Chinese student Lin Na (not her real name) got hooked on a laughing gas while studying in the U.S., resulting in serious injury.
The scientific name of laughing gas is nitrous oxide and is not for human consumption. It is commonly used in canned whipped cream.
However, some youth use the gas to make "dizzy balloons," because they like the pleasurable feeling they receive after inhaling it. Lin said the gas is easy to get in Seattle, Washington, as many tobacco stores sell it.
Lin started using laughing gas out of curiosity. Many of her friends used it and told her it was fun and was less harmful than smoking or drinking. So Lin bought four or five cans of laughing gas, a cream whippier, and some balloons. "It felt like I was dancing," she said. She consumed a hundred balloons her first time, and was soon addicted to the happy gas.
Lin sometimes spent over a thousand dollars a day on cases of laughing gas, with one case costing about 180 dollars and containing about 24 containers of gas. She felt delirious and fell asleep after inhaling it.
At a month, she found it hard to fall asleep naturally and her heartbeat was faster. Several months later, she noticed physical and mental changes. She got easily upset and hungry and had many small red bumps on her chest and stomach.
Lin said she tried to stop for two months. However, she started inhaling the gas again, and this time her addiction was much stronger and she began to think someone was chasing her. Long-term and heavy-use of the gas destroyed her motor nerves. Days later, when her friend found her in her apartment, she could not even control her bladder.
Till today, she still cannot walk by herself and is being treated in a hospital. After being navigated out to Beijing International Airport in a wheelchair, Lin realized the damage came more to her spirit than her physical health.
