At the Louisville Addiction Treatment Center, we specialize in addiction treatment, to help you understand what happens to your body when you use cocaine and drugs. Our specialized plans help you understand addiction and treatment. Start here to understand cocaine misuse:
- What Happens to Your Body When You Use Cocaine?
- The short-term effects of cocaine use
- The long-term effects of cocaine use
- Getting Help with Cocaine Addiction
- The Services We Offer
- Intensive Outpatient
- Outpatient
- Telemed
- Multiple Pathways
- Aftercare
- How We Can Help with Cocaine
- Paying for Our Treatments
Unlike residential centers, we focus on impact treatment with tailored outpatient care for users addicted to cocaine, alcohol, and other drugs. Cocaine is a major issue across the entire United States. So here’s what you need to know and how to get help.
What Happens to Your Body When You Use Cocaine?
Cocaine is among the most common street drugs. And it has become a drug of choice among all age groups because it’s effective at making you feel euphoric and confident. Additionally, movies, video games, TV shows, and music have all but glamorized this extremely dangerous drug. Once only for the wealthy, the cost of cocaine is low enough for many to afford it for regular use. Yet, like all addictive substances, you need more to get the same result. This means bigger bills and an increasing addiction. Here are some of the effects of cocaine.
The short-term effects of cocaine use
Cocaine is part of one of the seven different drug classifications. The drug classifications according to United States law are as follows:
- Central nervous system (CNS) depressant drugs
- Central nervous system stimulant drugs
- Hallucinogenic substances
- Dissociative anesthetic compounds
- Narcotic analgesic drugs
- Drugs for inhaling
- Cannabinoids
Cocaine is a CNS stimulant, which means it makes you alert, talkative, and energetic. However, the effects are short-lived, and more of the drug is required to maintain the high. However, this varies by your method of administering. Such as injection, snorting, smoking, or blood vessel absorption such as rubbing on the gums or anally.
Please fill out our Admissions Form to seek the best help for cocaine addiction in Kentucky.
The intensity of the high is also dependent on how you use it. Of course, the quality of the product also plays an important role. Many street drugs, including cocaine, are commonly mixed with other powders to reduce the costs to the supplier or dealer. So, in any given bag of alleged cocaine, you could also be consuming baby formula, powdered toothpaste, or even other drugs like fentanyl and heroin. Because of this, buying cocaine has become extremely dangerous. However, cocaine alone temporarily affects your body in a very specific and noticeable way.
- Euphoric feelings and increased energy
- Perceived mental alertness
- Heightened sensitivity to light, smell, and touch
- Anger and irritability
- Extreme paranoia gets worse over time
- Decreased blood flow
- Dilated pupils in the eyes
- Higher body temperature but feeling cold
- Massively increased heart rate and blood pressure
- Feeling sick when you move or talk
- Dry mouth and clenched jaws
- Increased restlessness
- Loss of appetite while high and/or the next day
- Severe sleep problems
All of these are awful in terms of abusing your body. The effects can be so severe that even one use of cocaine can be fatal. Cocaine misuse is a global issue. But in the United States alone, it accounts for almost 20,000 deaths per year because the long-term effects are devastating.
The long-term effects of cocaine use
Cocaine is less addictive than other illicit drugs like meth and heroin. However, it can take a toll on your body over time. One of the most concerning aspects of cocaine is that the addiction is slow-building rather than quick as with heroin. However, crack cocaine, which is smokable, is far more addictive because of its massively enhanced yet short-lived effects. With powder cocaine, it isn’t uncommon to not even realize you have an issue before it’s too late. The good news is that it’s not too challenging to come off cocaine, especially with help and support.
There are numerous physical ailments associated with long-term cocaine use. They mainly depend on how you use them, but some of the most common include the following:
- Snorting: Nose issues like nose bleed, loss of smell, and phantom smells.
- Smoking: Lung damage through severe coughing and exacerbated asthma.
- Orally: Gastrointestinal damage, causing digestive issues and severe acid reflux.
- Injection: Collapsed veins and restriction, and shared needle viruses like HIV.
These are some of the more noticeable issues with cocaine use. But there are also other severe mental issues as well. Some come from poor nutrition and weight loss due to using cocaine, and others are caused by an imbalance of serotonin and cortisol.
When you use cocaine, it immediately releases serotonin, making you feel good. Unfortunately, over time, your brain becomes reliant on cocaine to do this, rather than naturally. You get natural serotonin from doing things you enjoy, like doing a hobby, eating your favorite foods, and making love.
Cocaine effectively robs you of the ability to produce serotonin naturally. As a result, you lose interest in things you used to enjoy. These include hobbies like video games. But also spending time with loved ones. And this leads to severe mental problems in addition to physical ones.
Although touted as a party drug, taking cocaine eventually becomes a very lonely and isolated habit. You will shut yourself off from friends and family, left alone with your increasingly depressive and anxious thoughts and feelings. Especially if you have an underlying issue.
Getting Help with Cocaine Addiction
Based in Louisville, KY, we have facilities throughout the state. Currently, we offer treatment in Florence, Frankfort, Bowling Green, Lexington, and Richmond. Our therapy-based impact outpatient system is a unique approach that provides support in a caring and non-judging environment.
Our 23-strong expert team is trained in the care of cocaine dependence, and we encourage activity in a community-based program. Currently, there are over 23 million people across the US with an addiction. We welcome all and want you to be the next person we help.
The Services We Offer
We offer multiple services at the Louisville Addiction Treatment Center. And our cocaine treatment therapies are among the best available. Our approach has proven effective in helping our patients with a severe addiction to street cocaine and prescriptions. These include:
Intensive Outpatient
Working with us, you won’t stay at our facility. Instead, you will receive intensive therapy based on a schedule and appointments as part of your plan. As an intensive outpatient, you can get the best treatment available while receiving love, care, and support from your family at home.
Outpatient
As an outpatient, your therapy isn’t as intense but instead offers you great flexibility when you receive our care. This type of treatment is recommended if you have a relapse issue, mild substance abuse issues, or simply don’t have the time to commit because of work or family.
Telemed
We understand that you aren’t always available at our convenience. So instead, we offer treatment that works for you. We’re proud of our intuitive telemedicine system that provides the care you need remotely. So you can still get the expert care you need without leaving home.
Multiple pathways
Our services don’t focus on one type of treatment or therapy. Instead, we offer pathways to recovery that use multiple proven and effective solutions for working on your goals. These include behavior therapy, solo and group counseling, intervention, and disorder treatment.
Aftercare
Recovery is an ongoing process, and we specialize in aftercare and support. Detox is only the beginning, so we also help you with prescriptions and adjusting to a new life without depending on cocaine. This time can be stressful, and we are there to help you through it, no matter what.
These are the core services that we know help our patients. But we offer many more specific services you might need. And we welcome all from any community, such as LGBTQ+, veterans, and college students. With our multiple-program approach, we know we can help you.
How We Can Help with Cocaine
Our approach is a little different from other centers. You won’t be locked in a room, mistreated, or deprived of anything. We aren’t like that here. Instead, we offer a compassionate blend of one-on-one and group therapies to help you identify your issues and develop a plan for tackling them. Our specialized impact treatment team works with you on a personal plan that addresses your specific requirements. So, you will receive a range of therapeutic therapies with proven results. Our approach includes listening and supporting with care and compassion.
Paying for Our Treatments
One of the greatest features of our program is that we don’t need to charge as much as residential care. Because you are an outpatient, there are no additional costs associated with your treatment. However, depending on your plan, your prices might be higher or lower.
Additionally, we are proud to work with major established insurance companies. This means the cost of treatment will be covered. All you need to do is fill out your benefit details, and we can take care of the rest. You can use our Admissions Insurance Application Form to get started.
We welcome anyone here at our Louisville Addiction Treatment Center. You will never be judged, and we will treat you no matter what. Our unique Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) for Drug Addiction Treatment combines multiple effective therapies. These help you understand what happens to your body when you use cocaine.
Using cocaine causes extreme changes in your nervous system. As a result, you become alert and energetic. The harms being caused are so severe that cocaine is often fatal upon the first use or severely additive over the long term.