Cocaine Withdrawal
Cocaine is a central nervous system stimulant, creating an energizing effect that improves cognition and creates euphoria. However, cocaine abuse can also cause you to experience insomnia and heart problems. One of the major reasons why cocaine is illegal is because it is highly prone to abuse and can lead to addiction, which can cause you to experience cocaine withdrawal.
While drugs like heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine are illegal in the United States, nearly 10% of Americans ages 12 and older have used an illicit drug in the past month. 22.7 million Americans struggle with a substance abuse disorder or addiction annually, while 1.5 million Americans regularly use cocaine. Cocaine is a Schedule 1 narcotic, meaning that it’s illegal to buy, sell, and produce it, making legal problems a significant risk of cocaine use.
What is Cocaine?
Cocaine is produced from the cocoa plant and is sold in a powder form, with users typically inhaling it. Cocaine produces a short and intense high, with the effects lasting for less than thirty minutes. This causes you to constantly use more and more in order to maintain your high. Cocaine is also expensive, which can lead to financial problems if you develop an addiction. A cocaine addiction occurs when you compulsively abuse cocaine despite experiencing negative consequences and having a desire to quit using it.
Cocaine is a neurotransmitter inhibitor, meaning that when you use cocaine, your brain associates it with pleasure. Once this association happens, your brain releases pleasurable neurotransmitters whenever you use and withholds them when you don’t. Your brain associates people, places, and things that remind you of cocaine with pleasure triggering cravings whenever you are exposed.
There is no set time-line for how long it takes after your first use to develop a cocaine addiction, meaning that recreational use can quickly turn in to a powerful addiction. Common signs of cocaine addiction include:
- Needing to use cocaine in order to feel normal
- Spending the majority of your time thinking about or using cocaine
- Inability to stop or control your cocaine use
- Using cocaine at work
- Needing to increase your cocaine use in order to experience the same high
- Experiencing cocaine withdrawal when you stop using
Cocaine Withdrawal
Within hours of last use, cocaine withdrawal symptoms can begin. Withdrawal can be more intense if you have a co-occurring mental health disorder, as addiction causes significant neurotransmitter imbalances. This means that your mental health symptoms can rapidly decline during cocaine withdrawal. Thus, it is especially important you have attending treatment.
Cocaine withdrawal can also cause anxiety, depression, and insomnia. All of which can make it difficult getting through the detox process without help. While cocaine withdrawal symptoms aren’t fatal, they can make you deal with painful, uncomfortable, and destabilizing symptoms. Cravings also intensify during the cocaine withdrawal process, which can make it hard to avoid relapsing.
Starting Treatment Today
Since addiction takes time to develop, it also takes time to fully recover. While cocaine withdrawal symptoms typically alleviate within a week of your last use, cravings and triggers can make it hard to remain clean without treatment. During recovery, your brain has to relearn how to properly release neurotransmitters, which can make you experience mood disturbances that heighten your risk of relapse.
Cocaine addiction can damage your finances, destroy your relationships, and lead to legal problems. Addiction is a powerful and deadly disease that makes it difficult to recover without treatment. Cocaine withdrawal symptoms is another powerful weapon addiction wields. But reaching out for help is the best way you can begin recovery. Call us today at [Direct] to find out more about our cocaine addiction treatment programs.