5 Reasons Why Making Cocaine Addiction Treatment a New Year’s Resolution Will Backfire
With the holidays quickly approaching, friend and family obligations typically run higher than usual this time of year. During the gift-giving season, expectations of those closest to us can become a source of mounting pressure. Under these conditions, a cocaine addiction can quickly spin out-of-control without a person even knowing it.
While entering cocaine addiction treatment may already be one of your New Year’s resolutions, waiting until then can backfire in many ways. Understanding how cocaine affects your ability to manage the stressors that come with the holiday season can help you take the necessary steps to prevent a bad situation from getting worse.
The Effects of Cocaine Addiction
Cocaine acts as a central nervous stimulant, flooding the brain with neurotransmitter chemicals and disrupting central nervous system functions. According to Penn State, these interactions can affect cocaine users in different ways at any given time, with some experiencing episodes of confusion, nausea, headaches, bouts of anxiety and even psychotic-like effects. With the hustle and bustle that comes with the holiday season, these effects and others can bring on serious consequences when you least expect it.
5 Reasons to Get Cocaine Addiction Treatment Now
1. Tolerance Level Changes
Cocaine produces powerful effects in the brain, forcing the release of excess amounts of neurotransmitter chemicals. These interactions become a driving force behind cocaine addiction. According to Brown University Health Education, the brain quickly develops a tolerance to cocaine’s effects, which drives a person to keep increasing dosage amounts.
In the process, chemical-secreting brain cells undergo considerable structural damage, making them less responsive to cocaine’s effects. These developments further contribute to increasing dosage amounts.
2. Withdrawal Effects
Cocaine withdrawal can cause insomnia.
As tolerance levels increase, users will likely experience cocaine withdrawal effects on an increasingly frequent basis. Withdrawal episodes play an active role in the cocaine addiction cycle, as users tend to take more of the drug as a way to relieve withdrawal symptoms.
Withdrawal symptoms commonly experienced include:
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Insomnia
- Feelings of aggression
- Paranoia
These symptoms will grow worse in severity unless drug use is reduced or stopped altogether.
3. Stroke Risk
Cocaine’s stimulant effects place an incredible strain on the heart and circulatory system. Once brain tolerance levels reach a certain point, users start to engage in bingeing behaviors in order to prolong the “high” and ward of withdrawal effects. Since bingeing entails ingesting multiple drug doses in rapid succession, the risk of having a stroke or heart attack increases substantially.
4. Emotional Risks
Once cocaine addiction reaches a certain level, users start to experience episodes of severe depression after taking the drug. In effect, the drug’s effects have warped the brain’s chemical makeup causing marked chemical imbalances to take shape. In this state, users can have frequent thoughts of suicide and may actually act on them.
5. Effects on Friends & Family
With the holiday season being a time for getting together with friends and family, a cocaine addiction can wreak havoc on a person’s emotions, let alone his or her ability to connect with others. After a certain point, cocaine’s damaging effects on a person’s emotions and behaviors can turn a simple holiday get-together into an all-out war.
While making cocaine addiction treatment a New Year’s resolution is most definitely a positive step in the right direction, struggling with an addiction through the holiday season may well be too much too handle. If you, or someone you know is considering cocaine addiction treatment, please feel free to call our toll-free helpline at 800-934-3781(Who Answers?) for more information on addiction. Our phone counselors can also connect you with treatment programs in your area.