Cocaine hijacks the pleasure center of your brain and turns your willpower into cravings for more drugs.
As soon as you take it — through injection, smoking, or snorting — you want another hit. Someone without experience may try cocaine out of curiosity or to feel euphoric during a party. Continued cocaine abuse can quickly turn into an obsession. Addicts can begin to structure their entire day around their next fix.
Life with drug addiction doesn’t have to feel hopeless. Understanding how cocaine rewires your brain and triggers your behaviors is the first step towards wellness.
Why Is Cocaine Addiction So Hard to Kick?
Cocaine produces a high by rapidly increasing levels of dopamine within your brain. Cocaine addiction is caused by excessive use. Continued abuse literally rewires a brain’s limbic system (reward center), causing changes in a person’s normal behavior.
When you take cocaine, it prevents dopamine from re-entering the sending cell. The excess dopamine overstimulates receiving neurons, causing euphoria and mental stimulation. Over time, cocaine causes your brain’s reward circuit to become dependent on the dopamine spikes the drug causes.
The brain then develops a tolerance, meaning a person requires higher doses to achieve the same high. Eventually, the brain hits a point where it needs cocaine just to function normally. This is where we enter the danger zone for withdrawal, which is your brain crashing from a lack of cocaine.
Users describe a crash as extreme fatigue, anxiety, and depression, since your dopamine receptors aren’t functioning normally. Drug addiction is a disease that affects your brain’s function and reinforces compulsive, drug-seeking behavior.
The physical effects of cocaine and prolonged abuse can alter the nerve cell structure itself. Then, mental cues can trigger these cravings, causing intense, obsessive thoughts about using again.
So how can you tell if someone has a cocaine problem? By learning about common symptoms and signs of cocaine addiction.
Symptoms and Signs of Cocaine Addiction
Doctors diagnose stimulant use disorder after a set of physical and psychological symptoms present themselves. Because cocaine leaves your system quickly, you may see someone dose themselves more and more frequently.
Physical Symptoms
Since cocaine heightens your awareness and heart rate, look for the following:
- Dilated pupils
- Narrowed blood vessels make for an increased heart rate
- Significant or sudden weight loss
- Frequent runny nose and nosebleeds, if snorting
The Signs of Cocaine Addiction
As someone becomes dependent on cocaine, behavioral signs will appear. Ask:
- Are they secretive about using or lying about where they’ve been?
- Are there large expenditures of cash, or regular borrowing of money?
- Are they frequently missing work, school, or neglecting their family to use?
- Are they paranoid, irritable, or constantly restless? Seeing or hearing things that others do not?
Cocaine Treatment
Seeking help is the first step toward recovery. Cocaine addiction treatment plans look different for everyone, and sobriety is a lifelong process. A person should always detox from cocaine, if necessary, under the care of a medical professional.
Types of Treatment
Behavioral therapy is the best option for cocaine addiction, since there are currently no medications to help with drug withdrawal.
- Individually-based therapy to help assess what triggers you to use
- Cognitive behavioral therapy to rewire the brain away from addictive behaviors
- Group therapy to ground and center the person, giving them honest feedback
You may want to find an outpatient drug rehab center that can meet your needs. As an outpatient, you may need either Standard or Intensive Care.
- Standard Care requires you to come into the center up to three days a week for treatment.
- Intensive Outpatient programs typically require you to come in 9-15 hours per week.
Both will focus on continuing care and building sober living skills.
Intensive Outpatient Substance Abuse Care
Patients who don’t need 24/7 care but require more support than traditional outpatient will benefit from an intensive outpatient program substance abuse.
- Skill-building milestones that are measurable and agreed upon by you and your treatment team.
- Group therapy that dives deeper into the cause of your addiction.
- Education on how to prevent relapse and learn coping mechanisms to deal with triggers and mental health symptoms.
The Steps To Recovery
Now that you know the basics, let’s walk through the process from start to finish.
- Admit you have a problem with cocaine addiction
- Call a clinical director to assess your treatment needs
- Medically detox from cocaine and begin recovery
- Learn functioning life skills in your outpatient rehab program
- Continue care with your case manager after rehab ends, to make sure you’re living in a sober environment
Breaking the Cycle Can Start Today
Aspire Recovery Center provides compassionate clinical guidance for individuals seeking help with cocaine abuse. We utilize CBT and other evidence-based forms of substance abuse treatment to help you regain control of your life. Our Texas state-licensed and nationally-accredited outpatient rehab center is here to walk you through every step of recovery.
Reach out today to learn more about our cocaine addiction treatment options and outpatient substance abuse treatment specialists.
