Commonly Overlooked Cocaine Addiction Symptoms
Cocaine addiction symptoms can be hard to ignore once the drug has full hold of a person’s thoughts and behaviors. Regular cocaine use essentially rots essential brain and body functions to the point where permanent damage becomes a real possibility, according to the U. S. National Library of Medicine.
As cocaine’s damaging effects on the body follow a certain progression, the most obvious cocaine addiction symptoms are often rooted in overlooked symptoms that develop along the way. Overlooked cocaine addiction symptoms originate within the brain’s chemical systems where the drug exerts its most damaging effects.
As cocaine users tend to lead lifestyles that become increasingly more chaotic, it can be difficult to spot ongoing patterns that indicate a cocaine addiction is at work. More oftentimes than not, these patterns point to overlooked cocaine addiction symptoms.
Energy Level Imbalances
Energy level imbalances become more and more apparent the longer a person uses, but overlooked cocaine addiction symptoms reveal these imbalances at work along the way. Telltale signs of imbalance take the form of jumpiness, problems sleeping and feelings of fatigue.
With each dose, cocaine forces brain cells to secrete large amounts of vital neurotransmitter chemicals. Over time, brain cell functions start to “fry out,” making it that much more difficult to secrete essential neurotransmitters on their own. As a result, brain chemical levels remain in a state of imbalance leaving users to experience problems with sleep, fatigue and feeling “keyed up” on a continuous basis.
Abnormal Behavior Displays
Abnormal behavior displays can be pretty easy to spot after a while, but may occur on a random basis at the start. Early on, these cocaine addiction symptoms might include:
- Impulse control problems
- Aggressive behaviors
- Violent behaviors
An impulse control problem can start out as random risk-taking behaviors, such as going on a spontaneous shopping spree with the rent money. Aggressive behaviors may take the form of saying something rude or hurtful to another. A sporadic display of violence may come out as road rage. In each case, these behaviors are actions a person would not normally take.
Cognitive Dysfunction
Someone who is addicted to cocaine will have problems controlling their impulses, especially their impulses to take drugs.
As a central nervous system stimulant drug, it’s only a matter of time before cocaine starts to impair a person’s cognitive functions. Chemical imbalances in the brain directly affect a person’s mood state and ability to think clearly.
In this case, overlooked cocaine addiction symptoms appear as gradual changes in a person’s functional abilities.
Symptoms of cognitive dysfunction include:
- Making bad decisions
- Problems concentrating
- Inability to reason or use good judgment
Psychological Imbalance
Cocaine’s effects on cognitive functions and emotions alter a person’s perceptions, reasoning abilities and resulting behavioral displays. These alterations in brain function can actually warp a person’s mental health as a whole.
Episodes of paranoia and random psychotic symptoms are often overlooked cocaine addiction symptoms, especially when a person first starts to experience these states. The feelings of suspicion and fear that accompany paranoia result from impaired reasoning, which in turn triggers feelings of fear. Psychotic symptoms, such as hearing voices also point to a chemical imbalance in the brain.
Considering how quickly cocaine can damage brain functions, the sooner a person gets needed help for an addiction problem the better.