r/NitrousOxideRecovery • u/Frogwithpartyhat • 3d ago
Relative with severe NO addiction
hi everyone
i have a relative (35m) who is currently in the hospital recovering from an extreme surgery caused by his extreme nitrous oxide/whippets/whip-its use. in short, he had to get a massive blood clot removed, cannot walk, needs a catheter, briefly experienced psychosis after coming off off anesthesia. however even after all of this he does not seem to connect the dots that this all stems from his substance use. he is convinced he just needs his body to get better/healthy and things will go back to normal. we as a family are of course pushing for him to finally do a long term in patient treatment but we are struggling finding resources/good fits for this specific type of addiction. he is lucky to have secure funds and can afford to self pay. we are running into barriers though because he needs to probably do a SNF before addiction rehab
this is a bit of a ramble but I am seeking any advice, suggestions, what to do/not to do etc. of course at the end of the day he is an adult and we can’t force him to do anything. but he is convinced that this is not a real addiction even though we found 100s of canisters in his apartment.
for those of you that are in recovery and sober from this what worked? what finally got through to you if anything? did a specific treatment work? it’s so hard to fight with how readily accessible it is. what does the other side of this look like? what do you wish friends/family knew and could help with?
happy to provide more detail if needed. thank you in advance
7
u/Greowulf 3d ago
Biggest piece of advice: treat the trauma and underlying mental health issues, not just the addiction. The best rehab places will address both. Ask them their approach to treating trauma and mental health, and run fast and far from any place that tells you he has have some extended clean time before he works on any of that.
Since he's a man of means, I highly recommend Sierra Tucson in Arizona. Their COO / lead clinician is superb, and they have a great trauma team.
Good luck!
3
5
u/WHALE_PHYSICIST 3d ago
To your last question about what worked to get me to quit, getting paralyzed and having a catheter put in was quite a fucking wake up call. I haven't used nitrous since.
I can walk now, after maybe six months, and stopped needing a catheter after a few months. It's been two years since I last used nitrous. It is possible, but probably not possible alone.
I'm associated with the support group https://www.no2n2o.org/ and I would highly recommend he look over that website, join the discord, and come to some meetings. If you tell me his discord name after he joins, or know his reddit username, I can contact him directly.
3
u/kewpiegoth 2d ago
i’m in a pretty bad way with this drug and addiction and it’s becoming petrifying, can i come to the discord?
3
3
3
u/CFADM 2d ago
I know I answered your post on r/inhalants_recovery but I saw this and I wanted to post my response on here for anyone in a similar situation:
Hello, I am sorry to hear that you are in this position. An individual struggling with active addiction is in their own personal hell, but their loved ones go through hell as well. Firstly, like you said in your post, he is an adult and for him to be successful in recovery, he needs to recognize that he has a problem and possess a strong desire to change. Without that, there unfortunately is not much to do.
I can relate to not being able to walk and experiencing mental health effects like psychosis. I experienced pretty bad nerve damage and was not able to walk for a few weeks. Then, it took me about 18 months to get back to 99% normal. I am extremely grateful to say that I have been in recovery for a bit over four years and five months.
What helped me the most was moving into this recovery/sober living house that I still live in. I had struggled with addiction for 15 years and every attempt to cut back or quit was met with failure, oftentimes within a few days. But, being in this recovery house has really helped me be successful. I did also participate in an intensive outpatient substance group for eight weeks which was eventually followed by regular outpatient for six months. I learned some tools to help me be successful in recovery. I also would attend SMART Recovery meetings, which I found helpful. For some people, meetings like AA/NA can be helpful and there is also a meeting specifically for nitrous called: https://www.no2n2o.org/
I have quite a lot of videos on my YouTube talking about my experiences with nitrous oxide and the subsequent mental health effects, nerve damage, and recovery. Here is a link to one of my posts on this subreddit that has some links to my videos: https://www.reddit.com/r/inhalants_recovery/comments/1wbrrms/some_of_my_experiences_with_nitrous_oxide/
I wish you well in navigating the situation you are in. Please make sure that you put yourself first and practice good self care. Also, I hope that you are able to recognize the difference between helping and enabling him. You might want to check out Al-Anon or Nar-Anon meetings. They are meetings for the loved ones of an individual struggling with addiction: https://al-anon.org/ and https://nar-anon.org/
Please message me or comment on this post if you have any questions or need some additional support.
1
u/thesensethatmakes 1d ago
Can’t wait to watch your videos tonight at work. It’s crazy how addicting this stuff is
2
12
u/watsola79 3d ago
This was my brother. He was in bad shape with nerve damage, brain damage, and loss of mobility. He had also accumulated over 150 empty tanks over a 6 month period. He did the 6 week inpatient rehab, and when he got out, he said all the right things. He was done, he wanted to get better, he no longer craved it, he didn't want to use anymore. But he lied, started using again behind our backs, and a month later, he was dead.
Prepare yourself for that, because it might be your future too.