Cocaine Addiction and Cocaine Rehab

• Are you struggling with cocaine addiction?
• Do you need help figuring out what to do?
• Do you think your son, daughter, husband, wife or friend has a problem with cocaine addiction?
• Are you afraid of what might happen?
• Do you think they might need to get into a good drug addiction treatment center?

If you or someone you care about it having a problem with cocaine addiction or abuse, you definitely need to do something about it. Cocaine addiction is very dangerous.

What is Cocaine Addiction Like?

Cocaine is different than many of the other drugs people use. It gives a very short-term ‘high’, sometimes lasting only about 20 minutes. During that time the person feels euphoric, excited, and physically strong.

What they may not know is that their temperature rises, their blood vessels constrict, their heart beats faster and their blood pressure goes up. In fact, deaths related to cocaine addiction and abuse are usually the result of cardiac arrest or seizure followed by respiratory arrest - and there are a lot more cocaine-related deaths than most people realize. A study done some years ago found there may be 20 times the number of cocaine-related deaths as are reported to the U.S. vital statistics system.

After about 20 minutes, the euphoria stops and the ‘come down’ starts - which can be as bad as the ‘high’ was good. The anxiety, depression, paranoia and exhaustion the person experiences while coming down makes them want more cocaine. Sometimes they take it all night, over and over again. Sometimes they take it for days.

When they eventually decide it’s time to stop, for now, they try to sleep off the symptoms which, by that time, can be very severe. To finally get to sleep, they often take other drugs, sometimes combined with alcohol. Seroquel, an antipsychotic used for schizophrenia, is common, as are sedatives, tranquilizers, sleeping pills and marijuana.


How Does Cocaine Addiction Start?

First of all, the person wants to feel the way they felt during the high. So, they continue taking the drug. But the drug also causes physical dependence: The brain – because it’s damaged – starts to use cocaine as a source of energy. Images of brains taken before and after cocaine use show that, with cocaine, the body doesn’t use as much glucose – which is basically the body’s natural brain food. There are other dependency factors as well. Scientists are doing more research on it.

Cocaine addiction is also made more possible by the fact that the body builds a tolerance to the drug and needs to take more and more of it to get the same effect.

All of these factors, physical and emotional, contribute to cocaine addiction.


How Does Cocaine Addiction Affect Someone Long Term?

After a while, the anxiety, paranoia and depression the person used to feel only when they were coming down is now present most of the time. And it becomes more and more extreme. The person also start getting headaches and dizziness, has strange hallucinations like feeling like bugs are crawling under the skin – the phenomenon is called ‘coke bugs’ - and they can’t sleep.

In truth, it drives them crazy. Doctors would diagnose them as psychotic or schizophrenic. They can become aggressive, severely paranoid, and the coke bug hallucinations continue.

Cocaine addiction can cause severe personality changes. The addict does things you would never expect in a million years. Cocaine addicts have been known to sell their child to get more cocaine. Lives are in ruin as lawyers, doctors, bankers and other white collar professionals build their habits to hundreds of dollars a day and go on binges that can cost $20,000 and more. They often declare bankruptcy, lose their jobs and families and, sometimes, they die.


Does Cocaine Addiction Cause Other Long Term Physical Damage?

Yes. The physical health of someone with a cocaine addiction can deteriorate to the point of them being unrecognizable and it can cause serious medical problems. Chest pain, heart disease, strokes, seizures and respiratory failure are not uncommon. The person can also have convulsions, fevers, nausea, gastrointestinal problems, blurred vision, muscle spasms, and they can go into a coma.


Can Cocaine Addition be Overcome?

Yes, but sometimes it’s not easy. In fact, it’s harder than just about any other drug. During the withdrawal period the user can experience severe restlessness, muscle and bone pain, insomnia, diarrhea, vomiting, cold flashes and involuntary leg movements. It can be painful to overcome cocaine addiction. Some people like to also do a medically-supervised drug detox program so the withdrawal will be more comfortable. But, people do it every day if they have access to a good drug addiction treatment center that will get them through a cocaine rehab program.


How Can I Help Someone Who Has A Cocaine Addiction?

A good, long term residential drug addiction treatment center can get them off cocaine safely and get them healthy and physically strong again. Cocaine rehab will also get down to the bottom of why the person started the drugs and became addicted so they can overcome whatever caused the problem in the first place.

It’s also very important that a program be worked out to help them stay off cocaine, and other drugs and alcohol, when they leave the program. About 95% of those who quit cocaine start taking it again. This is because they either didn’t do a cocaine rehab program in a good drug addiction treatment center and, consequently, they either didn’t handle the physical things needed, didn’t get down to the bottom of what caused the addiction in the first place, or there was no program worked out to ensure the person would be able to stay off cocaine, other drugs or alcohol after they left the program.


Can Cocaine Addiction Be Handled by Any Cocaine Rehab or Drug Addiction Treatment Center?

Most drug addiction treatment centers have probably helped people struggling with cocaine addiction. But you really have to make sure the program you choose has a good success rate. As we said above, overcoming cocaine addiction isn’t easy. If you want the person to get through the program and not go back on cocaine later, you need to make sure you choose the right drug addiction treatment center.