Crack Addiction Treatment – Any Addict Can Conquer Dependency

Posted by on February 7, 2012

While the lethal drug wars of the ’80s and ’90s have passed into legend, the need for crack cocaine treatment program remains urgent. There are a million crack abusers each year and it is especially pernicious because a single use can make an addict of someone who thought they might be “just experimenting.” Unlike powder cocaine, crack is inexpensive and therefore a threat to a broad segment of humanity.

Source

The ultimate source of all forms of cocaine is the humble cocoa leaf of South America. The Indians chewed the leaf as a stimulant, as mild to them as coffee might be to us. It was processed into cocaine in 1959 and has been sniffed by its users since then. It remained primarily a plaything of wealthier people till the 1980s. Then drug dealers discovered how to make cocaine into a crystalline form to be ingested through smoking without risking fire or explosions in the process.

Effects

A mere ten seconds after the user smokes the drug, he or she experiences a strong sense of elation brought on by a surge of dopamine. Any difficulties the user suffers in daily life seem to vanish during the next ten elated minutes. This is followed by a depressive crash. That crash renders the user helplessly looking to get back to the elated feelings that only just passed.

Responsibility Rejection

The elated feeling the user craves is never more than several dollars from being theirs again. This makes the drive to get the next hit nearly irresistible. A vicious rhythm asserts itself in which the addict scrambles from hit to hit. During this grim process, he or she is willing to beg, borrow or steal. He or she will be willing to sell whatever they own, including finally, their own bodies.

Physical Symptoms

Addicts damage their brain, lungs and heart by smoking crack. The heart is subject to arrhythmia and heart attack. The brain is subject to producing hallucinations and to stroke. Lung damage can make breathing difficult, and the lungs might even collapse altogether. Everything from sexual dysfunction to the user’s characteristic dilated pupils attests to a distressed circulatory system.

Treatment

Treatment begins with detoxification, which takes place on an inpatient basis in a controlled environment such as a hospital. Withdrawal from any cocaine addiction can continue for several days to a week, and is indicated by craving the drug, irritability, sleep problems and loss of appetite. The patient may be administered propranolol to ease the withdrawal and vigabatrin to treat seizures.

Psychological Help

Once medical detox is finished, the patient’s psychological issues need to be addressed. Milder cases can be addressed through outpatient counseling. However, those that are more problematic or who have suffered physical damage particularly to the brain, must have their care as inpatients. Once this process is finished, they’ll be placed into a group home with other recovering patients, all under a therapist’s care.

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