Methamphetamine, also known as meth, is a highly addictive stimulant, and overdose rates are steadily climbing, with 50 times as many overdose deaths compared to 1999. While meth is dangerous on its own, most meth overdoses involve other drugs like fentanyl. The long-term effects of meth take their toll, causing symptoms like paranoia and hallucinations. One major effect of meth that’s often misunderstood is the presence of meth sores.
Meth sores can become severe, causing infections and impacting your overall health. But with the proper treatment, you can get rid of these sores permanently. Keep reading this guide to learn what you need to know about meth sores and how to find the treatment you need.
What Are Meth Sores?
Meth, also known as crank, ice, or glass, is a stimulant that affects your central nervous system. It gives people energy and a euphoric effect or high, causing them to chase this feeling. Chronic use puts you at risk for kidney, liver, and lung damage. It also leads to mood disturbances and intense itching that results in sores.
Meth sores are open wounds on different body parts, like the hands, arms, face, and chest. Most often, meth sores occur on the face, mouth, and forehead.
What Do Meth Sores Look Like?
Meth sores appear as rashes, cuts, or red dots on the skin. On the face, meth sores look much like acne.
Sores can also develop on the lips and inside the mouth, especially if you smoke meth. These sores look like canker sores.
Often sores can become infected and have the appearance of a blister with a black or brown center. Frequently meth sores will fill with pus, and this infection can spread when not treated properly.
Usually, sores come and go, slowly fading away in time. However, even with proper skin care, these skin sores will continue to form if you’re still using meth.
What Causes Meth Sores?
There are various reasons that people develop meth sores. Typically, multiple factors work together to cause meth sores. Common causes include:
Meth Mites
Meth mites or “meth bugs” are the most common reasons people develop meth sores. There aren’t actually mites, but these mites are very real for people with meth addiction.
Meth mites are a phenomenon that causes people to feel like bugs are crawling all over their skin. It’s a hallucination from chronic meth use, but not everybody who uses meth will experience this.
Due to these hallucinations, people pick and scratch their skin, trying to remove these bugs. Some people even use knives to eliminate the feeling of bugs crawling.
Severe infections can occur from the picking.
Weakened Immune System
Chronic meth use and infections can also weaken the immune system. First, meth can dry out mucous membranes, causing abrasions and infections.
Meth can also affect specific white blood cells, like B and T cells. It does this by impacting how these cells activate within the immune system.
Less Blood Flow
Since meth is a stimulant, it constricts blood vessels, restricting blood flow. This leads to a lack of healthy blood and oxygen to the skin. Ultimately, this limits the body’s ability to heal, making meth sores a chronic issue.
Poor Nutrition and Hygiene
It’s common to sweat frequently while using meth. Since meth can dissolve in water, it can escape through the pores. People using meth tend to care less about hygiene, so sweat stays on the skin longer, causing irritation.
Meth addiction seriously affects nutrition. Chronic addiction problems don’t allow people to get the nutrition they need. With meth, people tend not to eat enough food or drink enough water. This can lead to dehydration and nutritional deficiencies that prevent proper healing.
Injecting Meth
People who inject meth can experience skin scabs and sores from excessive needle use. Infections can easily occur from dirty or shared needles. This results in more sores and causes existing sores to become severely infected.
How Do You Treat Meth Sores?
Since chronic meth use causes meth sores, the only way to get rid of them is to stop using meth altogether. Additionally, you’ll need proper hygiene and nutrition to allow the sores to heal. It takes time, but once you’re not suffering from the effects of drugs, the sores reduce drastically.
Many people feel their sores won’t ever clear up and that stopping meth use is impossible, but this isn’t the case. Help is available, and your body will recover in time, allowing the sores to heal.
Your first step is to find a treatment program that includes:
Detox
Detox is a critical component of all treatment programs, and you must do the initial detox before entering the next treatment phase.
This is because when people use meth long-term, their bodies become dependent. This dependency can cause severe physical and psychological symptoms that begin within hours of your last use.
The symptoms of meth withdrawal vary for each person and depend on the length and quantity of meth you use. Your method of use also affects what withdrawal symptoms you’ll experience. For example, people who inject meth often experience more intense withdrawal symptoms.
Common withdrawal symptoms include:
- Agitation
- Fatigue
- Insomnia
- Paranoia and hallucinations
- Confusion
- Excessive sweating
- Itching
- Nausea and stomach aches
- Anxiety and depression
Withdrawal symptoms are at their worst 2 to 3 days after the last use and, after a week, become more manageable.
During detox, you’ll be monitored 24/7 by staff to ensure you’re comfortable. You’ll receive medications to help with your symptoms, like antidepressants, mild ADHD medications, and anxiety medications.
Overall, getting support during detox will help ease this process and get you to the next step of your recovery.
Once you’ve detoxed, your next step is entering a meth treatment program. There are various treatment programs available, like:
Inpatient Treatment
Inpatient treatment is the best way to recover from meth addiction. This is because inpatient treatment programs remove you from your environment, allowing you to focus on recovery.
You’ll stay at the facility during treatment; inpatient programs usually last between 30 and 90 days.
During treatment, you’ll receive counseling that includes:
Behavioral Therapy
One of the main aspects of meth addiction treatment is behavioral therapy. Many people don’t realize that addiction and mental health go hand in hand. Substance use disorder (SUD) is a term that describes patterns of continued drug use despite the problems it causes.
For example, people with SUD will keep using it even if it runs relationships or interferes with their job. Additionally, there is a connection between SUD and mental health disorders.
In fact, many people with SUD have co-occurring mental health disorders like anxiety, depression, or PTSD. People with SUD use drugs or alcohol to mask the symptoms of their mental health condition. This is because many of these mental health conditions aren’t diagnosed.
Therefore, people with drug addiction receive behavioral therapy like cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). CBT is a talk therapy that’s very effective in treating addiction. It helps you to identify and change negative thought patterns that lead to addictive behaviors.
You’ll also have group therapy sessions which allow you to interact with others going through similar struggles.
Most treatment programs have therapies like meditation, yoga, and nutritional counseling to help your mind and body reach a healthier place. Career and life skills counseling helps you form a solid foundation for when you’re out of the primary treatment program.
Partial Hospitalization Program (PHP)
PHP is a treatment program more intensive than outpatient treatment but not at the level of inpatient treatment. With PHP, you don’t live at a facility for your treatment. Instead, you attend treatment at least 5 to 6 times a week, depending on your needs. These visits usually last 4 to 8 hours per session.
PHP includes individual and group behavioral therapy, and you’ll need to detox before attending. Some people opt for PHP after leaving inpatient treatment to help them adjust. This is because you receive daily support during inpatient treatment, and leaving the program can be shocking for people.
On the other hand, some people prefer to live at home during treatment but still need an intensive program with a lot of support.
PHP is also suitable for people who:
- Are you still having withdrawal symptoms
- Have a high chance of relapsing due to length of use or personal circumstances
- Have had severe addiction or overdose episodes
- Have trouble managing cravings
- Have ongoing mental health issues like anxiety and paranoia
The best thing about PHP is it gives you the structured support you need to overcome addiction.
Intensive Outpatient (IOP)
IOPs are less intensive programs that require you to attend treatment 3 to 4 times a week, with sessions lasting about 3 hours.
IOP treatment programs tend to take longer than inpatient programs since the treatment isn’t continuous. Even so, IOP is still an effective program, and sticking to the treatment plan can lead to recovery.
You’ll undergo behavioral counseling and group activities as with other treatment programs.
IOP is best for people who’ve gone through withdrawal and don’t need to be in an inpatient environment. It’s also good for people who have mild to moderate addiction.
People who want to stay at home and need to work often prefer IOP programs since they allow time for other activities.
However, IOP is not a good choice if you’re in an environment that triggers cravings or don’t have your own transportation to drive to sessions.
Find the Right Treatment for Meth Addiction
If you or a loved one are experiencing problems with meth sores, it’s essential to remember that help is available to you.
You aren’t alone in this journey, and Detox to Rehab is here to help. We’re a supportive and progressive community with a vision to ensure everyone can access the recovery information they need.
We can provide you with information on meth treatment options like inpatient, outpatient, PHP, and sober living treatment programs.
Make sure to contact us today by calling (866) 578-7471 to speak to a care counselor. You can also visit us online to fill out our contact form.
