Cocaine Addiction: How to Quit Cocaine

Each semester that I taught college courses on addiction, I was dismayed by students’ lack of basic knowledge about what psychoactive substances actually do in their brains and bodies. There is no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to addiction recovery. Lifestyle changes, behavioral therapy, medications, and mutual support groups may all play a role in your treatment, but it is important to find the approach that works best for your needs.

• The best way to handle a relapse is to take quick action to seek help, whether it’s intensifying support from family, friends, and peers or entering a treatment program.
• If a person is regularly snorting cocaine through their nose, it can cause the blood vessels in the lining of the nose to constrict.
• Below, we’ll share what you need to know about detoxing from cocaine, including common withdrawal symptoms, how long cocaine detox lasts, and how to get support for substance use disorder.
• Although quitting entirely is the best path to wellness, reducing or eliminating the most harmful substance use or behavior is a huge improvement and will greatly reduce the harm caused.
• While challenging, recognizing that there is a problem and learning more about the process of quitting are important first steps in recovery.
• Guilt refers to feels of responsibility or remorse for actions that negatively affect others; shame relates to deeply painful feelings of self-unworthiness, reflecting the belief that one is inherently flawed in some way.

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• People resist addiction recovery programs because they mention God.
• If you tend to take cocaine when you’re drinking you may wish to consider giving up drinking too.
• One reason those numbers aren’t lower is that cocaine is very addictive.
• Cocaine is a stimulant that increases alertness and inspires feelings of euphoria due to an increase of dopamine in the brain.
• Compared to a placebo (a pill with no therapeutic value), it significantly reduces symptoms of withdrawal and may cause less of a drop in blood pressure than similar agents.

Cravings diminish and disappear in time unless attention is focused on them. Negotiating with oneself for a delay of use, which doesn’t deny the possibility of future use, and then getting busy with something else, capitalizes cocaine addiction treatment on the knowledge that cravings dissipate in about 15 minutes. For more information on finding an effective path to recovery, check out Overcoming Addiction, a Special Health Report from Harvard Medical School.

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What is needed is any type of care or program that facilitates not merely a drug-free life but the pursuit of new goals and new relationships. There are many roads to recovery, and needs vary from individual to the next. Others do well on their own making use of available community resources. Peer or mutual support is not restricted to AA or NA; it is available through other programs that similarly offer regular group meetings in which members share their experiences and recovery skills. SMART Recovery is a secular, science-based program that offers mutual support in communities worldwide as well as on the internet and has specific programming for families. All Recovery accommodates people with any kind of addiction and its meetings are led by trained peer-support facilitators.

How Does an Intervention Work?

The impairment of these cognitive centers can lead to the compulsive use of cocaine—with little to no regard for the consequences. The impairment of judgment and loss of impulse control further promotes high-risk behaviors, sometimes increasing the risk of accidents or exposure to infections like HIV and hepatitis C. Cocaine acts on the reward centers of the brain by increasing the effects of naturally occurring neurotransmitters (such as serotonin and dopamine) that make a person feel good.

• It’s good to discuss positive activities that you will have a genuine interest in when talking with whichever professional you are working with for support to give up cocaine.
• I’ve spent the past 20 years studying addiction and providing evidence-based addiction treatment.
• Shame is an especially powerful negative feeling that can both invite addiction in the first place and result from it.
• Bear in mind that setting boundaries such as “I can no longer give you money if you continue to use drugs,” is not the same as threatening a person with punishment.

However, some people who quit an addiction find that certain withdrawal symptoms seem to go on and on. This is known as post-acute withdrawal syndrome (PAWS), and it can continue for weeks, months, or even years in some cases. There are many different treatments that can help you during the process of overcoming an addiction, including medical and psychological approaches. There is no one “right” type of addiction treatment, although some approaches are better supported by research than others. For example, a person who is trying to quit smoking would start by deciding whether they are going to stop smoking cold turkey or gradually reduce their nicotine use.

Behavioral Interventions

Afterward, committing to change can look like working with a professional in identifying specific goals, coming up with a specific plan to create change, following through with that plan, and revising goals as necessary. Due to the complex nature of any substance use disorder, other options for treatment should also include evaluation and treatment for co-occurring mental health issues such as depression and anxiety (known as dual diagnosis). Research has identified relapse patterns in adolescents and adults recovering from addiction. In one study, two-thirds of the adults relapsed in social situations in which they experienced urges and temptations to drink or use.

Drug use and effects on the brain

If you seek an inpatient program, you would be in a supervised setting where you are not able to obtain or use the drug. When you stop taking cocaine, you can experience severe withdrawal symptoms that need to be managed. As an individual develops tolerance to cocaine, they also become physically dependent on it. If the drug is discontinued, withdrawal symptoms, with physical effects, can occur. A strong craving for cocaine is the most prominent effect of withdrawal, but other symptoms usually occur as well.

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There are companies large and small that have recovery-friendly hiring practices. In addition, there are nonprofit organizations such as American in Recovery and the National HIRE Network that specifically help those with addiction or criminal history to find work. Usually for a substantial fee, career transition services help executive and higher-up employees define career goals and help with job searches. Many treatment programs have partnerships with area businesses to hire those in recovery.