Getting Help For Addiction To Cocaine
Cocaine is a highly addictive stimulant that has the potential to take over the lives of those who use it. Here's all you need to know about cocaine addiction, its consequences, and effective ways for an addict to start treatment; with the help of a certified addiction treatment clinic, a strong recovery program can lessen the danger of withdrawal.
Cocaine addiction is a severe and life-threatening condition that is often presented lightheartedly or casually in our media and entertainment, whether it be in nightlife, on a club or college scene. It has the potential to have long-term health, psychological, and societal consequences. Cocaine addiction may negatively effect a person's life as well as the lives of others around them.
Signs and Symptoms of Cocaine Abuse
Long-term cocaine usage can have a major negative influence on one's health. Abuse may have a negative impact on a person's emotional and psychological health. At first, there will be fewer and less serious health hazards. These are some of them:
-Increased anxiety -Automobile or motorbike accidents
-Changes in behavior
-Changes in appetite
-Insomnia -Memory impairment
Long-term use of stimulants like meth or cocaine (Speed, Crack, Rock, Crystal) can lead to psychological problems. Although medication can help control these symptoms, the aftereffects of meth use can continue for months, if not years. Those who have suffered with meth addiction may face a stress-induced reoccurrence of symptoms. Meth usage poses a number of serious long-term health risks, including:
-Violence -Paranoia (i.e., self or others)
-Hallucinations and Delusions
-Motor actions that are repeated
In correspondence with psychological issues, physical health risks are prevalent among those with long-term meth addiction. These include:
- Severe dental problems including tooth decay
- Severe weight loss
- Heart attack
- Skin lesions
- Kidney failure
Neurological Damage From Cocaine Use
If a fatal overdose does not occur during or after long-term cocaine use, dramatic changes in the brain's chemical structure occur, akin to withdrawal symptoms in a heroin addict. Meth usage appears to impact dopamine levels in the brain, according to neuroimaging. Dopamine neurotransmitters, which are connected to verbal language and motor functions, are badly affected. As a result, long-term misuse might result in a large decrease in dopamine levels. Dopamine insufficiency might also result in long-term emotional and mental problems. Although cessation of meth use can result in a return to normal dopamine levels, the process can be lengthy.
Brain Imaging & Findings From Animal Studies
Researchers from the NIH, or National Institute on Drug Abuse have found that animals that were chronically exposed to cocaine resulted in damaging effects and changes in the brains' management of their internal "reward system."
"Use of cocaine, like other drugs of abuse, induces long-term changes in the brain. Animal studies show that cocaine exposure can cause significant neuroadaptations in neurons that release the excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate. Animals chronically exposed to cocaine demonstrate profound changes in glutamate neurotransmission—including how much is released and the level of receptor proteins—in the reward pathway, particularly the nucleus accumbens. The glutamate system may be an opportune target for anti-addiction medication development, with the goal of reversing the cocaine-induced neuroadaptations that contribute to the drive to use the drug." (NIH).
Other areas of the brain are also effected by crack cocaine as well.
This exposure affects many other areas of the brain too. Animal research indicates that cocaine diminishes functioning in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), which appears to underlie the poor decision-making, inability to adapt to negative consequences of drug use, and lack of self-insight shown by people addicted to cocaine.
"A study using optogenetic technology, which uses light to activate specific, genetically-modified neurons, found that stimulating the OFC restores adaptive learning in animals. This intriguing result suggests that strengthening OFC activity may be a good therapeutic approach to improve insight and awareness of the consequences of drug use among people addicted to cocaine." (NIH)
Cocaine Addicts May Be Triggered To Relapse By Stress
Although addiction researchers have focused on adaptations in the brain’s reward system, drugs also affect the brain pathways that respond to stress.
Those with substance use disorders, in this case specifically such as cocaine dependence and/or other stimulant substance abuse, also suffering from co-occuring stress related and mental health related disorders such as:
- Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). ...
- Acute stress disorder (ASD). ...
- Adjustment disorders. ...
- Reactive attachment disorder (RAD). ...
- Disinhibited social engagement disorder (DSED)
are more at risk for cocaine relapse and brain damage.
"The stress circuits of the brain are distinct from the reward pathway, but research indicates that there are important ways that they overlap. The ventral tegmental area seems to act as a critical integration site in the brain that relays information about both stress and drug cues to other areas of the brain, including ones that drive cocaine seeking. Animals that have received cocaine repeatedly are more likely to seek the drug in response to stress, and the more of the drug they have taken, the more stress affects this behavior. Research suggests that cocaine elevates stress hormones, inducing neuroadaptations that further increase sensitivity to the drug and cues associated with it." (NIH).
Help For Long-Term Cocaine Abuse at a Cocaine Addiction Treatment Center
Despite the long-term consequences of cocaine misuse, there are several ways for addicts to improve their health by enrolling in a specialist addiction treatment clinic. When looking for a treatment center, look for one that is accredited and has a solid reputation. All In Solutions in Boynton Beach, Florida, is one such cocaine addiction treatment program that has a track record of success and is regarded as an industry leader.
All In Solutions addiction program offers men and women battling with substance addiction the support and compassion they need to detox and avoid long-term risks and consequences.
This treatment facility offers pharmaceutical and behavioral addiction rehab treatments to patients in order to help them balance their brain chemistry and learn how to cope with the effects of addiction. Despite the fact that recovering from cocaine addiction can be a difficult process, All In Solutions has assisted numerous addicts in regaining control of their life.
To contact All In Solutions or learn more about cocaine addiction or their specialized cocaine addiction recovery program, visit their website at https://www.allinsolutions.com/treatment-substance-abuse-programs/cocaine-and-methamphetamine-addiction-treatment-recovery-center/