Cocaine is a powerful drug that impacts the body and mind, leading to a range of negative effects and consequences. While its immediate effects include feelings of euphoria, heightened energy, and mental sharpness, such sensations often come with a steep price: anxiety, restlessness, and increased heart rate. Prolonged cocaine use exacerbates all these issues while sometimes leading to life-threatening complications.
Fortunately, Empowered Recovery Center in Atlanta provides individualized cocaine addiction treatment in a variety of settings, including partial hospitalization, intensive outpatient, and outpatient. By exploring cocaine’s effects in detail, you can better understand both the dangers of cocaine and the importance of seeking help for cocaine addiction.
Short-Term Effects of Cocaine
Cocaine is an addictive stimulant made from the leaves of the coca plant native to South America. It can be refined to a powder and snorted through the nose, rubbed into gums, injected into the bloodstream, or smoked.1 Notably, the method in which one ingests cocaine plays a significant role in shaping its effects.
Cocaine’s effects appear almost immediately after a single dose, then disappear in about an hour. Small amounts of cocaine usually make people feel euphoric, energetic, talkative, and mentally alert. The drug can also temporarily decrease a person’s need for food and sleep.1 Some people find that cocaine helps them perform simple physical and intellectual tasks more quickly. Others experience just the opposite. Following this “high,” users often experience a “coke crash,” which include depression, irritability, and fatigue.2
When the drug is quickly absorbed, the resulting high is more intense but shorter in duration. Snorting cocaine produces a relatively slow onset of the high that can last from 15 to 30 minutes. In contrast, the high from smoking is immediate but lasts just five to ten minutes.1 The short-term effects of cocaine include:1,2
- Constricted blood vessels
- Dilated pupils
- Increased body temperature
- Increased heart rate and blood pressure
- Insomnia
- Loss of appetite
- Restlessness
- Irritability
- Anxiety
- Risk of overdose
Cocaine Overdose Signs
Cocaine carries a significant risk of overdose. This risk is heightened when taken in binges, that is, consumed repeatedly and in escalating doses over a period of days. Such behavior can lead to increased irritability, restlessness, panic attacks, paranoia, and, in some cases, psychosis, in which the individual loses touch with reality, experiencing auditory and visual hallucinations.1
Combining cocaine with alcohol can be particularly dangerous, as the two substances react to produce cocaethylene. Cocaethylene can increase the toxic effects of cocaine and alcohol on the user’s heart.
Combining cocaine and opioids like fentanyl is also extremely dangerous. People combine these drugs because the stimulating effects of cocaine are offset by the sedating effects of an opioid. However, this can lead to taking a high dose of an opioid without realizing it. And because cocaine’s effects wear off relatively quickly, opioid overdose can result.1
A cocaine overdose is an immediate and potentially life-threatening side effect. What’s more, overdose can happen the first time someone uses cocaine. Cocaine overdose symptoms may include:3,4
- Seizures
- Hallucinations
- Delirium
- Violent behavior
- Hyperthermia
- Arrhythmia
- Chest pain
- Difficulty breathing
- Coughing up blood
If you believe someone is experiencing cocaine overdose, seek medical care immediately. Call 911 or your local emergency number and stay with that person until medical help arrives. Be prepared to give information about the kind and amount of substances the person took.
Other Long-Term Risks of Cocaine Addiction
Over time, the long-term drug use that comes with cocaine addiction increases the risk of a wide range of medical complications. Some of these may be life-threatening. While it is possible in many cases to reverse the damage done through cocaine abuse; other cases have shown that long-term cocaine use can have irreversible negative effects.
With regular cocaine use, a physical tolerance to the drug can develop. As a result, the user will require higher doses, more frequent use, or both to achieve the same “rush” that they used to experience. On the other hand, sensitization may also occur, where smaller amounts of cocaine are enough to trigger anxiety, convulsions, or other toxic effects. Such a combination—tolerance to cocaine’s pleasurable effects on the one hand and sensitization to its toxic effects on the other—heightens cocaine’s risk of overdose.1
Certain health problems can be specific to the method in which one uses cocaine. For instance, the effects of snorting cocaine include nosebleeds, damage to the soft palate, and a loss of the sense of smell. The effects of smoking crack include damage to the lungs and the exacerbation of asthma symptoms. The effects of injecting cocaine include “track marks” on the forearms and an increased risk of infections like HIV and hepatitis C.1
Other possible long-term effects of cocaine addiction include:1,3
- Heart attack
- Stroke
- Pneumonia
- Hepatitis C
- HIV/AIDs
- Increased seizures related to epilepsy
- Movement disorders, including Parkinson’s disease
- Gastrointestinal complications, including ulcers
- Increased risk of stroke
Cocaine Addiction Treatment in Atlanta, GA
At Empowered Recovery Center in Atlanta, we strive to empower clients with the information and skills needed to effect lasting change in their lives. Our cocaine addiction treatment program can guide you through the recovery process.
We offer a number of rehab programs to suit your needs, including outpatient rehab, partial hospitalization programs (PHP), and intensive outpatient programs (IOP). Also, our programs include one full year of free recovery coaching to provide you with continued support once you’ve completed our programs.
While we accept several insurance plans, our admissions team is happy to work with out-of-network plans so that you’ve got all the details you need regarding paying for rehab, including using insurance to pay for rehab. If you’d like to learn more about our cocaine addiction treatment programs, contact us today or verify your benefits online.
References
- National Institute on Drug Abuse. (n.d.) Cocaine. National Institutes of Health. Retrieved November 16, 2024, from https://nida.nih.gov/research-topics/cocaine
- Grant County, Washington. (n.d.) Cocaine Information. Grant County, Washington. Retrieved November 17, 2024, from https://www.grantcountywa.gov/FAQ.aspx?QID=163
- Cleveland Clinic. (n.d.) Cocaine (Crack). Cleveland Clinic. Retrieved November 17, 2024, from https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/4038-cocaine-crack
- U.S. National Library of Medicine (2023). Cocaine Toxicity. National Institutes of Health. Retrieved November 18, 2024, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK430976/
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