Cocaine addiction is the continued and compulsive pattern of cocaine use despite negative effects on your life or relationships.
Cocaine gives off an intense short-term high by flooding your brain with feel-good chemicals. But extended cocaine use can cause harm to the brain and central nervous system.
At Harmony Treatment and Wellness, we offer a variety of evidence-based programs designed to help you recover from your cocaine addiction in a safe, therapeutic environment.
What Is Considered a Cocaine Addiction?
Addiction to cocaine, as with many drugs, starts with just one use. People with cocaine addiction enjoy the high or other effects associated with the drug, and begin using it regularly to recapture the euphoric feelings they initially experienced.
As your tolerance to this stimulant drug grows, you need larger amounts and more frequent use to achieve the desired results.
Cocaine addiction can affect anyone, though it is most common in the 21-25 age group. People with cocaine addiction often lose their jobs, financial stability, and important family and personal relationships.
They may also experience mental and physical health problems, but are unable to stop using the drug without help.
Harmony Treatment and Wellness works to help people facing cocaine addiction end drug abuse and build a solid life in recovery through our comprehensive outpatient programs.
What Are the Causes of Opiate Addiction?
As with any addiction, cocaine addiction can be caused by several factors. Genetics and mental health issues can play a part in addiction, as they affect how your brain responds to cocaine use.
Cocaine reacts with your body’s natural rewards system, flooding your brain with the neurotransmitters dopamine and serotonin.
However, cocaine use alters your brain chemistry over time, causing you to need more of the drug to feel good and sometimes even to feel as if you can function in your daily life. Using more of the drug and using it more frequently eventually results in addiction, which often requires treatment to manage.
Who Is at Risk for Cocaine Addiction?
Anyone can be at risk for cocaine addiction. However, certain people may have more risk factors because of:
- Family history of addiction
- Beginning drug use at an early age
- Struggles with a difficult, abusive, or neglectful family situation
- Peer pressure
- Mental health disorders, including depression, PTSD, and ADHD
Because cocaine is a stimulant, it is often easier to become addicted to than other types of drugs. It can also be mixed with or used alongside a synthetic opioid like fentanyl.
Rates of Cocaine Addiction in the U.S.
Nearly 1.3 million Americans ages 12 years or older reported struggling with cocaine addiction in 2023.
Of that number, nearly 300,000 underwent inpatient treatment for cocaine addiction, while almost 550,000 underwent outpatient addiction treatment.
Cocaine Use by Age Group
In 2022, over 18 million Americans ages 21-64 reported having some type of substance use disorder. Cocaine addiction was most prevalent in the following age groups:
- Ages 21-25: 1 million
- Ages 35-39: 470,000
- Ages 60-64: 336,000
Cocaine comes in several forms, including powder (freebase) and crack cocaine.
What Are the Warning Signs of Cocaine Addiction?
Cocaine addiction can manifest in many different ways, including behavior changes, as well as mental and physical symptoms. Some common signs of cocaine addiction include:
Behavioral signs:
- Using cocaine more often than you originally intended
- Using cocaine despite problems at school, work, home, or in your relationships
- Mood swings and personality changes
- Spending increasing amounts of time buying cocaine, using it, or recovering from using it
- Using cocaine despite knowing the potential effects on your mental and physical health
- Choosing cocaine use over other activities and hobbies you used to enjoy
- Putting yourself in dangerous situations to get cocaine or because of your use of cocaine
- Unsuccessfully trying to stop or reduce your cocaine use
Mental signs:
- Euphoria
- Feelings of superiority
- Anxiety
- Irritability
- Panic and restlessness
- Psychosis
Physical signs:
- Experiencing cravings or withdrawal symptoms when you stop using or lower use
- Needing increasingly larger amounts of cocaine to achieve the desired effect
- Nosebleeds and other chronic sinus problems
- Decreased appetite and weight loss
- Increased body temperature, heart rate, or blood pressure
- Sexual dysfunction
- Changes in sleep habits
Complications of Untreated Cocaine Addiction
Frequent cocaine use can cause a wide variety of side effects and health problems. Snorting cocaine can damage the blood vessels inside your nose, causing nosebleeds, runny nose, loss of smell, and soft tissue irritation.
Continued cocaine use can cause holes in your septum, which may be fixed with surgery, but may also end up being irreparable.
The long-term effects of cocaine addiction can also cause severe health problems, including heart attack, stroke, kidney problems, seizures, and Parkinson’s disease.
Cocaine overdose is also a complication of untreated addiction, resulting in coma or death. In 2022, nearly 28,000 cocaine users died of an overdose.
Harmony Treatment and Wellness focuses on helping people heal from the harmful effects of cocaine through targeted healthcare options.
Cocaine Addiction Treatment Options in Stuart, Florida
We offer a variety of care levels at Harmony Treatment and Wellness in Stuart, Florida to help you or your loved one conquer cocaine addiction.
Here’s what we offer:
The first step in recovering from cocaine addiction is detox. During your detox from cocaine addiction, we provide medical interventions and care, individual therapy, leisure activities, and peer support groups to facilitate your detox and recovery.
If necessary, your detox program may include medication to help ease cocaine withdrawal symptoms.
The outpatient programs at Harmony Stuart are designed for those patients who have completed the required detox and residential care portions of recovery.
We provide the highest-intensity treatment next to inpatient treatment, known as partial hospitalization. This is a high level of supervision, where you spend most of your day at the treatment center up to five days a week.
You will take part in therapy, support groups, counseling, get medication management, and learn about substance abuse and mental health.
The intensive outpatient program is the next step after a PHP, offering structure while giving you more freedom to begin managing your daily routine again.
You may choose to reside in a sober living house, transitioning back into a schedule that may include returning to school or work. We provide morning and evening therapy programs, as well as medical, legal, and employment search assistance.
Once you’ve completed the intensive outpatient program, you can move on to a less structured outpatient program. At this point, you are reintegrating into your daily life but continue receiving support as needed.
You may attend group therapies, individual or family counseling, and take advantage of any services we offer to help you in your continuing sobriety journey.
Because Harmony believes in a whole-person approach to treating cocaine addiction, we utilize several different types of therapies to help you discover the path to recovery.
Our therapies include:
- Twelve-step facilitation therapy
- Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)
- Trauma Recovery/EMDR Therapy
- Mindfulness Meditation
- Yoga
- Adventure Therapy
- Family Counseling
- Individual Therapy
- Group Therapy
- Education Workshops
Mental health treatment programs can encompass all of the above therapies to help you address the causes of your addiction and how best to manage it. Talk therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, and EMDR therapy are all excellent ways to identify and work through traumas, anxiety, and depression.
Mindfulness, yoga, and adventure therapy involve listening to your body and using breathing and activity to refocus your energy away from addiction. Group therapy, 12-step recovery, and education workshops provide support from others recovering from addiction.
The professional and experienced clinicians here at Harmony Treatment and Wellness will help you find the right mental health treatment plan for your needs.
Now is the perfect time to begin to heal!
Find Cocaine Addiction Treatment at Harmony Treatment and Wellness
If you or a loved one suffer from cocaine addiction, we are here to help you regain your independence and whole-body wellness.
Contact us at Harmony Treatment and Wellness today to learn more about the wide variety of programs we offer and take the first step toward reclaiming your life from the grasp of addiction.
Most Insurance Accepted
We work with most major insurance carriers and offer a range of options to fit your lifestyle and financial means
Cocaine Addiction FAQs
The best treatment for cocaine addiction is the treatment that addresses your particular motivations for cocaine abuse and seeks to identify what methods of treatment will help you succeed.
Harmony uses a comprehensive and holistic approach to treatment, with a variety of evidence-based practices employed by highly trained, professional clinicians.
Cocaine can cause you to neglect your responsibilities, relationships with friends and family, and become disinterested in activities you used to enjoy. Cocaine addiction can affect your decision-making, causing problems for you financially, physically, and mentally as well.
The time it takes to feel normal physically after detoxing from cocaine can last anywhere from a few days to three or more weeks and depends on several factors.
How long you were addicted to cocaine and the amount of cocaine you regularly consumed can both affect the longevity of your withdrawal symptoms.
Sources
- Mayo Clinic. “Drug addiction (substance use disorder).” Retrieved from https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/drug-addiction/symptoms-causes/syc-20365112. Accessed on October 21, 2024.
- NIH National Institute on Drug Abuse. “Drug Overdose Deaths: Facts and Figures.” Retrieved from: https://nida.nih.gov/research-topics/trends-statistics/overdose-death-rates#Fig2. Accessed October 21, 2024.
- Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. “2023 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH).” Retrieved from: https://www.samhsa.gov/data/report/2023-nsduh-detailed-tables. Accessed on October 20th, 2024.
- The Scripps Research Institute. “Serotonin Receptors and Drug Abuse.” Retrieved from: https://www.scripps.edu/newsandviews/e_20030929/parsons.html. Accessed on October 21, 2024.
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