.
What Are the Risks of Inhaling Nitrous Oxide?
Those reasons explain why huffing and other forms of inhalant use are uncommon with nitrous oxide. High doses of whippits can cause life-threatening effects, including seizure, coma and sudden sniffing death syndrome. The latter condition occurs when the heart stops beating during inhalant abuse. Users of nitrous oxide enjoy the “giggly” feeling it produces, and may feel euphoric and happy, but only for a few minutes at a time. This short-lived “buzz” can lead to nitrous oxide users taking the gas over and over.
While nitrous oxide might not affect your memory, intelligence, or concentration to the extent that other drugs do, it may still have an impact. Treating the side effects of nitrous oxide with vitamin B12 has produced mixed results, according to multiple studies. Some patients experienced improved symptoms, but others saw no benefit. Most drugs make people feel high by overwhelming the brain’s pleasure system. But whippits and other inhalants don’t affect the brain’s pleasure system in the same way.
Your environment must be well-ventilated, open, and not near cigarettes, flames, or flammable substances. To avoid frostbite or rapid propulsion into your mouth and lungs, you can discharge the canister into a balloon to allow for the gas to warm up and to inhale more slowly. “Because nitrous oxide displaces oxygen from blood cells, depresses the central nervous system, and can strain the heart, sudden death can occur, especially with extended or repeated inhalations,” Forcier says.
Further reading about Nitrous Oxide from around the web
Unlike the short-term effects, these repercussions may stay with an addict even after they gain sobriety. People often use whippets for the feeling of euphoria they can create on a night out. Some people use whippets to enhance sexual pleasure, or even take a hit right before they orgasm to amplify it. If you’ve ever been curious about whippets, their legality, their risks, or how to use them safely, read on for our full guide to the drug. The gas is a fairly popular party drug that can cause you to feel euphoria, loopyness, and confusion. Yet despite their prevalence, using whippets can carry risks, and the exact chemical composition of the drug evades most.