A woman tried to appease the loneliness of working from home by turning to laughing gas, until she suffered seizures with brutal consequences.
Jordan Micu, an Illinois financial worker, had taken laughing gas before back when she was a 21-year-old college student in North Carolina.
By 2023, however, the situation had gotten out of control, with Micu inhaling three to four canisters a day and paying $200 (£150) for them.
The woman, who is training to be an actuary, said her addiction to the substance spiralled when she began working a remote job as she continuously felt lonely and bored.
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"I was very lonely. I didn't have any friends. I was remote working as well. That absolutely contributed to everything,” the Chicagoan said of her experience.
"The main reason I think I started using them was because moving here I didn't know anybody to buy any other drugs from and I knew these were legal to buy in store.”
Micu recalled she would inhale gas ‘all night.’
"I would wake up, inhale it and go back to sleep,” she said.
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Not even experiencing seizures from breathing laughing gas was enough to stop her, as she recalled.
She had her first seizure in November 2023 and smashed her face on her bathroom floor.
Although she described the moment as ‘scary’, Micu continued taking the substance regularly and she had a further handful of seizures.
In September 2024, she was diagnosed with epilepsy following a five-day EEG - a procedure that measures the brain's electrical activity - and she’s currently receiving medical treatment to keep the symptoms at bay.
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Things took a terrifying turn when Micu woke up one morning in December 2024 and collapsed as she was getting out of bed.
Looking back on her December incident, she said: "I woke up one day and tried to get out of bed to use the bathroom and when I did that I immediately fell. I couldn't feel my legs anymore.
"A very common symptom is loss of bladder control. I was actually at that point where I was using the bathroom in bed sometimes,” she added.
On that day, Micu said she ‘couldn’t feel [her] legs’ and ‘slid on the floor.’
"I was absolutely terrified. It didn't really register that was a severe problem for me even at the time,” she said.
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"It was really scary. I felt like I was trapped in my own brain like my mind had turned on me and I couldn't do anything about it.
"I felt a lot of numbness and tingling. I could feel my toes but they felt like pins and needles a lot of the time because of the damage it does to your nerves.”
After losing control of her legs, she had to use a walker for two weeks while she learned how to walk again.
It was a wakeup call for Micu, who entered rehab in February 2025 in Los Angeles for 30 days. She hasn’t touched the laughing gas since, crediting her brother for her decision to go to rehab.
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"This is not a game. This is a very serious thing that doesn't feel serious while you're using it but the longer you use it, the more seriously it affects you,” she said.
"It is absolutely too easy to buy. The smoke shop that I would go to is three minutes away. I could walk there."
Topics: Health, Mental Health, Drugs
Stefania Sarrubba