Member Comments are provided by individuals and reflect their personal opinions only. Under NO circumstances should you act on any advice or opinion posted in this forum. ALWAYS check with your personal physician before taking any action regarding your health! MedHelp International and our partners, sponsors and affiliates have no obligation to monitor any comments posted on this site, or the content and/or accuracy of such exchanges. MedHelp International does not endorse the views of any user.
Addiction: Substance Abuse Community
This community is a place to share information and support with others who are trying to stop using drugs, prescription drugs, alcohol, tobacco or other addictive substances. Discuss with others, the symptoms of addiction, addiction recovery, ways to quit like tapering and cold turkey, and withdrawal symptoms. If you are interested in general "chat", please visit our Addiction Social Community.
Inhalant Brain Damage?
by Eric23, Jan 26, 2002 12:00AM
In 1994 I experimented for the only time with what I believed to be nitrous oxide. After 5 minutes of inhaling the gas I felt a strong tingling in the back left side of my head and shook for a second. I was able to get up and seemed generally alright, but the light in the room now seemed a lot dimmer. Throughout the next week the dimming sensation continued, I felt dizzy, and had difficulty carrying on conversations. I saw an internist who told me I would almost certainly return to normal. The symptoms continued for a second week before miraculously everything suddenly returned to normal. I remained normal for 7 full months, before one morning after consuming a fair amount of caffeine I was having an intense discussion when I felt a sudden tingling sensation again in the back left side of my head. Immediately the dimming sensation and dizzy spells returned. I went to see a neurologist who ordered an MRI which didn’t uncover anything. He made a diagnosis of migraine headaches and prescribed Midrin and a beta-blocker. Neither seemed to help and I decided to see if things would just get better over time. For the past 7 years I’ve had little improvement. I experience the dimming sensation regularly, often with a lot of anxiety. I experience non-localized pinprick like sensations in my head. When in conversation I often start feeling dizzy and lose my train of thought. I seem to feel significantly less emotion, which I think is the result of my brain suppressing emotions to avoid the dizzy spells. I’d appreciate your thoughts as to what damage I have and how to treat. Thanks!
Post Comment
Caffeine is a vaso-constrictor, it constricts your blood vessels. It also increases your heart rate and your blood pressure. If you were to over use caffeine and cause these physiological changes to take place with the result being a return of your initial problem, I would think that some type of physical damage has occurred. I would most defiantly have this checked out by another doc.
Are you sure it was Nitrous Oxide? I was under the impression that it was relatively benign.
Of course, I could be totally wrong.