Cocaine addiction is a complex and challenging condition that affects millions of individuals and their families worldwide. It’s a powerful stimulant drug that can cause severe physical, emotional, and social consequences. Understanding the effects of cocaine use, the risks associated with addiction, and the available treatment options is crucial for anyone grappling with cocaine.
Whether you are struggling with addiction yourself or watching a loved one battle this condition, it’s important to remember that you’re not alone. Encouragement, understanding, and professional guidance can make all the difference on the road to recovery from cocaine addiction.
What Is Cocaine?
Cocaine, also known as coke, is a strong stimulant often used as a recreational drug. Addictive in nature, cocaine produces a sense of euphoria as it forces an increased production of dopamine through the user’s brain. In a cruel twist of fate, cocaine strips the brain’s ability to naturally produce dopamine with each use, leaving the person dependent on cocaine, unable to feel pleasure without it.
Warning Signs of Cocaine Use
Behavioral changes from cocaine use:
- Change in eating habits
- No eating during use
- Binge eating during withdrawal
- Change in sleeping habits
- Not sleeping during use
- Binge sleeping during withdrawal
- Mood swings
- Euphoric and sporadic during use
- Depressed and irritable during withdrawal
- Demeanor
- Talkative, social butterfly during use
- Social isolation during withdrawal
- Financially irresponsible
- Grandiosity and risky behaviors
Appearance identifiers of cocaine use:
- Dilated pupils
- Runny nose
- Nose bleeds
- White powder around the nose (intranasal use)
- Chapped lips or red marks on the mouth (smoking)
- Burn marks on the hands and lips (smoking)
- Rapid weight loss
- Poor hygiene habits
- Increased need for privacy
- Razor blades, straws, and other cocaine paraphernalia
- Darting eyes or avoiding eye contact
- Inappropriate clothing choices for the climate
- Sweaty or clammy skin
- Needle markings on the skin (intravenous use)
What Are the Side Effects of Cocaine Use?
Cocaine use is not simply an emotional rollercoaster– it also has terrible side effects concerning the body. Cocaine is an intense shock to the system and while it’s controlling the release of dopamine, it also forces the heart, liver, and lungs to work in overdrive. While not all side effects are immediate and irreversible at first use, prolonged use can destroy organ systems and possibly lead to death.
Short-term effects of cocaine use may include:
- Constricted blood vessels
- Increased body temperature, heart rate, and blood pressure
- Tremors
- Violent behavior
- Anxiety
- Erratic outbursts
- Mood swings
Long-term effects of cocaine use may include:
- Tolerance
- Nasal irritation
- Lung damage
- Risk of HIV/Hepatitis C
- Heart inflammation
- Cognitive dysfunction
To overcome cocaine addiction, proper treatment is essential. Serious complications can occur during cocaine withdrawal so it is important to enlist the assistance and supervision of medical personnel at a rehab for stimulants. Because We Care, Royal Life Centers is committed to providing the safest, most effective medication-assisted cocaine detox, followed by carefully structured, individualized medical regiments, an intensive therapy program, and extensive aftercare options.
Signs of Cocaine Abuse
Cocaine use typically starts small in an attempt to re-energize. Often, people give in and try cocaine halfway through a party, for a study-aid to power through the final hours of studying, or to prepare for a work presentation. Unfortunately, most people who use cocaine in this manner have already developed a level of dependence on the substance without the proper knowledge to realize it. There is a litany of signs associated with cocaine abuse that can help you identify the possible behavioral and physical changes within yourself or a loved one.
Signs of cocaine addiction may include:
- Planning activities around cocaine use
- Engaging in other high-risk behaviors
- Loss of interest in activities
- Prioritizing cocaine use
- Continuing to use despite negative effects
- Withdrawal symptoms and/or cravings
If you recognize any of these signs in yourself or others, you may suffer from a cocaine use disorder and require comprehensive treatment. It is important to recognize the development of your physical dependence on cocaine in order to safely detox from stimulants.
Cocaine Use Disorder Levels of Severity
Cocaine Addiction
Cocaine is a stimulant and a dangerous narcotic. It is nearly impossible to obtain cocaine in a “pure” form, meaning that cocaine users will always be ingesting other chemicals and substances that drug dealers used to “cut” the product— this process occurs in order to make the most money from the least amount of the substance.
Withdrawing from Cocaine or Crack-Cocaine
Cocaine withdrawal is predominantly psychological, meaning it can be extremely taxing on a person’s emotional state. Withdrawal symptoms can set in 90 minutes after use, lasting for a week or longer. Typically, the duration of withdrawal aligns with the length of drug use and size of drug dose. The leading cause of cocaine relapse boils down to the cocaine abuser’s battle with anhedonia, craving cocaine for its ability to provide emotional relief in the form of pleasure.
Cocaine withdrawal symptoms include:
- Depression
- Poor concentration
- Fatigue
- Confusion
- Agitation
- Restless
- Paranoia
- Anxiety
- Volatile mood swings
- Hallucinations
- Cravings
- Drug-Seeking
Can You Overdose On Cocaine?
In 2014, the National Survey on Drug Use and Health found that over 900,000 Americans had a cocaine dependence or abuse problem in the last year, and the National Center for Health Statistics reported over 5,000 cocaine overdose deaths that same year. All methods of cocaine consumption (oral, intranasal, IV, and inhalation) can result in the bodily absorption of toxic levels of the drug. A cocaine overdose can lead to heart attacks, strokes, seizures, and sudden death (National Institute on Drug Abuse). Additionally, users who inject cocaine subject themselves to a higher risk of contracting a contagious blood disease like HIV or Hepatitis C. Prolonged cocaine abuse can alter the brain’s physical composition, resulting in tolerance and dependence.
Frequently Asked Questions About Cocaine
In order to curb stimulant withdrawal symptoms, medical staff often provide nutritional supplements, prescriptions for non-addictive medications, and light exercise regimens. It is important during a stimulant detox to reintroduce structure like a consistent sleep schedule, a healthy diet, and plenty of hydration. Our techniques promote the guest’s physical health and offer them the rest that was previously unattainable due to the stimulants in their system.
The symptoms of withdrawal from cocaine usually last around four days when you undergo a professional medical detox. If any of the more severe withdrawal symptoms occur like onset psychosis, symptoms could stretch in length and be more detrimental. Symptoms can range in intensity, and more serious symptoms like psychosis can occur, which is why these symptoms should be managed with medication and the individual should be under the care of a medical professional.
“Post Acute Withdrawal Symptoms” can occur after detoxing. Post Acute Withdrawal Symptoms (PAWS) are reactive physical symptoms brought on by triggers of drug use. PAWS can last for several months, which is why inpatient treatment and continuing care is recommended.
Yes, there are definitely effects of cocaine use. The most prominent short-term effect (intense euphoria), leaves the brain barren of pleasure once the drug has left the body. As a result, longer term effects following drug use are extreme dysphoria, depression, and suicidal thoughts.
Translational and clinical research strongly suggests that the alteration of mood, concentration, thinking, memory, and judgement are possible side effects from brain damage caused by chronic abuse of stimulants.
Yes, you can go into withdrawal from crack. The symptoms of withdrawal from crack are more mental, emotional, and behavioral symptoms— which should not be underestimated in their detriment. Crack-cocaine withdrawal symptoms are mostly marked by extreme mood swings, volatile behavior and irrational thinking. Desperation for more of the drug can lead the crack user’s behavior to be undeterred by negative consequences, including: criminal activity, destroyed relationships, interference with the law, etc.
While cocaine abuse can begin as a social drug, only used during celebratory events, users typically find themselves addicted sooner after— sometimes even just after a few times of heavy use. This is because the continuous use of cocaine eventually depletes the users ability to experience pleasure without it, leading to a dependence on the drug. It is important to note any signs of a growing addiction to cocaine.
Treatment for Cocaine Addiction
After medical detox at Royal Life Centers, guests begin transitioning to the most important part of treatment, a residential inpatient program. Residential inpatient is a comprehensive structured treatment environment. Treatment during rehab for stimulants focuses on the neuropsychiatric, psychological and social aspects of addiction. Individual and group therapy are among the many ways that recovery-sensitive cognitive behavioral therapy (RS-CBT) is delivered.
We provide individualized treatment programs that introduce patients to self-help groups such as Narcotics Anonymous (NA). Residential and intensive outpatient programs (IOP) usually last from 30 days to 6 months.
Our residential inpatient program is a 2-week long program, which can be extended to 4-weeks. Our intensive outpatient services are a part of our 12-week program that transitions guests from a partial hospitalization program (PHP) to intensive outpatient program (IOP). A residential and IOP rehab stay is best followed by ongoing aftercare. We provide aftercare options, such as sober living, to aid in your recovery journey once you have successfully completed treatment at rehab for stimulants.
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