What Can You Tell Me About Cocaine Addiction?

Question by Alice in Wonderland: what can you tell me about cocaine addiction?
I guess I grew up fairly sheltered because I know close to nothing about drug addiction. I know that drugs are bad and that they almost always destroy your life in one way or another if you don’t stop and get the right help. What I want to know are the signs and ways to tell if someone has done or is high on cocaine. Someone I really care about told me they do it. And that they want to stop. And that they do it cause they like it but almost immediately after doing it they feel horrible – depressed. Said they feel like they have no self-control over it.

Best answer:

Answer by Robert S
When someone has been using cocaine, there are going to be many different side effects. Cocaine interferes with the transmitters in the brain that regulate dopamine, and when this happens, a high occurs.

The high that a person gets from using is very alluring cocaine, because it has been described as the best feeling that people have ever felt while using a drug, or ever. Because the high is so intense, users will often do anything they can to feel that way again.

The cocaine, however, also causes the brain to prohibit the good feelings that will occur naturally, and so therefore cocaine users will enter a cycle in which the cocaine causes them to feel a high, and the absence of cocaine causes them to feel very low, and therefore need to fight in order to find something which will feel as good. Most often they turn back to cocaine, and the cycle begins again. Unless the addict seeks help, and gets drug addiction treatment.

Cocaine effects are extremely detrimental on the body and the consequences related to cocaine effects can eventually lead to permanent damage, addiction and death. While each person who uses this drug reacts to it differently, there are two distinct categories of cocaine effects: short-term effects and long-term effects. Even if a person has only used cocaine once, he/she can experience short-term cocaine effects. Long-term cocaine effects appear after increased periods of use and are dependent upon the duration of time and amount of cocaine that has been consumed.

Short-term cocaine effects are noticeable immediately and although they are not always damaging, in some cases they have caused serious bodily damage and death. Deaths related to cocaine effects are often a result of cardiac arrest or seizures and respiratory failure. * Some of the short-term cocaine effects first time users experience includes increased energy, decreased appetite, and increased heart rate and blood pressure.

Short-term cocaine effects include:
Increased blood pressure
Constricted blood vessels
Dilated pupils
Mental alertness
Increased energy
Increased heart rate
Decreased appetite
Increased temperature

People who try cocaine often get hooked to the short-term cocaine effects, namely feeling as though they have increased energy. The quick high keeps users feeling energetic and able to endure longer in physical activities. New cocaine users often try cocaine to increase productivity at work and in other areas of their lives so that they can work longer and harder. While these results may seem promising in the beginning, increased tolerance and dangerous life choices often follow repeated cocaine use.

One cocaine effect, appetite suppression, is very popular for people looking to lose weight or maintain a low weight. Fashion models have been known to use cocaine in order to stay thin. Cocaine users often go days without eating and if this behavior is continued it can lead to addiction. Increased heart rate, blood pressure, constricted blood vessels, dilated pupils, and increased temperature are all short-term physiological cocaine effects. When taken in large quantities, cocaine will intensify the user’s high and may cause violent and erratic behavior on the part of the user.

Long-tem cocaine effects are noticeable as cocaine abuse continues and tolerance builds. Since cocaine is a highly addictive drug, it can lead to major medical complications and health problems. Some of the these complications include heart disease, heart attacks, respiratory failure, strokes, seizures, and gastrointestinal problems. Other physical symptoms include convulsions, nausea, blurred vision, chest pain, fever, muscle spasms, and coma.

As the habit of using cocaine becomes increasingly important, behavior such as lying, heating, stealing, absenteeism at work and denying the use of cocaine, is an evident side effect. While these behaviors are not directly related to the use of cocaine, these cocaine effects are often present due to the lifestyle of the addict.

Other long-term cocaine effects include:

Addiction
Paranoia
Irritability
Restlessness
Auditory hallucinations
Mood disturbances

With continued use, many cocaine addicts develop a higher tolerance for the drug over time. Addicts are also said to “chase the high”; meaning they continue to use cocaine seeking the feeling they felt the first time they used it. For people addicted to cocaine and cocaine effects, this high will never again be felt in the same way, and this addiction can lead to insanity and death.

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