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The dangers of nitrous are hypoxia, B vitamin depletion, nerve damage, dissociative effects and extreme compulsion to use. I was in treatment with a dentist's w
by okareaman 6y ago
The dangers of nitrous are hypoxia, B vitamin depletion, nerve damage, dissociative effects and extreme compulsion to use. I was in treatment with a dentist's wife, who really screwed herself in a bad way with all of these effects and could hardly walk because of nerve damage to her feet.
- okareaman 6y agoI forgot to mention, it's a rich man's drug, another way it's similar to cocaine. I probably spent $150,000 on cases of whippets (25 boxes x 24 whippets to a box.) My first reaction to Tony Hsieh and nitrous was "He had too much money for his own good." I ran out of money before I could kill myself with it.
- nyolfen 6y agohere's a writeup that really stuck with me for the last decade about the surprising level of organized crime in selling nitrous at music festivals: https://www.villagevoice.com/2010/07/06/inside-the-nitrous-mafia-an-east-coast-hippie-crack-ring/ https://www.villagevoice.com/2010/07/06/inside-the-nitrous-m...
- okareaman 6y agoHeadshop owners who sell nitrous to obviously addicted people are generally not good citizens. I'd guess they make most of their profit from addicts like me. I only got cut off once after a 2wk/$10k run when I was almost too sick and incoherent to make a purchase. Every other store gladly kept selling to me when I was in that condition.
- Scoundreller 6y agoIt’s (comparatively) very cheap in bulk tank form. But that’s much harder to come by for most people. The small whippets cartridges... you’re paying for the steel, getting a gas in there and markups. If they filled it with room air, it would cost the same.
- okareaman 6y agoI could have looked for tanks to save money, but I surely would have died that way. I could control intake with cartridges because the limiting factor was that you had to keep cracking them. A case of 600 whippets one after another would last about 5 hours, so 2 a minute. I've heard too many stories of people dying with tanks.
- rsync 6y agoForgive me ... I am completely naive regarding this subject but find these descriptions both fascinating and confusing... Do I understand: if you're on a whippet bender you have to do a thing every 30 seconds ? It seems like that would interrupt and greatly diminish whatever pleasurable effects the substance was giving you ... in fact, it sounds somewhat stressful ...
- sneak 6y agoYou can put 2-3 into a dispensing canister at a time, but yes, every 60-90 seconds it requires interaction. This has probably saved a lot of lives, tbh. It's hard to suffocate yourself if doing so requires motor skills.
- Scoundreller 6y agoIn Australia, their paramedics have Penthrox tubes that have an anesthetic in them. The idea is that the patient can self-administer, but if they over do it, they get too messed up to operate the thing until it wears off again.
- badconvincer 6y agoYes, it’s a fleeting rush. I’ve probably done nitrous 5-6 times over a couple of decades but I can see the allure.
- okareaman 6y agoCracking whippets is like popping bubble wrap. It's a pleasant repetitive motion that becomes part of automatic muscle memory after a while. It becomes a meditation, like praying the rosary.
- aerostable_slug 6y agoMatt Dike famously said the worst thing for an addict is unlimited resources. Glad you're still with us.
- okareaman 6y agoThanks. I've made a remarkable recovery with a lot of help. I'm sharing this because the subject came up with Tony Hsieh and I know he and I weren't the only ones abusing nitrous. My email is in my profile if anyone out there thinks they have a problem with it and would like to talk about it. I'm raising awareness of the dangers here. It's seductive when you read that philosopher William James had epiphanies with it and want to have them yourself (I'm pretty sure he abused it to.) It took ahold of me pretty quickly. This has been difficult for me today because I'm triggered by thinking about it. I can taste it and feel it. But maybe I warned somebody off from it.
- Tempest1981 6y agoDid you seek professional help on your own, or did someone force you to get help? Sounds like Jewel tried to make Tony get help.
- okareaman 6y agoAt the point I bottomed out ended up in a homeless shelter. My willful and stubborn way wasn't working, so I made a conscious decision to start doing what people told me to do. I surrendered, if you will. Family and psychology pros got me into a long term treatment program. Fortunately, I had two family members who hadn't given up on me.