When I was a teenager many of us used to use inhalants to "get off". The reason we started was it was very cheap, and easily accessible. The two we used the most were gasoline fumes (stick a cut hose down a gas tank and breathe directly) or we would buy butane lighter fluid and spray it into a plastic bag and "melt" the liquid and breathe that. The gas-breathing was hallucinogenic, and we would stay there for hours. The butane was more temporary, and more like a rush. We thought it was innocent fun, and what teenager thinks that there will be harming or permanent affects from it? After I quit, I would still talk about myself as if there were more than one of me (I often hallucinated people around me). Eventually, that stopped, thank God. I quit doing inhalants twenty years ago. I can still see "butane rivers" if I focus on rough surfaces, such as stucco walls. It looks like water running, and it will never go away. My point to this is that inhalants are dangerous. I was one of the lucky ones, I didn't die or have serious side effects. Many do. Do you know anyone who has or does inhalants? More information can be found here: http://www.inhalants.org/faqs.htm
I forgot about the glue sniffing (rubber cement ) days until now. we never thought of it as something that was dangerous, it was easy to obtain, I don't know anyone who does inhalants now, not that I am aware of anyway. I do remember my sister losing consciousness and having to go to the hospital by ambulance, she had not only been sniffing glue. She mixed a bottle of aspirin with Pepsi cola because she had heard it was a way of getting high, drank that , then was sniffing rubber cement. I never sniffed glue again after that.
A buddy of mine used to huff Scotch Guard, of all things. He would really act weird on it. One day he did it and then started beating up his air conditioner. I had to hold him down before he did more damage or hurt himself. Most of the people I know that used to it managed to quit on their own. They grew out of it, or went on to other drugs. But it seems that young kids are dying more and more from this. Obviously, because it's easy access.
Sorry to hear about your experiences, but I'm glad that you stopped doing inhalants awhile back. Even something as innocent as huffing a Sharpie marker as a teen can prove dangerous in some ways. All it takes is one experience of inhaling something to like it and then try doing other things. Of course, you don't think much of it when you're younger, but the hope is that most people will realize sooner rather than later that it's actually quite dangerous.
We have had a lot of poor kids in my country inhaling industrial glue, and from what I hear it's because it's much easier and cheaper to just get high off it instead of feel the hunger, so I do feel sorry for them and I wish there was more help available, but the truth is it is their parents' responsibility and the fact that they are on the streets having to fend for themselves and are being pushed to doing this is just sad and tells a lot about the mentality of the lower class here that only leads to contribute to the Neverending cycle of their demise.
An Australian friend told me that there are some communities in their country which have a serious problem with sniffing gasoline. I've had a whiff of it myself when my car's tank was leaking and I had to drain it to avoid . . . problems. It works pretty fast and I'd understand why someone would want to inhale it. But getting you'd pay a pretty high price if you were to be addicted to it. http://alcoholrehab.com/drug-addiction/petrol-sniffing-gasoline-sniffing/ Some of it's negative effects include:
I would imagine this will eat brain cells. It also has to be very damaging to the brain in general. Regular exercise and weight lifting should build the brain cells back up. Hopefully it can be reversed.