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Addicted to coke
Cocaine addiction
Cocaine addiction or coke addiction often begins with recreational use. You may also start using coke to perform better at work or to reduce stress. If you use coke for a long period of time, over time you may not function well without cocaine.
What is coke
Cocaine (coke, snow) in powder form is usually snorted; in coarse crystal form (crack) it can also be smoked. In this form, the drug is even more addictive. It is highly mood-enhancing. Under the influence of coke, you feel euphoric, energetic and confident. You also tend to be extra sensitive to sounds, touches and visual stimuli.
The effect occurs almost immediately and has a short duration of a few minutes to an hour. Coke is often used recreationally in combination with alcohol, but it is also used to perform at work. If you feel that you can no longer perform without coke, you may have a drug addiction.
Cocaine addiction treatment
Quitting coke
Are you looking for help to quit coke? At U-center, we treat your cocaine addiction integrally and intensively. An addiction often does not develop on its own. In many cases other diagnoses, such as PTSD, depression or a personality disorder, also play a role. During treatment at U-center, we therefore first look for the factors that play a role in your addiction.
Your treatment starts with a careful diagnosis and a 6-week inpatient stay at our clinic in Epen. During your admission you will learn what factors influence your cocaine addiction and receive different treatments to stop coke. Together with a team of different therapists, you will investigate the causes of your coke addiction and, with new insights, change the behavioral patterns that maintain your symptoms.
Other addictions
Effects of cocaine
Cocaine addiction can have serious consequences for your mental and physical health. The drug affects your mood and your body. The duration of cocaine's effects depends on how much you take and how you take it. Usually you feel the effects of cocaine for 15 to 30 minutes. The effect on your mood is mostly:
- Energetic and happy;
• Speechful;
• Mentally alert and more sensitive to light, touch and sounds.
Using coke in combination with ADHD often actually makes you feel calmer. In that case, coke has a calming effect on your mood. Large amounts of cocaine can lead to unpredictable and sometimes violent behavior. Coke users also often suffer from restlessness, irritability, anxiety, panic and paranoia.
Effects of coke on your body
In the short term, coke also causes physical reactions. These effects usually consist of constricted blood vessels, dilated pupils and increased body temperature and heart rate. In some cases, infections (when injected) or nosebleeds may also occur. Regular use of coke can cause tremors, dizziness and muscle twitching. In some cases, cocaine use also leads to serious physical risks. The most common are heart problems, such as arrhythmias and heart attacks. Other possible consequences include abdominal pain, nausea headaches or even strokes.
How addictive is cocaine?
Cocaine is not addictive to your body, but it is addictive to your brain (mental addiction). Using coke activates the reward system in your brain. You produce more substances such as dopamine and serotonin, causing you to experience intense feelings of happiness. These effects of coke change the chemical functioning of your brain. As your brain gets used to the effects of cocaine, chances are you will produce fewer of these substances naturally. This makes you feel down and you may develop a dependence on cocaine to feel good. As a result, withdrawal from coke is often very difficult.
How quickly you become addicted to cocaine varies from person to person. Certain factors can make you more susceptible to addiction than others. How you use cocaine also affects your addiction. Using crack cocaine can be addictive after only one use.
Consequences of cocaine addiction
In the long run, by using cocaine, you get impairment of the nasal mucosa, malnutrition, apathy and strong mood swings. Excessive use of cocaine can cause habituation, making you need more and more to achieve the same effect. This increases the risk of overdose. The opposite effect is also possible, where you experience the same amount of stress, panic and muscle twitching with less cocaine.
Effects of excessive cocaine use
When you use too much cocaine, you may even experience psychosis. How you use coke also affects the consequences. For example, snorting coke can cause you to lose your sense of smell, and smoking crack cocaine can damage your lungs. Injecting cocaine can lead to infections, such as HIV and Hepatitis C. A person addicted to cocaine also often has a decreased appetite, causing a great loss of body weight. Other possible consequences of coke addiction include:
– Heart attacks
– Brain hemorrhages
– Chest pain that feels like a heart attack
– Tears and ulcers on the stomach
– Decreased motor skills (even Parkinson’s in severe cases)
– Poorer and shorter focus and memory loss
Getting off coke
Coke withdrawal symptoms
When you try to withdraw from drugs you will experience withdrawal symptoms. The duration and severity of your withdrawal symptoms can vary depending on what type of drugs you have been using and for how long. The most common symptoms are:
– Increased pulse rate and blood pressure
– Sleep disorder
– Irritability
– Excitement
– Fear
– Panic attacks
– Psychotic disorders (paranoia, hallucinations)
Coke and alcohol
Cocaine use also often goes hand in hand with alcohol. The stimulant effect of cocaine makes you feel the effects of alcohol less, so you often drink more than usual. When combined with alcohol, cocaethylene is produced. This can cause acute oxygen deprivation of the heart muscle. Also, the combination of coke and alcohol often causes reckless and violent behavior.
Master your
cocaine addiction
This page has been professionally reviewed for medical truth
U-center has subject matter experts check information on the website for medical truth. So you can be sure of reliable information.
Last updated on 26-09-2023
Page reviewed by:
Hans Zander
Addiction Physician
Addiction treatment physician at U-center.