Easy to want more and take larger doses over many hours or even days. Can increase risk taking, for example high risk sexual behaviour. Can lead to severe psychosis and increases the chance of heart attack or stroke. Recovery from methamphetamine addiction is a long-term process that often requires ongoing support and lifestyle adjustments. One of the significant challenges in treating methamphetamine addiction is the lack of FDA-approved medications specifically designed to address it. The complexity of addiction, coupled with these unique variations, makes methamphetamine one of the more challenging substance use disorders to treat effectively.
Side Effects Of Meth Addiction
- After a while, a person cannot produce dopamine naturally and requires the drug to feel normal, needing larger doses to experience feelings of pleasure.
- Patients taking Topiramate reported a reduction in the amount of methamphetamine consumed and a decreased likelihood of relapse among those who had already achieved abstinence.
- It causes a flood of “feel-good” chemicals called serotonin and dopamine.
- People say they have a quick rush of euphoria shortly after using crystal meth, but it’s dangerous.
Adopting healthy lifestyle changes, such as regular exercise, balanced nutrition, and adequate sleep, can significantly improve physical and mental well-being. Over time, meth can cause significant changes in brain structure and function, leading to impaired cognitive abilities, memory loss, and reduced emotional regulation. If you or a loved one are addicted to meth, it’s important to seek treatment immediately. There are evidence-based treatments that can help you live a drug-free life. However, consistently using meth damages the brain cells that produce dopamine, which can make it harder for the person to achieve the same high over time. As a result, the person has to take the drug more frequently, consume increasingly higher doses, or constantly change the way they take it, in order to achieve the same effect.
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The first step is to recognize any misconceptions you might have about substance use and addiction. It’s important to remember that ongoing drug use changes the brain’s structure and chemistry. This makes it more and more difficult to simply stop taking the drug. Ric Stevens spent many years Substance abuse working for the former New Zealand Press Association news agency, including as a political reporter at Parliament, before holding senior positions at various daily newspapers.
Medication
- Additionally, private and commercial vehicles can be used for transportation or smoking of the drug.
- Because it’s used to make meth, the federal government closely regulates products with pseudoephedrine.
- You can only get it from your doctor, but it’s not used very much.
- Although research shows that CM interventions reduce meth use, it isn’t clear whether this continues once treatment has ended.
- People take it for its pleasurable effects, including feelings of euphoria and increased wakefulness.
However, drug tests can detect even tiny amounts of meth, so you’ll need to wait much longer before you can test negative https://ecosoberhouse.com/ on a drug screening. A hair test, on the other hand, could reveal meth usage up to 3 months after you last used meth. In everyday language, that means most of the meth will leave your system before the day is done. Some folks may do a “run,” which involves taking meth continuously for several hours or days, often without sleeping or eating.
You have feelings of increased confidence, alertness and wellbeing or euphoria (a ‘high’). But, the high is followed by a comedown, which can last for days. You may also get headaches and dizziness, paranoia, hallucinations (seeing and hearing things that are not there), confusion, and feel irritable and down. Meth increases central nervous system (CNS) activity and changes the balance of chemicals in the brain. It causes a flood of “feel-good” chemicals called serotonin and dopamine.
Long-Term Effects and Risk of Meth
Additionally, individual factors such as genetic predisposition, mental health status, personal history, and the presence of co-occurring disorders play a significant role in the effectiveness of treatment. By altering negative thought patterns, CBT empowers individuals to change their behavior and make healthier choices, which is crucial for long-term recovery from meth addiction. Chronic use can lead to cardiovascular problems, including increased heart rate, irregular heartbeat, and increased risk of heart attack and stroke. Meth also places severe stress on the liver and kidneys, potentially leading to organ failure. 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.
Recognizing A Meth Addiction
It may take some time for your brain to restore its dopamine circuits when you stop using meth. So, the cognitive meth addiction abilities that don’t rely much on dopamine will likely recover first. Mental health symptoms like paranoia and delusions may take longer to disappear. The euphoria you experience when using meth may last only a few minutes. But other effects, like increased energy or higher body temperature, can linger for hours.