Meth Addiction: Causes, Risks, and Treatment

Meth use disorder is a medical condition that develops from long-term use of meth. You are not able to stop even though it causes physical or social problems. In low doses, meth causes happiness, focus and wakefulness. The side effects of meth can ruin a person’s high and cause a range of health problems.

Know the Risks of Meth

1. Other changes to the brain may reverse after long periods of abstinence, but this could take a year or more.
2. When it’s used, dopamine floods your brain to boost feelings of pleasure.
3. Some can affect your physical appearance while others can be fatal.
4. People with a substance use disorder may use these types of drugs, and others, to feel normal.
5. The tests can also check for physical problems meth can cause.

The extreme psychological and physical toll that methamphetamine (meth) takes on the body makes it one of the most dangerous drugs on the market. Meth deeply affects both a user’s brain and body, and these symptoms and warning signs are visible in a variety of ways. Many side effects of meth use and addiction are treatable. Meth addiction treatment is the most important step toward overcoming health problems caused by the drug. Once a person learns to live without meth, several side effects will stop occurring.

Does it interact with alcohol and other drugs?

It resembles shiny “rocks” or fragments of glass of varying sizes. First, it’s important to recognize you can’t help them quit alone. But you can certainly connect them to helpful resources and continue to offer support as they work https://sober-home.org/alcohol-and-anxiety-causes-risks-and-treatment/ toward recovery. But keeping their substance use a total secret could pose a risk to them down the road, so it’s best to hold off on making firm promises. You also don’t want to break their trust by making a promise you can’t keep.

How to find a treatment center

Ongoing meth use can lead to mild to severe withdrawal symptoms once you stop taking the drug. Dependence refers to a physical state in which your body is dependent on the drug. With drug dependence, you need more and more of the substance to achieve the same effect (tolerance). You experience mental and physical effects (withdrawal) if you stop taking the drug. When the drug wears off, dopamine in the brain is depleted, and users are left feeling depressed, fatigued, and irritable. After heavy use, some people become psychotic and paranoid, and they may experience a state of “anhedonia,” or an inability to feel any pleasure, which makes them crave the drug.

This makes it more and more difficult to simply stop taking the drug. When you have an addiction, you can’t stop using a drug, regardless of any negative consequences. Addiction can occur with or without physical dependence on the drug. However, physical dependence is a common feature of addiction. Choking local production may dry up the market temporarily, but he says, “once the market is there, it will seek out the supply from the larger bulk traffickers.” Meth works by flooding the brain with massive amounts of dopamine, a neurochemical normally released in small amounts in response to something pleasurable.

It stimulates the central nervous system, increasing alertness and energy in the short term. It also has a high potential for addiction and causes significant harm to the brain and overall health. Meth addiction can be harmful to health, to the extent that it can even be fatal. It’s important to recognize this addiction and seek help for it as soon as possible. Behavioral therapies have proven effective in treating meth addiction and can help you live a substance-free life.

Blood or urine tests may be used to check the level of meth in your system. The tests can also check for physical problems meth can cause. Healthcare providers can help you make decisions about treatment programs. Treatment may be offered in a hospital, outpatient facility, or drug rehabilitation center. When a person uses meth, they will experience a “rush” which can last anywhere from 8 hours to an entire day. During a meth rush, a person will feel a surge of energy and euphoria.

A crash can last anywhere from 1 to 3 days and is characterized by long periods of sleep, intense drug cravings, and depression. One of the first symptoms of meth abuse is a sudden how to detox weed naturally from your system loss of interest in areas of life that were once important to the person. Hobbies, relationships, and career goals will all begin to take a back seat to getting and using meth.

Taken other ways, the high comes on more gradually, producing an elevated sense of well-being, increased alertness and activity, and decreased appetite, which lasts up to 12 hours. The effects of meth are often compared to those of cocaine. Like several other drugs that are now illegal, methamphetamine got off to a legitimate start.

You may receive a voucher or other reward in exchange for drug-free urine samples. The voucher’s monetary value increases the longer you go without using meth. The goal of treatment is to help you lead a healthy life without using meth. Treatment 3 ways to report illegal drug activity may also address other underlying conditions, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or anxiety. Research has shown that methamphetamine withdrawal follows a predictable pattern. Symptoms first appear within 24 hours after the last dose.