Cocaine Addiction Treatment Starts TODAY
If you’re suffering from a cocaine addiction, there are cocaine addiction treatment centers ready to help you NOW. Your cocaine addiction is slowly destroying your body and mind. You need help for your addiction to cocaine, which is taking over your life, hurting those closest to you and stealing your dreams. You have tried to stop using cocaine, but can't stop. You have always returned, worse than before. We know, we've been there and couldn't do it by ourselves either. Call Recovery Connection® NOW for help. Call 1-800-99-DETOX.
Street terms for cocaine: blow, nose candy, snowball, tornado, wicky stick.
What is cocaine?
Cocaine, the most potent stimulant of natural origin, is extracted from the leaves of the coca plant (Erythroxylon). It was originally used in South America in the mid-19th century to relieve fatigue. Before anything was known about cocaine addiction, pure cocaine (cocaine hydrochloride) was first used as a local anesthetic for surgeries in the 1880s. In the early 1900s cocaine became the main stimulant drug used in tonics and elixirs for treatment of various illnesses.
Crack, crack addiction the freebase form of cocaine, derives its name from the crackling sound made when heating the sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) or ammonia used during production. Crack cocaine addiction was on the rise as its popularity increased in the mid-1980s. Crack cocaine use was rampant because of its immediate high and inexpensive production cost.
Cocaine most often appears as a white crystal like powder or an off-white chunky material. Powder cocaine is commonly diluted or "cut" with other substances such as lactose, inositol, or mannitol to increase the amount of the substance and the profits associated with the sale of the drug. Powder cocaine is usually snorted or dissolved in water and injected. Crack, or "rock", is most often smoked. All forms can lead to cocaine addiction and users need immediate treatment.
Effects of Cocaine That Can Lead to Cocaine Addiction:
- Builds up dopamine in the brain producing euphoric effects
- Users become energetic, talkative and mentally alert
- Decreases appetite
- Lessens the need for sleep
- Constricts blood vessels
- Dilates pupils
- Increases temperature, heart rate and blood pressure
- May produce tremors, vertigo, muscle twitches, paranoia, irritability and restlessness
The effects of cocaine normally occur immediately after ingestion and can last from a few minutes to a few hours. Snorting cocaine produces a slow onset of effects lasting 15 to 30 minutes. Smoking cocaine produces a more intense high lasting 5 to 10 minutes. Cocaine addicts build a tolerance to the drug with continued use. Cocaine addiction occurs because users need to increase the dosage in order to continually recapture the intense high they first experienced.
Consequences of Cocaine Addiction include:
- Cardiovascular problems including disturbances in heart rhythm, heart attacks
- Respiratory failure
- Neurological effects including stroke, seizure, headaches
- Gastrointestinal complications
- Blurred vision
- Fever
- Muscle spasms
- Convulsions
- Coma
Other medical complications of cocaine use are related to the method of ingestion. For example, users who snort cocaine may lose their sense of smell, have nose bleeds, have problems swallowing, and have an overall irritation of their nasal septum that leads to a chronic runny nose or eventual surgery.
Combined cocaine and alcohol use converts in the body to coca-ethylene and causes a longer duration of effects in the brain that is more toxic than each drug used alone. This mixture results in more drug-related deaths than any other combination of drugs.
Cocaine Use and Addiction and its Effects on the Unborn
Although the effects of prenatal cocaine exposure are not completely understood, research has shown that such afflicted babies are often born prematurely and have low birth weights. Originally thought to suffer irreversible neurological damage, "crack babies" now appear to recover from the exposure to cocaine. This is not to underestimate the subtle effects cocaine can have on these babies as they continue to age such as lack of concentration, emotional struggles or even an increased curiosity relating to the drug later on in years.
Cocaine Addiction Treatment
There is no drug available for cocaine addiction treatment. Antidepressants are sometimes prescribed to assist a person who is having difficulty dealing with some of the more severe mood changes associated cocaine addiction withdrawal.
Generally speaking when addicts enter cocaine addiction treatment centers, they are assessed medically and psychiatrically. Along with prescribed medications for mood swings and anxiety, rest is usually in order for a few days.
When the addict’s condition stabilizes, they participate in various therapies including education of the disease process, the development of more effective coping skills, and finding forgiveness for their actions and behavior. All effective cocaine addiction treatments include the family or those who are significant in the addict’s life. They too must seek treatment in order to resolve feelings of anger, resentment, fear or disappointment, while taking steps to restore the trust and intimacy they once experienced.
Due to the intense cravings and high relapse rate associated with crack or cocaine addiction, recovery in a supportive environment, such as residential treatment centers, provide the recovering addict much more support than private or outpatient therapy. In most cases, the cocaine addict will attend outpatient therapy after completing residential cocaine addiction treatment for continued support. In conjunction with outpatient therapy, most addicts are urged to attend 12 step support groups to augment their commitment to recovery.
If you believe you or someone you know is in need of cocaine addiction treatment, or for immediate assistance finding drug rehab centers that specialize in cocaine addiction treatment, please call Recovery Connection® now at 1-800-99-DETOX. Help is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Don't wait - GET HELP NOW!
Cocaine Addiction Treatment Centers:
- Alabama
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- California
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- District of Columbia
- Florida
- Georgia
- Idaho
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Maine
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Montana
- Nebraska
- Nevada
- New Hampshire
- New Jersey
- New Mexico
- New York
- North Carolina
- North Dakota
- Ohio
- Oklahoma
- Oregon
- Pennsylvania
- Rhode Island
- South Carolina
- South Dakota
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Utah
- Vermont
- Virginia
- Washington
- Washington, D.C.
- West Virginia
- Wisconsin
- Wyoming
If your state doesn't appear on this list, please call Recovery Connection® at 1-800-99-DETOX and we will be happy to assist you.
