Cocaine addiction

Treatment

Quitting Cocaine

Are you looking for help to quit cocaine? At U-center, we offer comprehensive and intensive treatment for your cocaine addiction. Addiction often doesn't occur in isolation. In many cases, there are also other diagnoses present, such as PTSD, depression, or a personality disorder. Therefore, during treatment at U-center, we first look for the factors that play a role in your addiction.

Your treatment starts with a careful diagnosis and a 6-week clinical admission to our clinic in Epen. During your admission, you'll learn about the factors that influence your cocaine addiction and receive various treatments to quit cocaine. Together with a team of different therapists, you'll explore the causes of your cocaine addiction and change the behavior patterns that perpetuate your symptoms with new insights.

Effects of cocaine

A cocaine addiction can have serious consequences for your mental and physical health. The drug affects your mood and your body. The duration of the effect of cocaine depends on the amount you use and the way you use it. Usually, the effects of cocaine last for 15 to 30 minutes. The effect on your mood is often:

• Energetic and happy
• Talkative;
• Mentally alert and more sensitive to light, touch, and sounds.

Using coke in combination with ADHD often makes you feel calmer. In that case, cocaine has a calming effect on your mood. Large amounts of cocaine can lead to unpredictable and sometimes violent behavior. Cocaine users also often experience restlessness, irritability, anxiety, panic, and paranoia.

How addictive is cocaine?

Cocaine is not physically addictive, but it is psychologically addictive. The use of cocaine triggers the reward system in your brain, causing you to produce more chemicals like dopamine and serotonin, which can give you a powerful sense of pleasure. Due to these effects of cocaine, the chemical balance in your brain is altered. Once your brain becomes accustomed to the effects of cocaine, it is likely that you will produce fewer of these chemicals naturally. This can lead to feelings of depression and dependence on cocaine to feel good. Therefore, quitting cocaine can be very difficult.

The speed at which you become addicted to cocaine varies from person to person. Certain factors can make you more susceptible to addiction than others. Additionally, the way in which you use cocaine can also affect your level of addiction. Using crack cocaine, for example, can have an addictive effect after just one use.

Quitting coke

Coke withdrawal symptoms

When trying to quit or reduce cocaine use, you will experience withdrawal symptoms. It is important to seek help when you want to detox from cocaine. The most common withdrawal symptoms of cocaine include:

• Increased heart rate and blood pressure
• Sleep disorders
• Irritability
• Excitement
• Anxiety
• Panic attacks
• Psychotic disorders (paranoia, hallucinations)

Cocaine and alcohol

Cocaine use often goes hand in hand with alcohol. Due to the stimulating effect of cocaine, the effects of alcohol are reduced, leading to drinking more than usual. Cocaine and alcohol together create cocaethylene, which can cause acute oxygen deprivation of the heart muscle. The combination of cocaine and alcohol also often leads to reckless and violent behavior.