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Heritage Home 30-Day Residential Program is Successful in Treating Cocaine and Crack-Cocaine Addiction


Cocaine and Crack-Cocaine, Is It the Same Addiction?

The Dangers of Cocaine Addiction:

Cocaine is taken from the dried leaves of the Coca plant. Street cocaine is typically mixed with other substances (baking soda, sugars, and local anesthetics, such as lidocaine) that are unknown to the user, making the effect of cocaine stronger and unpredictable.

People take cocaine because of its ability to intensify feelings of intellectual and physical prowess. Other effects are increased energy, appetite suppression, and pain reduction. On the surface, cocaine seems to have benefits that are worth the risks of using. It is dangerous and false to believe this myth for seven important medical, psychological, and legal reasons:

  1. 1. Feelings of anxiety and uneasiness replace the short-term feelings of euphoria / pleasure, which motivate people to use cocaine more frequently. However, this euphoric feeling cannot be maintained without increasing the frequency and dosage of cocaine.
  2. 2. Increased cocaine results in increased agitation and anxiety. Now, in order to lessen these feelings or to even get some sleep, users end up using or abusing other intoxicants like alcohol, sedatives, or marijuana. This behavior increases the risk of becoming addicted to multiple substances and increases health risks. Cocaine used with alcohol, for example, makes cocaine more euphoric but it has a higher cardiovascular toxicity level that can lead to heart attacks or strokes.
  3. 3. Strokes formed by high blood pressure and an irregular heartbeat become more likely, especially people who already smoke a high quantity of tobacco or cannabis.
  4. 4. People who snort cocaine risk starving the body's tissues of blood, which causes the tissues to die. For example, the cartilage separating the nostrils becomes degraded, leading to eventual disappearance.
  5. 5. People who use large amounts of cocaine or are vulnerable to having mental problems are at higher risk of developing psychological disorders, panic attacks, intense mood swings, hearing hallucinations, and paranoia. If cocaine produces a toxic psychosis, the user can lose touch with reality and become adopt unpredictable and possibly dangerous behaviors.
  6. 6. Cocaine increases user mental activity, which can cause memory problems and insomnia.
  7. 7. Inhibitions are lowered in harmful ways that can motivate users to behave in undesirable (excessive money spending or sexual aggression) or criminal (selling drugs, robbery) ways.

Cocaine is powerful because of its ability to cause psychological dependence - it becomes extremely difficult to stop using the drug. The desire is so strong that cocaine addicts take other substances to control cocaine use; this does not suppress the cravings.

The Dangers of Crack Cocaine Addiction:

Crack cocaine differs from cocaine because it is possible to experience a stronger intensity for less product and less money. Free-basing cocaine (crack) is preferred because the substance is absorbed immediately into the blood through the lungs so that the brain can feel the effects in about 5 seconds. Although the high is more intense, the coming down stage is more unpleasant. Regular crack cocaine use can:

  1. 1. Develop brain damage
  2. 2. Increase the risk of death from a heart attack or suicidal thoughts
  3. 3. Lead to violent and illegal behavior
  4. 4. Result in hallucinations and paranoia

Crack cocaine abuse results in the user being psychologically dependent on the drug. Even when people stop using crack, they can experience mood swings and relapses for several months afterward.

The harmful and possibly deadly effects of cocaine and crack cocaine use, abuse and dependence make it necessary for users to receive proper medical and psychological treatment.

Heritage Home counselors are trained to provide residential therapy. Call us now 1-866-330-9818 to make a life saving intervention for yourself or a loved one suffering from the disease of addiction.

How to Detect if Your Loved One Uses or is Abusing Cocaine or Crack Cocaine.

Initial Signs of Cocaine Use:

  1. 1. Hyperactivity
  2. 2. Restlessness
  3. 3. Increased blood pressure
  4. 4. Increased heart rate and euphoria

Followed-by:

  1. 1. Feelings of discomfort
  2. 2. Depression
  3. 3. Craving to use cocaine
  4. 4. Twitching
  5. 5. Paranoia

Cocaine Abuse Symptoms are:

  1. 1. Hallucinations
  2. 2. Paranoid delusions
  3. 3. Itching
  4. 4. Lifetime risk of heart attack
  5. 5. Increased toxicity levels that result in the risk of death from a brain hemorrhage, respiratory failure, stroke, or heart failure
How Heritage Home Uses Live Saving Therapy Techniques to Fight Against the Harmful Effects of Cocaine and Crack Cocaine Addiction.

Studies in cocaine abuse show that a Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) approach produces successful results because it teaches clients how to identify and respond to distorted and unhealthy thinking, which in turn, leads to negative emotions. The process involves identify irrational thoughts and replacing them with more realistic thoughts. Realistic thinking increases one's ability to feel more positive.

Heritage Home uses effective techniques as found in treatments like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy as a means of responding to faulty thought processes surrounding addiction, such as, glamorizing the positive effects of cocaine use. Good feelings surrounding cocaine use motivates users to take cocaine as a way of coping with bad news or mild depression. Once the person begins to feel 'artificially' happy, this distorted process reinforces the unhealthy behavior that strengthens the response and addictive potential of cocaine and crack. Changing these irrational thoughts, for example, would involve examining the issue of avoidance verses the benefits from empowerment through developing effective coping skills.

At Heritage Home, we understand the difference between chemical dependence and chemical dependence relapse. Our treatment program takes into consideration the unique needs of our clients.

Anti-addictive Pharmaceutical Medication.

Venalfaxine (Effexor) is a dopamine uptake inhibitor, which has been used in successfully responding to cocaine addiction.

Future Medical Aids to Cocaine and Crack Cocaine Recovery.

GVG:

Gamma Vinyl-gamma-aminobutyric acid (gamma vinyl-GABA, or GVG is a drug that is normally used to treat epilepsy. Studies with primates however, show that this drug blocks cocaine's action within their brain. Once the GVG drug increases the neurotransmitter GABA, the level of dopamine level associated with the addictive area of the brain is reduced. In January 2005 the US Food and Drug Administration used, these findings to permit GVG to be used in Phase I clinical trials in the pursuit of finding a medical treatment for addiction.

GBR 12909 (Vanoxerine) reduces primate's tendency to self-administer cocaine because it reduces cocaine's effects on the brain (dopamine uptake inhibitor). This drug may soon be used to treat cocaine addiction.