Cocaine addiction can have a devastating impact on all aspects of your life. In addition to the risk of significant physical and psychological harm, the continued misuse of cocaine can undermine your ability to maintain healthy relationships, make appropriate academic progress, get and keep a job, establish financial independence, and otherwise participate in a productive and satisfying lifestyle.

Professional treatment can help you to heal from any past harm that has resulted from your cocaine misuse, and can empower you to avoid future damage. Receiving that care at Priory offers a wide range of benefits, including:

Comprehensive care – the breadth and depth of our services ensures that we can provide you with the focused treatment that best aligns with your needs and goals.

Experienced professionals – whilst in treatment at a Priory hospital, you will work in active collaboration with teams of dedicated professionals who were selected both for their clinical expertise and for their commitment to compassionate care.

All Priory rehabilitation and detox services are carried out in licensed hospitals, with treatment led by consultants who are supported by junior doctors and highly experienced nursing staff. Clinical staff are on-site 24-hours a day, 7 days a week.

Flexible financial options – whether you intend to self-fund your treatment or use private medical insurance (PMI), Priory has options that are appropriate for your financial situation.

Documented successes – we employ a wide range of outcomes metrics to ensure that our patients receive quality services, make progress toward their treatment goals and are treated with the utmost dignity and respect.

Cocaine is a powerful stimulant that can be highly addictive due to the short but intense high that it creates, usually lasting between 5-30 minutes. The substance is usually snorted through the nose in white powder form, and because the resulting euphoric state is very brief, if you begin misusing cocaine often, you will likely build up a tolerance to the drug. This tolerance means that you will need to take more cocaine with increasing frequency in order to achieve the desired effects, hence how an addiction is formed.

The addictiveness levels of cocaine can depend on how it is taken. If you take the drug in freebase form, which is the powdered version of cocaine prepared for smoking, or crack cocaine, which has a ‘rock-like’ appearance,  it can reach your brain very quickly, which produces a stronger effect, and is therefore more addictive than snorting the drug.

Cocaine and substance addiction is often characterised by changes in behaviour which can affect your relationships both at home and at work, whereby sourcing the drug becomes more important than spending time with loved ones, or pursuing activities you previously enjoyed. If you or a loved one is addicted to cocaine, some of the behavioural signs to look out for include rapid talking during conversations, where moving quickly from topic to topic is common, while items used in regular cocaine use such as mirrors, razor blades, tightly rolled bank notes, glass, metal or plastic straws can be signs of cocaine abuse.

When you are addicted to cocaine, you may also be aware of negative symptoms and side effects which could occur with use, although these consequences will often be secondary thoughts, while stopping the drug can often feel impossible, although specialised addiction treatment programmes at Priory are evidenced as providing effective addiction recovery treatment where you can stop using the drug and regain control of your life.

Crack cocaine addiction

Crack cocaine, also referred to as simply ‘crack’, is the crystallised form of cocaine. This drug is heated and smoked, and its name is derived from the characteristic cracking or popping noise that it makes when it is exposed to heat. The onset of euphoria is much more rapid in crack cocaine when compared to the powder form of the drug, but the effects often peak quickly and stop after only a few minutes. This accelerated cycle of abuse causes crack cocaine addiction and tolerance to build rapidly.

As your cocaine misuse becomes more frequent, you are likely to experience damage to your mind and body; this can affect your home life and performance at work or school. If this sounds familiar to you, it may be due to the fact that your cocaine addiction has spiralled out of control, resulting in what clinicians refer to as a 'cocaine use disorder'.

Fortunately, there is help available for individuals who have developed an addiction to cocaine and other illicit substances. Although an addiction to a stimulant such as cocaine can be difficult to overcome, residential treatment that offers specialist programmes for cocaine misuse concerns, can help you to regain control of your life and leave your addiction in the past.

Cocaine misuse symptoms

The signs and symptoms of cocaine addiction will vary from person to person, and this is the case with all types of substance misuse concerns. However, there are several behavioural, physical, mental and social symptoms that have been identified which have shown to be reliable indicators that you may be suffering from cocaine use disorder.

Behavioural symptoms of cocaine addiction

• Acting impulsively or with increased energy
• Attempting to borrow or steal money
• Being dishonest about your whereabouts, associates and activities
• Being unable to curtail your cocaine misuse
• Engaging in reckless and risky behaviours

Physical symptoms of cocaine addiction

• Rapid heart rate
• Elevated body temperature
• High blood pressure
• Persistent nosebleeds
• Loss of appetite
• Insomnia
• Liver damage
• Kidney damage
• Stroke
• Cognitive impairment
• Heart attack
• Breathing problems
• Hypertension

Mental symptoms of cocaine addiction

• Poor decision-making capabilities
• Restlessness
• Irritability
• Psychosis
• Brief state of euphoria
• Sudden overabundance of confidence

Social symptoms of cocaine addiction

• Mood swings
• Agitation
• Irritability
• Depression
• Social withdrawal

Effects of cocaine misuse on daily life

Chronic cocaine misuse will cause damage to your mind, body and spirit, and as stated previously, cocaine addiction will affect each person differently. However, you can expect to experience some, if not all, of the outcomes described below if you do not seek treatment for cocaine addiction.

• Family problems
• Academic failure
• Financial problems
• Withdrawal from social situations
• Substandard occupational performance
• Job loss and unemployment
• Arrest and imprisonment
• Suicidal thoughts

Symptoms of cocaine withdrawal

When a person’s body adapts to the presence of cocaine, its absence may trigger the onset of a variety of distressing physical and/or psychological symptoms, including but not limited to the following:

• Intense cravings for cocaine
• Fatigue
• Depression
• Nightmares
• Lethargy
• Restlessness
• Irritability
• Anxiety
• Paranoia

One of the many benefits of receiving professional treatment for a cocaine problem is that you will be able to withdraw from this substance in a safe and closely supervised environment. Detoxification, or detox, involves a medically assisted withdrawal process that can help you to rid your body of the cocaine with greater comfort and minimal risk.

It is widely accepted that there is no definitive cause of substance abuse, including cocaine. Moreover, it is more likely that genetic and environmental factors can increase the likelihood of you developing a cocaine addiction.

Genetic - it has been observed that cocaine abuse tends to run in families. If you have an immediate family member such as a mother or father who uses the drug, you would be at higher risk of developing the disorder. This can be exacerbated due to the heightened exposure to cocaine for extended periods compared to families who don’t use, which can contribute to ‘normalising’ of cocaine use in the household.

Brain structure and chemicals - studies suggest that repeated use of cocaine can cause your genes to alter, and is believed to contribute to changes in dopamine levels in your brain, which is the chemical that causes the ‘rush’ or high when you take the drug, and is at the centre of the addiction process.   

Alongside chemical changes contributing to feelings of addiction, your brain’s structure may also dictate how much you crave addictive substances such as cocaine. Research has shown that areas in the brain including the amygdala could indicate how susceptible you may be to cravings for cocaine, with differences shown in these parts of the brain compared to someone who doesn’t use the drug.            

Psychological pleasure centres - when you take cocaine, it is believed to affect the normal working of parts of your brain which control pleasure responses. If you continue to frequently take cocaine, your pleasure centre can stop responding correctly to situations which would otherwise cause feelings of pleasure, meaning your brain eventually requires cocaine to function correctly to avoid withdrawal symptoms.

This is known as developing a tolerance to the drug, and can leave you feeling depressed or even suicidal if you don’t have enough cocaine in your system, so it is imperative that you seek professional medical help at this stage, and if possible, much sooner.