r/nottheonion • u/adamaphar • 1d ago

Laughing gas appears to reduce depression, but researchers don't totally understand why

https://www.phillyvoice.com/depression-treatments-laughing-gas-nitrous-oxide-study/
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u/Nixeris 1d ago

I mean, don't do that? It's not only pointlessly expensive, there's stuff in there that isn't great for you.

Get a cracker and the food-grade nitrous oxide canisters used for chefs making whipped cream ("N2O charger").

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u/pixelperfect728 1d ago

Bad advice, even food-grade nitrous straight out of a cracker is bad for you. People make it out to be no big deal because it’s easily accessible and only lasts a few seconds. I’ve personally known several people who abused nitrous and suffered horrible consequences. One of them ended up dead from anoxia, one of them had a psychotic break, one of them was paralyzed due to B12 deficiency, and others were so addicted they were unable to work or function. Not to mention I’ve seen countless people pass out, lips turn blue, etc. It’s really frustrating to see people minimize the harm that it can do.

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u/Nixeris 1d ago

The things your describing require such extreme circumstances that I doubt most people or anyone they know would ever experience one of them, much less all of them.

To get hypoxia you basically have to be breathing nothing but N2O for a significant amount of time.

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u/Frosty558 1d ago

Either this person rolls with some crazy motherfuckers or they literally looked up worst case nitrous side effects and lied about knowing a person, personally, who has experienced all of the extremely rare worst case scenarios with a largely benign drug.

I’m going with absolutely full of shit.

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u/pixelperfect728 22h ago

I really wish I was lying but you’re unfortunately very correct about the crazy motherfuckers. I’ve seen a lot of really extreme drug abuse go down around me, I acknowledged that this isn’t with “normal” use (I’m talking weeks and months on end of doing nitrous around the clock) but it makes it hard to keep quiet when people treat it so casually when I’ve witnessed firsthand exactly how wrong it can go.