Cocaine is different from the other drugs. It doesn’t cause physical dependence. Unlike Heroin, Cocaine doesn’t produce painful withdrawal syndrome. It isn’t taken on daily basis.
Cocaine, increases man’s power. It makes him stronger, smarter, and more confident. Under cocaine influence a man can drink more, his sexual performance improves. Therefore, spending a weekend with the friends in a club, a man doesn’t see any risk in using a couple of lines. The problem is that for some people such weekend on drugs can turn into years of chasing the cocaine high.
Cocaine addiction signs and side effects
Even after the first exposure to cocaine the human body begins experiencing some changes shown in rapidly growing tolerance and reactivity alterations. Once cocaine high has been caught, the ardent desire to keep it for as long as possible makes a man to add more and more nonstop.
But with every following dose the intensity and duration of cocaine influence is getting less and shortens. In this state a man loses control over his behavior. He spends a lot of money and pushes himself to limit close to physical and mental devastation. At the end of the “binge” an individual starts feeling of approaching crash. Crash is a state of cocaine hangover.
In this phase, the body and mind need a rest, but the feeling of internal disturbance doesn’t let a person to fall asleep. At this state it is impossible to be focused on doing something. Inability to rest, extreme physical and mental tiredness, loss of concentration, nervousness bring in the thoughts of impending danger, threat, horror, and anticipation of something bad. In later stages, these thoughts become delusional, causing paranoiac ideas of persecution.
Cocaine is a short acting drug
In this state a person checks every corner in his room; every time when he hears the sound of a passing car he looks through the window to make sure that it is not the police to arrest him. He locks the doors, searches for the cameras and microphones.
Following the paranoia depression comes out with apathy and sense of meaningless. Food becomes tasteless and meetings with friends are considered as unnecessary obligation. A person can’t work or play sports. He has neither energy nor desire for that. The only thing that can cheer him up and give him joy is cocaine. Therefore somewhat recovered, he soon finds himself among the friends to spend the night violently, where he uses cocaine again without any hesitation, not even thinking that 2-3 days after the suffering from hangover will be even more harder than it was before.
Cocaine cycle
It is a typical way of forming the so called cocaine “cycle”: b1-2 days of intensive use, then crash, 3-4 days of recovery, craving, depression and using again. Moreover, the consequences of such “circles” over time become more and more devastating. There are medical, social and financial consequences of cocaine addiction. Nervousness, paranoia, insomnia become permanent. Such symptoms as hand tremor, stuffed nose are constantly shown on.Periodically there are panic attacks and unpleasant feeling of flutter in stomach area. Eventually a person realizes that he no longer can live on cocaine, but all the attempts to leave the drug result in relapse.
Interesting facts
- Dr. Freud treated his friend, who suffered from morphinism (addiction on Morphine) by cocaine. The result of treatment was devastating. Become addicted on cocaine, the man went crazy and shot himself.
- Cocaine, which sold in European countries usually contains only 15-20% of cocaine. The other ingredients areamphetamine, mephedrone, lidocaine, strychnine, and ephedrine. Sometimes even the powder from mercury fluorescent lamps is added in.
- Many people appeal to use of marijuana, alcohol, benzodiazepines and other sedatives to help themto exit from cocaine “binge”. These substances ease an anxiety, allow people to sleep and recover. From all these remedies the “best” one to mitigate cocaine hangover is Heroin. And always there is someone around who will make you such an offer “on discount”. For many of our patients it was the start of heroin addiction.