Drake Bell looks to be in a bad place -- inhaling from a balloon that appears to be filled with nitrous oxide ... a troubling move that comes amid some tumultuous weeks for him.
The former child star was sitting in his car Tuesday outside of his L.A. home sucking on a fully inflated balloon. In one of the photos, you can see a cannister of some sort -- which resembles a typical nitrous oxide container.
Of course, huffing nitrous is a dangerous but popular method of getting high -- a few seconds of euphoria and head rush -- without using hard drugs.
BTW ... this is not Drakes first rodeo with nitrous oxide -- he was pictured doing the exact same thing back in December, and, in that instance his young son was in the car too.
And yes, inhaling nitrous oxide without a medical professionals supervision or guidance is, indeed, bad for ones health.
As we reported ... Drakes clearly been going through it of late. He told Twitter users last week that he was contemplating suicide after the trolling and attacks over his child endangerment conviction in 2021 -- which has led to people labeling him a "pedophile."
On top of that ... his wife filed for divorce just a couple days prior, this after he was reported missing in Florida -- only to pop up on the radar again in what turned out be a false alarm.
We know Drake has been thrust into a child custody battle with his now-estranged wife -- and, apparently, its gotten so ugly behind the scenes ... hes been sending scary messages to his family that made them worry for his safety and his life.
The guys had a lot of ups and downs in recent years -- everything from a choppy music career to even more legal issues like a DUI bust and bankruptcy.
As we reported, family members called police a couple weeks ago, because they were so worried about Drake. These images wont ease those concerns.
Drakes rep chose not to comment on the photos.