Airduster addiction...I am worried about my brother.

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Sorry to return back which such a depressing topic but at this point just trying to use all my resources to help him. Not too long ago my brother came over and saw a can of air duster I had and took a hit. He ended up passing out unconsciously and luckily he came to just fine but it scared the s**t out of me. I thought he might not come to and that was the end of him but he was ok that time. He told me he'll avoid that s**t and I figured I will never keep air duster in any place he will see it because he did admit he felt a bit addicted and not seeing it helps him not do it. But according to my dad I think he did it again because my dad was saying he hit some s**t out of a big can and passed out, he wasn't sure what it was but to me it sounds like my brother was doing more air duster. So that is very concerning, that s**t could kill him...So IDK does anyone have any potential advice about trying to help someone who might be hooked on air duster? I am also just browsing the internet also to try and find more advice. And to my knowledge the passing out is at least the second time he has passed out doing that s**t but IDK how often he has done it when he's on his own still though like he needs to stop I am sure he will die if he continues to do that crap but I don't know how to confront him about it. I don't want to alienate him or piss him off but my dad said he got scared for him when he passed out and wasn't coming to easily from doing that s**t. So clearly he is still doing it even after the time at my house when he told me he was avoiding anymore and I just don't know how to intervene I don;t want to bring the whole family into it necessarily but I just want to find a way to convince him not to do that s**t ever anymore. Its going to kill him and I can't force him to stop but I am hoping maybe at least he can be convinced to stop.

The tv show intervention had a couple episodes I recall where the person was addicted to inhalants. One named Allison & another named Matthew. I don’t know if watching those would be helpful at all. Nar-anon might also be a good resource for information for friends & family members of those addicted to drugs. I’m sorry your family is experiencing this. It is a scary thing.

It might be best to try and address why he did it SL , and what benefits he got from doing it. I was into solvent abuse as a coping mechanism as it's a cheap high ( the passing out gives you weird dreams ? ) , I grew out out of it when I had money and discovered drugs.

Is he suicidal? Does he want to keep living? If he wants to keep living then I would find news articles or news clips about those who died from huffing and show them to him and tell him that that is going to be him if he doesn't choose to stop. Then tell him how much you love him and how you would feel if he died.

Most addicts have to hit rock bottom to quit.
They have to find the reason they want to annihilate themselves and they need therapy to do this.
Most are in denial about how serious their problem is and resist help.
I’m very sorry your brother is going through this and you also.I have a close family member that got hooked on meth and nothing we did helped.It took being arrested and sent off to medical detox at a mental hospital to get them clean.They are in jail now so can’t use.We can only hope they don’t return to the meth when they get out.Most do.

I have to say thank you for replies...I didnt come back to this thread for a bit just because the whole thing is upsetting. But like I just want to help my brother and or find a way to discourage his use. I am still thinking on this...this is just a general reply and I will get back to more indvidual comments soon.

Yeah like I don't want to freak him out with a hardcore intervention...maybe it would work if just like me and my sister try to discourage him. I mean its just he's over 21 he's an adult and he can get drugs...like hell the airduster crap is so bad I would rather he do heroin, I don't want him to do that either but at least that one is less likely to cause sudden death. But yeah I kind of wonder if it would help if we maybe try to find out why he's doing it...I mean my main thing is I don't want him to die...he's my little brother and I don't want to lose him to something so stupid.

But yeah that is my concern he can get drugs, but he still does that at least sometimes(I hope its just sometimes, but IDK how frequnently he's doing it. Also he's kind of a smart guy and I don't wanna see him turn into a vegetable that would be almost worse than him dying. I guess I know the dangers of what he is doing and at I wanna do what it takes to stop him...but I just don't want him to feel betrayed but the s**t could kill him and if he wont stop on his own and I can't just hold that to myself. LIke he could die or get irreversible brain damage doing that s**t, he could never be able to play league of legends again and he wouldn't be able to keep playing DnD if he f***s himself up with that s**t.

I kind of want to talk to my sister about it, but I am worried she'll tell our mom and get her all freaked out...and I know that wont help the situation. I mean I guess if not that me and my boyfriend could have him come over and express our concern..but yeah just don't know how to deal with it.

That said I guess I would rather have a pissed brother that doesn't want to talk to me for a year or whatever(if I set up some kind of talk with him) than a dead brother. Idk that would be the result but at least from what I have seen of intervention shows sometimes the family member you are trying to help just gets mad.

Last edited by Sweetleaf on 14 Aug 2020, 10:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.

No he's not suicidal and he does want to keep living....so yeah maybe there is some stuff I could show him, but yeah the way it seems to me is he doesn't even realize how bad it effects him sometimes. LIke he did a huff over here because he saw my air-duster can and passed out, he came to but it was still scary but it didn't seem like he realized how severe what had just happened was. Since then I just hide all my air-duster cans when he comes over...I mean I have it because it is quite useful for cleaning my keyboard and blowing dust off my minitures I paint but I would never inhale it. But yeah I guess I am just not sure he even realizes how severe that stuff f***s him up...so yeah just want to find a way to tell him that without him feeling its an attack.

I know, like I know in reality I cannot like make him stop unless he sees reason to, and I am just afraid that if confronted he won't want to deal with it and will just reject attempts to help. So its hard to figure what the right approach would be but at the same time...the s**t could kill him so I don't want to wait around too long.

But yeah its not a thing I wold want to deal with, but it was presented to me so yeah...can't really ignore it now either. Its just he told me he had an air-duster problem but didn't buy it and just had a hard time avoiding it if he saw it available...but according to my dad he did buy some and do it, but I don't feel like he was nessisarly intentionally lying to me just seems he could be hooked so he couldn't help himself buying some and inhaling it when given the opportunity. But either way he has to stop....I just don't know how to convince. IDK maybe I need to insist on that he could destroy his brain and not be able to do DnD or League of Legends anymore. I mean hell in the past I even saw people huffing paint...I never did but f**k even that even seems safer than huffing air-duster, at least in my observation of that I never saw someone pass out like they were dead. Still disgusting and terrible but like the air duster straight out the can is probably worse than spray paint in grocery bags.

But yeah I haven't abused inhalents ever so I have no real reference for what a dependence to that would even be. I mean i anything I guess it can be a bit hard not to at least have a couple drinks in a day, but a couple drinks of alcohol a day doesn't really run the risk of killing me instantly...I'd have to consume tons and tons of alcohol to overdose to a deadly amount. Whereas that air duster....it can kill people from one inhale so like the more my brother inhales it the more likely he runs that risk. LIke a person could do it 100 times and not die possibly, but perhaps the one inhale past that will kill them...that is the trouble its like russian roulette, you take a hit of that and there is a good chance of dying but you never know which hit will be your last. Because there is no threshold for that kind of gas its simply not meant to be put into the human body so maybe you'll get high and live, maybe you will get high and die...there is no limit of "oh I can just do this much and be fine' its that s**t may kill you or it may not but even if not you could risk brain damage.' so I mean even if my brother has done it 100 times and was fine after that many times, it could only take one more time for him to die or f**k up his brain to where it wont function. That is what I mean about the russian roulette..there is no for sure 'its safe to do it so many times' you are literally rolling the dice on if you die, get irreversible brain damage or are just fine after a hit of air duster. And its like each time my brother does it that just increases the chances he will die or get irreversible brain damage since there is no threshhold like any dose of that s**t has the potential to be deadly regardless of how often the person has done it.

That is what concerns me is presumably a person cannot even build up tolerance to that s**t so its really just a chance thing if they take a hit and recover, take a hit and die, or take a hit and turn into a ret*d vegetable....and if my brother became a ret*d vegetable, IDK if I could even bear to go see him that way.