Meth Addiction: Signs, Effects, and Treatment

The U.S. government has labeled meth a schedule II drug, which means it has a high potential for misuse but is legal in certain contexts. For instance, the ADHD medication Desoxyn contains methamphetamine. According to evidence from early clinical trials, anti-methamphetamine monoclonal antibodies may reduce and slow the meth addiction effects of meth in the brain. CM interventions for meth addiction typically offer incentives for continued abstinence.

What is methamphetamine’s role in the overdose crisis?

• Ongoing meth use can lead to mild to severe withdrawal symptoms once you stop taking the drug.
• You can have serious side effects and health problems from drug use.
• If you use meth while you’re pregnant, you may give birth early or have a baby with a low birth weight.
• Since the treatment involves abstaining from the drug, the person may experience withdrawal symptoms such as fatigue, severe depression, anxiety, psychosis, and intense cravings for the drug during the detox process.
• Addiction to methamphetamine introduces its own dangers and exacerbates many others.

A national survey on people aged 12 or older shows that 0.6% of the U.S. population, or about 1.6 million people, may have a methamphetamine use disorder. That means more than half of people who use meth go on to misuse the drug. It’s also dangerous to combine meth with other stimulants, like cocaine. If you take more than one stimulant at a time, you have a higher risk of experiencing a stroke or heart attack, and your body may overheat. Meth produces an intense high that comes on and fades quickly. Coming down can cause difficult emotional and physical symptoms, such as depression and insomnia.

How long do the effects last?

Alcohol could potentially boost the effects of meth by heightening its euphoric effects. But it may also lead you to feel more anxious and agitated — not to mention increase your risk of alcohol poisoning or overdose. You may not feel alcohol’s effects as you typically would, so you might drink more alcohol than your body can process. Methamphetamine-related deaths in the U.S. increased 61-fold from 1999 to 2021, with significant gender differences.

Meth Addiction And Abuse

Research also suggests that drug checking approaches, such as fentanyl test strips, can help people understand what is in their drug supply before use. Syringe-services programs, which provide clean injection equipment to people who inject drugs, are highly effective harm-reduction measures, greatly reducing the spread of infectious disease. Withdrawal can make you feel so bad that you can’t stop using meth. If you have serious psychological symptoms, you may hurt yourself or someone else. Medical detox can help you manage your withdrawal symptoms comfortably and in a safe place, lessening your chances of relapse. Unless you use an approved methamphetamine medication under the direction of a doctor, there’s no recommended dose for meth.

Many of the short and long-term signs of meth abuse can be fixed once the meth addiction is Drug rehabilitation treated and the user is no longer abusing the drug. Unfortunately, some of the severe complications of meth use, such as depression and severe paranoia, do not go away quickly and are often lifelong effects of having used this dangerous drug. Physically, meth addiction can lead to irreversible damage to the brain and other areas of the body. Those who abuse meth are at an increased risk of having a heart attack or a stroke as a direct result of their drug abuse.

You may continue to use meth because of uncomfortable withdrawal symptoms that come once the drug leaves your system. Methamphetamine is a man-made stimulant that’s been around for a https://ecosoberhouse.com/ long time. People have also taken the drug to lose weight, ease depression, and manage attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Substance use disorders and addiction aren’t choices you make — they’re mental health conditions that can have long-term effects on your health and well-being. Another medication for meth addiction, ibudilast, may reduce some of the pleasurable effects of meth. Dependence refers to a physical state in which your body is dependent on the drug.

• It can cause euphoric effects that often lead people to repeatedly use the drug.
• Meth deeply affects both a user’s brain and body, and these symptoms and warning signs are visible in a variety of ways.
• This chemical causes feelings of happiness, excitement and alertness.
• “Especially if we’re thinking about methamphetamine, we know that women have better treatment outcomes, and we know men are less likely to seek treatment.
• However, people who misuse methamphetamine can experience severe side effects, such as addiction, anxiety, and psychosis.
• Swallowing or snorting meth can also produce a high, but the effects are not nearly as strong and take longer to occur.