Cocaine addiction makes the addict behave in ways that can cause confusion and upset for those around him. His responsibility level drops significantly and he becomes very unreliable and is usually not very pleasant to have around due to his unpredictable behavior.
One's possessions can start going missing as the addict needs to "feed" his habit and this takes money. You have to pay to continue with your drug addiction. Many addicts turn to stealing or selling their bodies. These are the potential long-term effects of being an addict.
If they are still at school, their grades start to plummet and this opens the door to the school system enforcing further addictive drugs on them. The problem just worsens. If they're working, their lessened responsibility makes them a liability in the work place and they very often lose their jobs.
These are the social consequences but what of the consequences for the family? Many families are under economic or work pressures. To have the increased concern for a loved one who is addicted can just be the last straw that breaks the camel's back.
What of the health consequences for a loved one who is addicted to cocaine? Cocaine addiction can lead to serious health problems. Basically, drugs are poisons. The amount that is taken determines the effect. A small amount acts as a stimulant, a greater amount as a sedative and a larger amount acts as a poison and can kill one.
That's the physical health consequences, but what about the mental consequences? Cocaine addiction can make one start to act crazy. It starts in a very mild way with increasingly more irritability, inability to do normal routine day-to-day activities that were not a problem before, to paranoia and even psychoses.
The dangers inherent in cocaine addiction are therefore not just a loved one's physical health but his mental health too and, often overlooked, the possibility of being caught in a crime in order to be able to feed the habit and the possibility of failing at school and/or losing a job. It affects every part of an addict's life - personal, family and social.
This makes it even more important to get the cocaine addiction resolved. In most cases, people become addicted to an inability to deal with some or other situation in their life. No-one but the addict knows exactly what this situation is or was that lead to their cocaine addiction.
It might have been to fit in with his peers; it might have been a problem at school or with a family member. There is any number of factors that could have lead to the cocaine addiction and one of the most important factors in finding a cocaine addiction treatment program is to ensure that no-one makes him feel worse about it or presumes to know why he got into trouble in the first place. It is extremely harmful for someone to do this to him and will only set him back more.
An ideal program would be one that undertakes withdrawal in the least uncomfortable and most effective manner using only vitamins and minerals and help him get through it. Do not allow the use of other drugs (including meds) to get your loved one off drugs.
The second part of an ideal program would be to fully detoxify their body of all the drug residues which, if let in place, could make the person revert to drugs later. These residues are stored in the fatty tissue of the body and need to be dislodged and removed from their body.
The third part of an ideal program would be to the person fully rehabilitated as a being so that the need for any crutch in life is not necessary as he is able to confront and deal with the problems of living and enjoy life fully.
Effects Of Cocaine Addiction
So, how do you tell if a loved one is in the throes of cocaine addiction? There are many different ways of taking cocaine so the obvious symptoms differ. It can be snorted, ingested, smoked or injected.
Snorting cocaine (also known as freebasing), for example, can lead to the loss of the sense of smell, nosebleeds, problems with swallowing, hoarseness and a chronically running nose. A sure sign is someone who is constantly sniffing. Snorting is a highly dangerous way of using it as the cocaine reaches the brain within seconds, resulting in an intense high but the euphoria quickly disappears, making the addict increase his use.
Smoking cocaine is probably the worst cocaine addiction there is and is considered to be the most addictive. Signs of use, however, are not that evident other than increased jumpiness, irritability or even paranoia.
Ingesting cocaine can cause severe bowel gangrene due to reduced blood flow. This is more difficult to tell but if a loved one suddenly starts having bowel movement problems, abdominal pain and nausea, consider cocaine addiction as a possibility.
Those who inject cocaine can experience severe allergic reactions and, as with all drug users who inject themselves, they are at risk of contracting HIV and other blood-borne diseases. This is easier to detect than those ingesting it as there will probably be visible needle marks.
Cocaine addiction leads to disturbances in the heart rhythm and can lead to heart attacks, chest pains and respiratory failure, strokes, seizures, headaches and gastrointestinal complications such as abdominal pain and nausea. Cocaine, having a tendency to decrease appetite, chronic users can become malnourished, which compounds the problem.
Binging on cocaine can lead to increased irritability, restlessness and paranoia. Paranoia is a sure sign that the user is smoking or snorting. Cocaine addiction can even lead to full-blown paranoid psychosis. Whatever you do, don't let be put on anti-psychotics because you will be switching them from a cocaine addiction to an anti-psychotic addiction plus the possibility of reversion to the cocaine as well.
Dealing with cocaine addiction is rather simple if you know what to do about it. The first thing is to get them onto a program that does not give them further drugs and can help them through withdrawal in the most effective and comfortable way using the correct vitamins and minerals that their already depleted body needs. There is a very specific method for handling cocaine addiction withdrawal that does not make them feel awful.
Once they are through the withdrawal, a good program would consist of getting the drug residuals out of their body in the safest and most effective way.
While they still have the drug residues in the body, they cannot think clearly and have low energy levels, making it impossible to grasp and understand the data they will need in the education part of the program.
Only after they have gotten rid of the drug residues in their body on the detoxification step of the program are they ready to continue with the rest of the cocaine addiction rehabilitation program.
The key things to look for in any cocaine addiction rehabilitation program is 1) comfortable, non-drug withdrawal, 2) a full detoxification program that rids their body of all the drug and toxic residues and 3) an educational aspect with the person being able to establish for himself why he became addicted in the first place and then working on the solution he has figured out from the education steps.
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