After the high wears off, you may start to feel bad physically and emotionally. These negative feelings may equal the intensity of your high but in the opposite way. Unless you use an approved methamphetamine medication under the direction of a doctor, there’s no recommended dose meth addiction for meth. The least risky (and slowest) way to use meth is to swallow it. Your odds of harmful effects go up if you put meth into your vein with a needle. But you can lessen the chances of harmful effects if you use smaller amounts of meth no matter what method you choose.
Since meth use is linked to higher rates of inflammation and cell damage, many meth addicts tend to have lowered immunity, or a weakened immune system that makes them more susceptible to illness and disease. In addition to suffering high rates of HIV and AIDS, meth addicts are often at high risk for staph infection or MRSA, liver disease, kidney disease, and cancer. Stimulants like meth can increase your sexual libido, and lead to impulsive and risky sexual behavior. Heat stroke, heart attack, and seizures can occur if someone takes too much of the drug. If not treated immediately, an overdose can result in organ failure and possibly even death.
What Happens When You’re on Crystal Meth?
There are some promising medical treatments for meth addiction currently in development. The goal of treatment is to help you lead a healthy life without using meth. Treatment may also address other underlying conditions, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or anxiety. When you have an addiction, you can’t stop using a drug, regardless of any negative consequences.
- Available in many different forms, meth can be smoked, snorted, injected or ingested orally.
- It drives continued meth use, which leads to further health problems.
- Openness and honesty in both your words and feelings can show them just how important they are and how much you care about them.
- The danger here is that you may need to take higher doses more frequently through other administration routes (like injecting) to get high.
The first step is to recognize any misconceptions you might have about substance use and addiction. It’s important to remember that ongoing drug use changes the brain’s structure and chemistry. This makes it more and more difficult to simply stop taking the drug.
Symptoms And Warning Signs Of Meth Abuse
A person addicted to meth will experience a wide range of withdrawal symptoms upon quitting meth abruptly, or reducing use. Common meth withdrawal symptoms include night sweats, weight gain, fatigue, suicidal ideation, and drug cravings. The majority of meth withdrawal symptoms are psychological, and can be safely and effectively treated at a meth addiction treatment center.
It’s important to understand the signs of meth use so you can help your loved ones get the treatment they need. Methamphetamine symptoms during meth use are generally considered to be pleasurable and are known as a high; however, not all meth symptoms are positive. Many crystal meth symptoms can put a person in a hospital or even cause death.
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Using meth can also put the person at risk for a drug overdose, which is when the person consumes too much of a particular drug, resulting in a toxic reaction that causes severe symptoms or death. Its effects are similar to those of other stimulant drugs, such as cocaine. However, consistently using meth damages the brain cells that produce dopamine, which can make it harder for the person to achieve the same high over time. As a result, the person has to take the drug more frequently, consume increasingly higher doses, or constantly change the way they take it, in order to achieve the same effect.
