What is Skittling?
Today I
discovered a killer of our teenagers and would like to share it with you. It is
called skittling and should not be a surprise to learn that there is a thriving
subculture on the Internet that gives out advice and information on just how to
skittle, what to skittle and what to add to make skittling even better.
Skittling
is the taking of over the counter cough and cold medicine for the sole purpose
of getting high. It has many names but
skittling and robotripping are the most common.
It is called skittling because a lot of the cold medicines are red and
look like the candy skittles. It is the
DXM or dextromethorphan that gets the person high
Let me tell
you how this all started. I had a cold
with a bad cough. I bought some cold
medicine, three different kinds and put them on the counter in my
bathroom. My teen son had his own
bathroom and to be honest I didn’t think a thing about leaving the medicine
out. Anyway, I took the medicine and it
made me feel icky so I quit taking it and tried new stuff. To make a long and
miserable cold story short, I got better.
That weekend I was cleaning up and saw the bottles. But I noticed the cough syrup was almost gone
and so I opened the other bottles and sure enough all the pills were about
gone.
Now I knew
that taking cough syrup to get high had been around for years, but surely my
son would not do that!? I went to the
computer and started to look it up. It
was called skittling and what I found out scared me. I found that kids were taking it in such
large quantities that at the least they were damaging their livers and at the
most they were dying. Yes DYING.
I was
aghast and angry. My sons and I talk of everything. Surely this could not have
been going on right under my nose and without me knowing? So I waited.
You know the “Mom’s wait” vacillating between anger and fear. While I waited I read up on it and learned.
My son was
escaping and hallucinating and skittling and I missed it? How can that be? I learned that there are
over 250 products with DXM in it and the drug companies that make it don’t want
it regulated even if it will keep our teens safe. I learned that is a real addiction just like
any other drug but that it was worse in a way because it was legal and easy to
get.
I read the
list of symptoms: restlessness, confusion, dizziness, double or blurred vision,
slurred speech, impaired physical coordination, abdominal pain, nausea and
vomiting, rapid heart beat, drowsiness, numbness of fingers and toes, and
disorientation and wondered why anyone would want to feel that way.
Skittling
abusers describe different "plateaus" ranging from mild distortions
of color and sound to visual hallucinations and "out-of-body,"
feelings of detachment from the environment and self, sensations, and loss of
motor control. I became panicky and
ready to fight this with him all the way to health!
He came
home; I tried hard not to attack. I had done the self Mom talk and I was
ready. Calmly I asked, “Are you
skittling?” He laughed and said, “Where
did you hear about that? And no I am not; I am not that stupid, why? You been on the internet again Mom?” So we
talked about the missing medicine and found out it was one of his friends (who
is now in treatment).
All I can
say is that day I found a killer of our teenagers and it is called skittling. It is important to communicate and keep aware
of your home and what is going on in your world. Even the smallest of things
can be an important clue to a problem.
Battle with knowledge and caring.
