Cocaine addiction can happen to anyone who tries the drug. This powerful and addictive drug that contains stimulant properties. Cocaine is a drug that’s known to take any user on a chaotic and life-altering roller-coaster ride. The initial high makes you feel like you’re on top of the world, you can do anything, and everything is better on Cocaine.
The parties and people are more enjoyable, making the experiences you have on Cocaine seem lifeless without it. After the party is over and the Cocaine runs out, you experience intense cravings and a strong compulsion to get more. Dull restless feelings make it hard to sleep, eat and be satisfied with anything.
Marc’s Story is Proof of Cocaine Recovery
Always feeling different than everyone else around him Marc never felt comfortable in his own skin. Coming from a normal and healthy family, a middle child, Marc was the first in the family to be overcome by the disease of addiction. At a young age, Marc was diagnosed with a learning disability and was bullied by other kids for going to a special room for learning. In high school, Marc was forced to smoke pot – an experience he found no enjoyment in. Drinking alcohol was a similar experience and it wasn’t until later that he rediscovered pot and alcohol and it became a habit.
After trying cocaine for the first time it was like a light went on inside him and he finally felt like he could be himself and feel comfortable in his own skin. By the time Marc was 19 he had been to rehab 4 times. After getting out of treatment that forth time he was in a car accident that almost took his life, severely injured, his skull split open and in a coma for several days. For most people an accident of this caliber would inspire them to reevaluate their choices, for Marc he felt invincible and it led him down a very dark path. He spent a year in jail after picking up criminal charges and continued using. He moved to a different state and still didn’t stop doing cocaine.
In an attempt to be normal, to have a good job and a wife, Marc had two children. Getting clean for a time through his faith in Jesus, he relapsed and lost custody of his children. Marc’s saving grace was his brother who had taken custody of his kids, he bought Marc a bus ticket to Arizona for treatment. It was on that bus that Marc finally left his old life behind. He said God talked to him that night and he made a commitment to give treatment a real chance and at the time of this video taping has 14 months clean and sober. If Marc can do it so can you.
Brittney’s Story of Recovery is Possible
After losing her virginity at 13 to a 25-year-old man, Brittney changed and opened herself up to a world of drugs. Feeling unwanted and unworthy because her father abandoned her mother before she was born, this propelled her drug use and desire to fit in, to be wanted. Socially Brittney struggled, and drugs helped her to feel like she belonged, a people pleaser by nature, trying cocaine for the first time with friends she became hooked. Experiencing deep shame and self-rejection, Brittney became suicidal.
At 14 years old, she made her first attempt to take her own life. Diagnosed with manic Bipolar Disorder, she continued to use drugs and alcohol. She struggled to finish high school and was always getting in trouble for substance abuse. Brittney went into the military thinking it may straighten her up, give her a sense of purpose. However, she opted to have her wisdom teeth removed, not because she needed them removed but that she would get prescription painkillers.
After abusing her prescription in the bathroom, she was caught and sent into military rehab. At the rehab, she became pregnant by a man hooked on heroin. Brittney continued to use while she was pregnant and in rehab. The guilt of not being able to stop lead her to another suicide attempt – that caused her to lose the baby. She left the military and continued to spiral out of control. Becoming a danger to herself and to her family, Brittney realized that she was either going to get sober or die a very unpleasant death.
Looking back at her 12 suicide attempts, she started to see that something or a higher power was keeping her alive. Brittney didn’t know if she believed in a higher power but she was willing to give it a try. She started to attend 12-step meetings, working the steps with a sponsor and believing that she could live a better life. In the rooms of Alcoholics Annonymous, she felt only love and understanding. Brittney allowed the fellowship of recovering addicts and alcoholics to love her until she could learn to love herself.
2015-2016 During that year, the cocaine death rate rose by over 52 percent.
Levi’s Battle with Cocaine Addiction
Levi’s addiction to cocaine and alcohol started when he was 17 years old and traveled to China before college. When he made it to college, he began combining his drinking with cocaine and Adderall. After joining a fraternity, drinking and rugging became more important than his academic career and school work. Ultimately, he failed his first semester of college and his parents responded by refusing to pay for his college education.
Levi turned to selling cocaine and marijuana to pay for college. On top of that, he started sleeping around and using ‘hook-ups’ to cope with the emptiness he felt inside. Soon he found himself too intoxicated to attend class. Being physically dependent on alcohol, his reputation became that of a mean drunk. His friends tried desperately to keep him from drinking and driving. They would take his keys, yet Levi still managed by drilling out the ignition and the locks on his car.
At his lowest point, Levi was in debt to bad people, evicted from several living places and ready to die. In desperation to leave this world, he took to the roads in the early morning hours. Driving drunk and on Ambien, Levi was trying to die at the wheel. After crashing into a guardrail and sustaining no injury- he laid in the road, begging God to either kill him or help him. A month later his he was part of a family intervention for addiction. Levi’s options were to go to treatment or go to jail, so he chose treatment. In treatment, he attended his first 12-step meeting and to his surprise found smiling people.
Levi was deeply depressed and could not understand how these people were happy. However, after listening to others he started to see that these people were just like him. With a spark of hope now burning within him, he gave treatment and recovery from addiction all he had. Through his recovery, Levi found purpose. His message to anyone struggling with addiction is “Make that first step and just keep chugging. It’s not easy but it’s well worth it, and there’s always hope. If someone like me can make amends for the things they did and enjoy life, then anyone can. What do you have to lose?”
Kelsey is Free From Cocaine Addiction
Born with Crystal Meth dependence and fetal alcohol syndrome, Kelsey was adopted by her grandparents. She was raised in a loving home, but that didn’t stop the pain she felt from having both parents choose drugs over her. Of equal importance, her predisposition to drug and alcohol addiction made her risk even higher.
At the age of 11, Kelsey’s grandfather had passed away. This was a traumatic event that deeply affected Kelsey and she sought out drugs for comfort. At first, she used Marijuana but didn’t like the paranoid high she experienced. Then at 12 years old, Kelsey tried cocaine, stating, “I loved it from the very start, it made me feel pretty, it made me feel good enough.”
When she realized she was caught and couldn’t get away with using cocaine, she stopped. To compensate for her breakup with cocaine, Kelsey sought out other substances like Bath Salts, and Hallucinogens. Eventually, she has introduced to prescription opiates and everything changed. For Kelsey, Opiates filled the internal void similar to how cocaine did. She became consumed with her addiction, lying, stealing and doing anything to get her hands on more.
Kelsey began to see the chaos her life had become and wanted to quit but couldn’t do it on her own. She had tried and failed many times. Fortunately, she met a young man in recovery from addiction and it changed her life for the better.
While dating this young man, she started to see a solution. Although resistant at first, she began to listen to his advice, attending 12-step meetings and going to an intensive outpatient program (IOP). Kelsey found a sponsor and worked through the 12-steps. After spending years lost in depression and drug use, Kelsey found hope in recovery by taking action and believing that she deserves to have a better life. If you’re struggling, look to Kelsey for inspiration, she beat her addiction and you can too.
In 2016, the estimate of about 1.9 million people aged 12 or older who were current users of cocaine.
Most people at this point experience feeling depression, anxiety and even paranoia. Cocaine comes in two forms – a white powder and a crystalized rock form. The powder form is generally cut or mixed with other substances that look, taste and feel like cocaine.
Drug dealers often cut drugs sold on the streets with other substances to increase profits. For example, cocaine is sometimes mixed with amphetamine-based drugs to make the user believe he or she is getting a purer form and often come back for more. Cocaine use is dangerous and the likelihood of developing a severe addiction is sky high. Recreational cocaine binges turn into daily use just to feel and function normally.
Cocaine in its crystalized rock form is called Crack. Crack is commonly inhaled and referred to as free-base cocaine. Users of crack cocaine often describe being hooked from the first hit. Within no time, they’re desperate for more and are willing to do anything to get it. Compared to powdered cocaine, the effects of crack are more intense within the first several minutes.
Many find themselves chasing the intensity of a crack cocaine high without any cause for concern. Many who are addicted continue to use the drug in search of the first high experienced. This type of drug use and addiction can too often results in cocaine overdose. No matter how much you use or how long you chase that first high, it’ll never be the same. An obsession with that experience is typically what keeps people in their addiction for so long.
At first, you’ll have more motivation, energy, and optimism when you use cocaine, but these feelings are always short-lived. Whatever your social status, eventually all roads of drug use lead to the same destination. Everything you once put above use of cocaine you’ll start to lose as addiction takes its place.
Addiction will drain your finances and your career will suffer. Your friends and family will begin to look at you with undeniable fear. With cocaine use sleep deprivation, weight loss, and malnutrition are common. What makes cocaine so dangerous is the insatiable cravings for more.
The euphoric highs are high, and the lows are demoralizing lows. People with addiction will binge for long periods of time, degrading their bodies in the process. Also – experiencing crippling depression when coming down from the drug is common. If you are using cocaine for any reason at all – the risks of experiencing negative consequences is staggering.
If you are living with a cocaine addiction you know just how empty it can make you feel on the inside. What started as casual or social use, starts to become a regular occurrence. Before long addiction to cocaine will take over your life and leave you with little or nothing left. Getting clean might be something you want or are even desperate for. Maybe you have given up and accepted that this is your life now. Don’t let the hopelessness of addiction keep you down, recovering from cocaine addiction is possible. If you have no idea where to start, you’ll probably find these stories helpful.
It is a long road that at times might feel like it’s too hard to overcome or that you are better off going back to cocaine. If you keep doing what you’ve always done, then you will continue to live your life controlled by addiction. Recovery from cocaine addiction is possible. Countless people are in recovery from addiction after working hard and remaining proactive in their recovery.
People once slaves to addiction and have even experienced cocaine overdose now live normal lives. they have mended the bridges with their families, gained employment, purchased a car and even a home. Be brave enough to see there is a light at the end of this tunnel. and know that you are not alone in this struggle. If you have any doubts, Marc, Brittney, Levi, and Kelsey are all living proof that recovery can be your reality. Please watch their stories and see for yourself just how much your life can change.
The CDC reports that from 2015 to 2016, the greatest increase in drug-specific overdose deaths involved cocaine.
Life After Cocaine Addiction
If you’ve made it this far, you must be seeing there is hope for you. Recovery from cocaine is a long road and it takes daily effort to start seeing results. For some like Kelsey, after 30 days she had a newfound sense of wellbeing and energy. For Levi, it was a long period until he felt the weight of his depression lifting.
Everyone’s experience will be different; however, you deserve to give yourself a chance. Living an empty existence in a cycle of self-loathing and drug use will lead you to three options; jails, institutions or death. Choose the fourth option, make a change in your life today and leave cocaine and other substances behind.
Recognize that you are worthy of a better life, that you can make a difference in this world just by getting clean. You can earn back the relationships you’ve lost in your drug use and make amends for your wrongs. Plenty of people have been where you are and can show you how to get clean, you are not alone. Give us a call and we can help you figure out the best treatment option for your individual needs. Our number is: (866) 578-7471.
