Drug Abuse Makes You Stupid
Hopefully, this is not a surprise to you. The fact that drugs change your brain chemistry and alter your brain function, affecting the areas that control inhibition, logic, sight, hearing and thought process is a concept that most of us learned in elementary school and middle school.
It’s a concept that Ongley Raymond Ocon III of Danville, California, learned again the hard way the other night. According to ABC 7, when the 19 year old Ocon asked a Redwood City police officer for a ride home to Danville after a party, the officer asked Ocon if he was carrying anything illegal. Ocon replied “yes” before pausing and changing that answer to “no.” Clear to both him and the officer that he had been caught, Ocon consented to be searched. The officer found cocaine in his possession and gave him a ride alright… to the police station where he was arrested for felony possession.
Drugs make you stupid.
Cocaine Addiction: It’s Effect on the Brain
Whether or not Ocon was under the influence of cocaine or other drugs that night is immaterial. If he had been using cocaine regularly in the days leading up to the night of his arrest, then his brain would have been still working at a diminished capacity due to his cocaine abuse. Brain scans taken of a person who hasn’t used cocaine shows a fair amount of activity. Brain scans of a cocaine addict show almost no brain function. When that same addict stops using cocaine for a 10-day period, there is still minimal brain activity on the scan. Only after months of abstinence does the brain scan show that brain function is returning and, depending upon the amount of cocaine used and how long the person lived as a cocaine addict, the brain still may not be functioning at normal capacity.
Recovering from Cocaine Addiction at a Cocaine Rehab
The problem with cocaine addiction treatment or trying to maintain sobriety after stimulant addiction is that while there are few hardcore physical withdrawal symptoms, the psychological withdrawal from the drug is intense. It hits hard in the first few weeks of recovery and then returns a few months later. This pattern of cravings and compulsive behavior with cocaine addiction, crystal meth addiction and addiction to prescription stimulant medication means that long-term residential cocaine rehab is the best choice for cocaine addicts.
Through inpatient treatment, you make sure to put a buffer between yourself and your connection: if you can’t get coke, you can’t use coke. It’s that simple. Practicing that basic principle for as long as possible means that you build up time and time is so important in drug addiction recovery. With time, you begin to meet new people, experience new things and learn how to get through the day without cocaine or other drugs. Reintegration back into the “real” world is much easier on those who have more clean and sober time at a drug rehab.
Cocaine Rehab at Michael’s House
If you would like to learn more about our sober living program or long-term cocaine rehab program here in Palm Springs, California, contact us at Michael’s House today.
