Cocaine is an incredibly addictive drug that has short-term and long-term effects on the brain and nervous system. Even the best rehab centers have difficulty helping people get free from the cocaine addiction because of the misconceptions that are contributing to the reason they started cocaine in the first place. Professional drug rehab centers are filled with recovering cocaine addicts that have to fight through The incorrect information that they were given regarding cocaine. Here are some of the most common misconceptions about cocaine.
You cannot become addicted to cocaine
The recovering cocaine addicts in the best rehab centers across the country will let you know that that’s not true. Young people often feel overly confident in their ability to not become addicted to any drugs. However, cocaine is extremely strong and gives a temporary feeling of euphoria it is quickly followed by depression. It is this depression that often leaves to the craving for another sense of euphoria. Because of this, cocaine users often find themselves needing higher dosages as their bodies become tolerant of the drug.
Cocaine is safe
Many people believe that because of the plant-based origins of cocaine that it is safe and clean to use. However, cocaine is typically mixed with a number of other drugs and chemicals. The street drug known as cocaine is completely different from the coca plant in South America where it originates. Plus, when you buy drugs on the street there’s no way of telling what it is that you were actually ingesting. Many drug dealers will add all sorts of things to the powder to stretch their supply.
Cocaine is like alcohol with no hangover
Within hours of taking cocaine, the person will begin to experience symptoms of depression and sickness. Some people can experience the depression so incredibly severely that they can become suicidal during the come down from cocaine.
Cocaine has no side effects
There are actually short-term and long-term effects. These are listed below:
Short term side effects include:
- Loss of appetite
- Increased heart rate and blood pressure
- Contracted blood vessels
- Dilated pupils
- Interrupted sleep patterns
- Nausea
- Hallucinations and hyperstimulation
- Anxiety and paranoia
- Depression
- Panic and psychosis
- Seizures in sudden death from high doses
Long term effects include:
- Permanent damage to blood vessels
- Destruction of nose tissue
- Infectious disease and abscess mound malnutrition
- Tooth decay
- Liver, kidney and lung damage
- Infertility
- Confusion, irritability and mood swings
- Intense depression
- Tolerance and addiction
It’s OK to take cocaine every so often
Even one high dosage use can cause sudden death and even if it doesn’t it can lead to addiction.
Cocaine brings along with it very real risks and dangers that the best rehab centers will have a hard time helping you through. If you have already become an addict, you will need the best rehab centers to help you through but if you have not yet participated and stay as far away as you can.
Hopefully, understanding the effects of cocaine and what it can do to you will help you to avoid the drug if ever given the opportunity. People with substance abuse issues, not just cocaine but other drugs as well more than three times more likely to end up with a mental illness and people with mental illness are twice as likely to end up with a substance abuse problem. It’s a vicious cycle that needs to be interrupted.
Even if you “only smoke weed” or “only drink alcohol,” don’t take this for granted. Alcohol is known to be a gateway drug to marijuana and marijuana is known to be a gateway drug to all kinds of other dangerous substances. Young people feel that they are immune and are in control but this is not true. Most drug abusers look back and can see the small decisions that were made along the way to their addiction. They didn’t go from zero to 60, it was a step by step process that they didn’t even notice was happening until it was to late to go back. Don’t let that be you. Take control of your life while you have it now and don’t spend the rest of it in and out of treatment centers and rehab, desperately trying to control an addiction that has ripped your life away from you and is eating you alive. You can avoid being an addict, if you will take the steps to avoid drugs now.