DOSE:

repeated

inhaled

Chloroform

(gas)

BODY WEIGHT:

132 lb

I recently took a little bit of chloroform from the lab where I work to try it out. At night, I put a few milliliters on a tissue and put the tissue into a plastic bag, which I then breathed out of (I didn't want to put the chloroform soaked tissue directly against my skin in case I had an allergic reaction to it).

I used it when I was lying in bed, ready to sleep. The vapour smells very, very sweet. It's like sugar gas. If I get too much in a single breath, I tend to gag quite badly (my throat just won't let it down) but breathing in some air with it helps it. I took several breathes of it but didn't get much effect from it until I started actually holding the gas in my lungs for a while. I gradually became kind of relaxed and spaced out, and it was quite a nice feeling - I was quite happy with it in the way that I get happy with most depressants.

As I breathed more and more, I started to get a whining sound in my ears followed by a numbness in my hands and then other limbs. I could keep my eyes open if I put a bit of effort into it, but wanted to see where this would go, so kept breathing it. The last thing I can remember is sealing the plastic bag and putting it down beside the bed before I must've drifted off to sleep.

I woke quite easily the next morning feeling ok. The soporific effects of the chloroform had left me by this stage (it was probably 9 or 10 hours later) but I found I couldn't really be arsed to do anything. Eventually my bladder convinced me that it really did need emptying, so I went to the toilet and came back totally exhausted. Anything I did for the rest of the day left me totally run down and worn out like that, and it was *not* pleasent.

I spent most of the day in bed, feeling too knackered to get up (although mostly too awake to sleep)... It was such a depressing experience that I think the chloroform may have been directly effecting my mood by this stage. I was so miserable that, during the afternoon, I fell asleep again (and it was even sunny outside but I had my curtains closed and was still in my pajamas) and had a dream about how terrible my life was and in the dream I tried to drown myself with the help of a young child. No I've suffered from depression for quite some time, and am on Venlafaxine for it at the moment, but I have rarely been so miserable as I was that day... my heart really goes out to people with chronic fatigue syndrome, who have to put up with this all the time.

I've now tried chloroform three times in this way and can confirm that I definitely leaves me feeling totally exhausted and miserable the next day. The last time I did it was the day before yesterday, and I am grateful that I am that I'm not feeling like that now! The extent of the exhaustion seems to be related to how much chloroform I use, rather than how deep I go with it. I've also tried mixing codeine with it, but it's basically a waste of good codeine (which is essentially a very friendly, albeit addictive drug) - I can't really feel its warmth when I've used even just a little chloroform.

I'm certainly never going to do chloroform again. I've thrown out any supplies that I had left of it, and don't ever want to smell its sickly sweet intoxication again.

Exp Year: 2004	ExpID: 34744
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Jul 9, 2006	Views: 26,147
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Chloroform (250) : Health Problems (27), Depression (15), Retrospective / Summary (11), Alone (16)