Immediate cocaine effects after use include an intense high with strong feelings of pleasure. An opposite effect soon follows, which includes feelings of depression, agitation, and cravings for more of the drug. Other effects during and surrounding cocaine use include increased heart rate, muscle spasms and feelings of anger and paranoia.

As a Schedule II, controlled substance, cocaine has powerful and addictive effects on the mind and body. Cocaine users usually snort or smoke the substance. A quicker high results from smoking or injecting the drug versus snorting, but it doesn’t last as long as the high from snorting.

Short-Term Cocaine Effects

Lines of cocaine don't explain the dangerous cocaine effects.

Cocaine effects appear very quickly regardless of the method used. They may last only a few minutes or up to an hour, depending on the dose and administration method. Small doses cause the user to feel increased energy, euphoria, hyper-awareness, mental alertness. Users may also become more talkative. The drug often reduces the need for sleep as well as food. Cocaine users may claim that the drug helps them complete mental and physical tasks, but others find themselves unable to do anything.

Specific short-term effects of cocaine use include raised body temperature, increased heart rate, higher blood pressure and dilated pupils. Larger doses of cocaine can intensify the high that a cocaine user experiences, but it may also lead to erratic and violent behavior. Complications from cocaine addiction commonly include heart problems. Deaths from cocaine use, including sudden death, often result from cardiac arrest.

Cocaine may be commonly combined with either heroin or alcohol and both mixtures produce very dangerous side effects.

Long-Term Cocaine Effects

Long-term cocaine effects cause the brain to adapt to use of the drug. Two of the top effects include decreased reward path sensitivity and increased stress sensitivity. This causes marked displeasure and negativity when not using the drug. This essentially indicates withdrawal and the user usually begins to focus solely on getting more of the drug instead of engaging in relationships and everyday life.

With regular cocaine use, the user begins to develop a tolerance, which then requires higher doses of the drug to achieve the same high. However, at the same time the user may experience increased sensitivity to cocaine’s toxic effects. Tolerance to rewards and toxic sensitivity drastically increases the overdose risk in regular users.

Cocaine users often binge on the drug, taking it repeatedly and increasing the dose each time. This causes agitation, anxiety, panic attacks and can lead to a psychotic episode where the user completely loses their grip on reality.

Other long-term problems occur with the method used. Smoking can lead to COPD and worsening asthma, while snorting can lead to nosebleeds, loss of smell and a persistent runny nose. Injecting cocaine increases the risk for diseases like HIV and also leads to track mark scarring.

Cocaine Effects on Withdrawal

Cocaine withdrawal symptoms occur shortly after a user develops a tolerance to the drug. It shuts down the brain’s reward system and makes it so only cocaine can activate it. This process usually starts with a crash where the user experiences symptoms like fatigue, paranoia, anxiety, hunger and cravings for more cocaine.

These symptoms make it very hard for users to quit cocaine on their own and that’s where a recovery center like Beaches Recovery in Jacksonville, Florida comes in. Beaches offers a medical detox program that can help you get free of cocaine effects on your body and prepare you for the next phase of recovery.

As the genders experience drug use and recovery differently, Beaches Recovery offers specific cocaine rehab for women and treatment just for men as well. You will find the following at Beaches:

Don’t let cocaine addiction control your life. Reach out to a quality drug rehab center in FL, like Beaches Recovery today. Call us at 866.605.0532 to find out more about how we can guide you to a path of recovery.