What Does Cocaine Do to Your Body?

Cocaine is a common street drug that acts as a stimulant and is highly addictive. In 2022, it was the second most used illicit drug in the United States. Cocaine can be very damaging to your health, both in the short term and long term, and comes with the risk of overdose. Nearly 25,000 people died of an overdose involving cocaine in 2021.

How Cocaine Works

Cocaine has a powerful effect on reward and reinforcement mechanisms in the brain, causing a euphoric effect and a strong desire to use again. The user often feels energetic, mentally alert, and talkative, with a reduced need for sleep and food. The need to continue to chase these feelings by using more is what makes cocaine so addictive.

Short Term Health Effects of Cocaine

In the short term, cocaine use, even in small amounts, causes dilated pupils, constricted blood vessels, and increased heart rate and blood pressure. In large amounts, cocaine can cause violence and other erratic behavior, as well as anxiety, panic, and paranoia.

Serious consequences of short-term cocaine use can include heart arrhythmias, heart attack, seizure, strokes, abdominal pain, and nausea. Some of these effects can lead to sudden cardiac death.

Combining cocaine with alcohol or opioids increases the risks of cardiac complications. Using cocaine and opioids can also increase the risk of overdose, because the cocaine offsets the effects of opioids, which can lead to the user taking more opioids to get the effect.

Long Term Health Effects of Cocaine

In the long term, a cocaine user will develop a dependence on the drug and will be unable to feel pleasure without it. This is what leads to active seeking of cocaine, regardless of consequences, which is how addiction is defined.

Over time, the user also may develop a tolerance to the drug, needed to use more to get the same effects. However, at the same time, they become more sensitive to the drug, with lesser amounts leading to its toxic effects. This is a dangerous combination, increasing the risk of overdose.

Long-term cocaine use can also lead to many other complications. Snorting cocaine can lead to nosebleeds and other sinus irritations and damage. Smoking it has adverse effects on the lungs.

Bingeing on cocaine regularly can lead to panic, paranoia, psychosis, and hallucinations.

Gastrointestinal effects can result from reduced blood flow, leading to ulcerations or tears in the gastrointestinal tract. Loss of appetite due to cocaine use can lead to malnourishment.

Chest pain can also occur, as well as inflammation of the heart, reduced heart contractions, and aortic ruptures. Long-term cocaine use also significantly increases the risk of stroke, brain hemorrhages, and can even lead to Parkinson’s disease.

Cocaine Use Disorder Treatment

Treatment of a cocaine addiction, formally called a cocaine use disorder, starts with a period of medical supervised detox while withdrawal symptoms occur. Withdrawal symptoms include:

• Restlessness
• Depression
• Increased appetite
• Sleep disturbances
• Fatigue
• Lack of ability to concentrate
• Slower thoughts and movements
• Intense cocaine cravings

Detox can occur in an inpatient setting, or as an outpatient process.

However, treating any addiction must also include therapy, which can also be inpatient or outpatient, although inpatient is recommended.

Cognitive behavioral therapy is the most common therapy used in cocaine addiction treatment and has shown positive results. It involves patients learning how to recognize their irrational thoughts and rethink them in a reality-based way.

For example, if the patient thinks “I can just use cocaine occasionally. I don’t have to stop,” they learn to rethink that thought to come to realistic conclusions such as “Cocaine has power over me and is ruining my life and health. I need to live a sober life.”

Cognitive behavioral therapy also teaches coping skills for facing life’s challenges without drugs.

Positive reinforcement is another common type of therapy for cocaine addiction, which involves giving the patient a reward for good behavior, such as passing a drug test.

Group therapy is also commonly used in a cocaine addiction treatment program. It provides patients with a safe setting in which to share their experiences and feelings with peers, as well as to learn more about addiction and its root causes. Patients also develop mutually supportive relationships that can be invaluable in the treatment process.

Ideally, these therapies will be used during an inpatient treatment program and in ongoing treatment that includes a partial hospitalization program (PHP) followed by an intensive outpatient program (IOP).

Many patients also continue individual therapy for the long term to help them to avoid relapse, and may also attend addiction support group meetings regularly to continue to interact with peers.

In Closing

Cocaine can have a devastating impact on the human body, both in the short term and over time, and it’s highly addictive. If you are struggling with cocaine addiction, help is available. Bridges of Hope is here to help, so take the first step and call us to discuss treatment options. With treatment and support, you can overcome your addiction and move on to live a healthy and fulfilling life.