Cocaine Information

The short-term effects of cocaine will be noticed right away which in some cases of use can cause serious bodily damage and in some cases lead to death. Cocaine-related deaths are often a result of cardiac arrest or seizures followed by respiratory arrest. Increased energy, decreased appetite, and increased heart rate and blood pressure are some short-term effects that will be noticed by most first time cocaine users.

Cocaine affects the body in many ways, which in turn causes cocaine effects to be very dangerous by putting your body at risk. There are many cocaine effects that will be discussed in the following summary that can be grouped into two distinct categories, short and long term effects. Short-term cocaine effects appear almost immediately after a single use. While long-term cocaine effects can appear at different times after an extended time of use, all depending on the duration and amount of cocaine used.

The increased energy sometimes referred to as a rush, draw many first-time users to try cocaine. The quick high will keep you up longer and can increase your endurance in many physical activities. Some people who are new to cocaine try it to increase work productivity to work longer hours and be supposedly more creative. Although this might work at first it tends to lead to increased usage that leads to becoming addicted.

Increased heart rate, blood pressure, constricted blood vessels, dilated pupils, and increased temperature are all short-term physiological cocaine effects. Large doses of cocaine will intensify the users high, which in turn sometimes cause the cocaine user to display erratic and violent behavior.

Long-term cocaine effects come into play as cocaine abuse continues and tolerance builds. Cocaine is a highly addictive drug, which can lead to enormous medical complications. Some of these complications are as follows: heart disease, which can lead to heart attacks, respiratory failure, strokes, seizures, and gastrointestinal various complications. Some physical symptoms are as follows: convulsions, nausea, blurred vision, chest pain, fever, muscle spasms, and coma.

Some other long-term effects are lying to others about the use of cocaine, lying to one-self about becoming addicted, stealing to support the sometimes very expensive cocaine habit, and absenteeism at work.

Mood Disturbances

Many cocaine addicts develop a high tolerance for the use of cocaine with continued use of the drug. Seeking the high that was involved with the first use of cocaine is common among cocaine addicts. The reality of drug addiction is that this high will never be felt again and some addicts chase this for years causing them to lose everything.

Withdrawal

For years people have been becoming dependent on cocaine. This dependence (although not always known to the abuser) is in fact a physical dependence. When the abuser makes the decision to be released from the binds of cocaine abuse they must undertake this process of cocaine withdrawal. This can be painful but the end result is freedom from cocaine abuse.

The cocaine withdrawal begins as soon as the person puts down the cocaine for just one day. The beginning of the withdrawal procedure is the hardest. The cocaine user will automatically want to put more of the drug in their system. The body will tell the mind that cocaine is needed. This physiological communication will flip the switch of obsession back on. The obsession will begin the search for more and more of the drug. This stage will occur within the first week of cocaine withdrawal. After the first week of cocaine withdrawal the body will have released the communication with the mind. The body will no longer need the cocaine. Unfortunately the abuser will not know this mentally and will still search for more.

Symptoms

Cocaine abuse symptoms are baffling because at first cocaine abuse symptoms are subtle and can go unnoticed. Cocaine abuse symptoms grow larger and more noticeable as the cocaine abuse escalates. Cocaine abuse symptoms start off as simple as a normal nosebleed and can become as extreme as cardiac arrest. The final and most obvious cocaine abuse symptom is death. Death is exactly where cocaine abuse will take you and along the way the abuser will encounter many other cocaine abuse symptoms. The addiction to cocaine first infects the way the abuser begins to think. Slowly their life begins to revolve around acquiring more and more of the drug. Obsession is the first cocaine abuse symptom. It is not nearly as noticeable as the other more prominent symptoms of cocaine abuse.

As soon as the cocaine enters the blood stream it begins to take control of the abuser mentally. The person becomes absolutely consumed with the prospect of getting more and more of the drug. This grows larger to the point that the mental obsession begins to manifest itself in the abusers actions. The abuser will begin to do anything to receive more cocaine. They will stoop down to levels they never thought their soul could reach. This includes stealing from loved ones, all the way down the line until they find themselves in jail for a crime they never thought they could commit.

The physical being of the abuser is affected almost instantaneous. The body's chemical makeup adjusts itself in order to acquire the ability to consume cocaine. Therefore from the first ingestion of the chemical the person is hooked physically. The physical aspect of the cocaine abuse symptoms has quite a range of extremes. At first the person will just lose their appetite. This is a more subtle cocaine abuse symptom. Then slowly the septum of the nasal passage is eaten away. Once again this is a symptom only noticed by the abuser themselves. Eventually though, the abuser will become physically ill. This includes stomach cramps, the breaking out in cold sweats, and the increased heart rate, which wears away at the hearts ability to function correctly. All of these physical symptoms lead to the last cocaine abuse symptom-death.

Source: NIDA - National Institute on Drug Abuse