Huffing, Puffing, and Dying

ArticleCat featured a post written by Corinne Bridgewater about a tragedy that hit close to her family. She explained how she had never thought of inhalant abuse as something that would appeal to her kids, and how shocked she was when a friend told her about her son's abuse problem.

My friend Christine was happily married; she had two teenage children, one boy and a girl. She was in all ways, just like me. We had a mothers group that met every Wednesday morning, where we would talk of “parenting”. We really thought we had the pulse of our children.

Then it happened, Christine came to our Wednesday morning group and told us her son Paul got arrested the previous night for huffing. Of course he said he was sorry, that it was his first time and he didn’t really like it at all, he was just going along with his friends. We took up the banner, our teenagers were not going to be huffing, puffing and dying!

Oh yes, we had found the problem, come against it with awareness and all was well in our lives once more. Well, won’t someone slap dumb on our foreheads?

Awareness hit our families hard. Paul was addicted to huffing and not only that, the stuff he used in his addiction were all things in their home, all things in my home. Stuff like whip cream cans, nail polish, white out and air freshener.

From Christine we learned to look at our children in new ways. Not that we believed they were doing anything, but it was comforting to be armed with the ability to at least know. So we looked into their eyes to see if they were glassy or glazed over, we made sure their appetites were always good and definitely did we lean in close to see if we smelled anything like chemicals coming from the breath or clothes.

Unfortunately our story does not end there. Oh no. Our banner was then torn to shreds one night. Our teenagers are huffing, puffing and dying.

It was midnight and the phone rang; every parent hates these phone calls, as you turn to pick up the receiver your mind is going over just where your children are. This was a call from Christine, her voice was calm, John had been in an accident and she was at the hospital. The police had just left.

Yes, my thoughts were, “Phew, if the police just left at least he is alive”. But before I could speak she said, “It seems, his friend and him were driving around having fun and their car went off the road. The car is smashed. Again I was going to say, “Well at least the boys are Ok”. Once more she cut in, “both the boys had been huffing, their faces covered with gray paint, and they are dead.”

If I never have to hear the sound of that voice coming from someone I know, it will be too soon. Our teenagers are huffing, puffing and dying kept running in my head.

I can only add for anyone that is reading this, if you think or know someone that is “playing around with inhalants”, get them help. Expose it. Don’t worry what they are
saying or thinking. Just do it. Don’t think because it is a cleaning supply that is safe in your house, that is safe from your kids. Whatever you believe, don’t believe that inhalants can’t hurt, because believe me they can kill, because our teenagers are huffing, puffing and dying.