Cocaine Addiction
Cocaine is a powerfully addictive stimulant that directly affects the brain. The pure chemical, cocaine hydrochloride, has been an abused substance for more than 100 years, and coca leaves, the source of cocaine, have been ingested for thousands of years.
The cocaine reaches the brain within seconds, resulting in a sudden and intense high. However, the euphoria quickly disappears, leaving the user with an enormous craving to freebase again and again. The user usually increases the dose and the frequency to satisfy this craving, resulting in addiction and physical debilitation. Cocaine's effects appear almost immediately after a single dose, and disappear within a few minutes or hours. Taken in small amounts (up to 100 mg), cocaine usually makes the user feel euphoric, energetic, talkative, and mentally alert, especially to the sensations of sight, sound, and touch. It can also temporarily decrease the need for food and sleep. Some users find that the drug helps them to perform simple physical and intellectual tasks more quickly, while others can experience the opposite effect. Users often report feelings of restlessness, irritability, and anxiety, and cocaine can trigger paranoia. Users also report being depressed when they are not using the drug and often resume use to alleviate further depression. In addition, cocaine users frequently find that they need more and more cocaine more often to generate the same level of stimulation. Therefore, any use can lead to addiction.
What you need to know about Cocaine Addiction
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Once having tried cocaine, an individual may have difficulty predicting or controlling the extent to which he or she will continue to use the drug. Use of cocaine in a binge, during which the drug is taken repeatedly and at increasingly high doses, leads to a state of increasing irritability, restlessness, and paranoia. This may result in a full-blown paranoid psychosis, in which the individual loses touch with reality and experiences auditory hallucinations.Different routes of cocaine administration can produce different adverse effects. Regularly snorting cocaine, for example, can lead to loss of sense of smell, nosebleeds, problems with swallowing, hoarseness, and an overall irritation of the nasal septum, which can lead to a chronically inflamed, runny nose.Ingested cocaine can cause severe bowel gangrene, due to reduced blood flow.Persons who inject cocaine have puncture marks and tracks, most commonly in their forearms. Intravenous cocaine users may also experience an allergic reaction, either to the drug, or to some additive in street cocaine, which can result, in severe cases, in death.
Because cocaine has a tendency to decrease food intake, many chronic cocaine users lose their appetites and can experience significant weight loss and malnourishment. Researchers have found that the human liver combines cocaine and alcohol and manufactures a third substance, cocaethylene, that intensifies cocaine's euphoric effects. The mixture of cocaine and alcohol is the most common two-drug combination that results in drug-related death.
Signs of Cocaine Use:
- Red, bloodshot eyes
- Runny nose or frequent sniffing
- Change in eating or sleeping patterns
- Change in groups of friends
- Change in school grades or behavior
- Withdrawn, depressed, tired, or careless about personal appearance
- Loss of interest in school, family, or activities
- Frequently in need of money
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