Cocaine Addiction Treatment

Cocaine & Crack Addiction Recovery Center in Delray Beach, FL

RECO Intensive has helped numerous clients through their journey of crack and cocaine recovery at our addiction treatment center in Delray Beach, FL. Our priority is to help clients understand the root cause of their addiction and achieve long-term sobriety. If you or a loved one needs to crack or cocaine addiction treatment, please call us at 844-955-3042 or use our contact form. Or, you can learn more about cocaine and crack addiction and about our treatment facility below.

Cocaine Addiction

Cocaine and crack (a crystal form of cocaine that can be smoked) are highly addictive drugs that work by flooding the central nervous system with the reward chemical dopamine. A user’s first experience with the addictive drug almost always causes a sense of euphoria and a pleasant numbness in the facial area. These sensations can lead to addiction almost immediately in some individuals, but, for most cocaine-dependent patients, there is a more prolonged time between first use and addiction.

The effects of cocaine administration last only a short time with each use, and tolerance can quickly develop. This means that prior cocaine use serves to desensitize the body to cocaine’s effects, so users typically need more of the drug to get high over time. Eventually, this can lead to cocaine dependence, a condition in which people begin to depend on cocaine use just to maintain physical equilibrium or to feel “normal.” Thus, what starts out as recreational use may eventually lead to a cocaine addiction that takes over a person’s life.

Many users will begin taking the drug when they’re alone as opposed to using it in social settings, and they may eventually withdraw from friends and family and stop doing the things they enjoy. As a person’s drug use increases, it is virtually inevitable that work, school, and personal and professional relationships will all begin to suffer.

Though effective treatments for cocaine use disorder are available, those who do not seek treatment risk dire mental and physical health consequences of their cocaine use. Intravenous cocaine use comes with the risk of blood-borne illnesses like HIV and hepatitis while snorting crack cocaine can cause irreversible damage to the nasal passages. Long-term cocaine dependence can also damage many organs in the body, including the cardiovascular system and gastrointestinal tract.

In the worst-case scenario, cocaine overdose is a possibility for people with cocaine dependence. In 2020, the most recent year for which statistics are available from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, cocaine killed over 19,000 people, up from 5,000 in 2014.

A Financial Drain

Financial troubles are also inevitable with cocaine abuse, as the drug is expensive and highly addictive. The high cost of the drug often leads users to switch to smoking crack cocaine. This form of smoked cocaine delivers a more powerful high, yet is less expensive, which can worsen matters for cocaine-dependent patients.

As users spiral down into their addiction their primary goal each day becomes getting more of the drug. In fact, as long as users are able to work they will likely spend most or all of their income on the drug.

Fueling a serious cocaine addiction is so expensive it can even hurt those with a large amount of disposable income. Musician, rapper, and TV personality Flavor Flav admitted to spending nearly $6 million on his cocaine addiction over the course of six years, while music producer Scott Storch spent a reported spending $30 million to fuel his addiction and his insatiable appetite for luxury items. While these may be extreme examples, they nevertheless illustrate the high cost and out-of-control nature of cocaine addiction.

Cocaine Addiction Affects Men and Women

Overall rates of drug use are generally lower in women than in men, yet cocaine addiction does not discriminate between genders, and cocaine abuse among women has been on the rise.

As of 2008, 39.5% of cocaine abusers were female, according to one study. More men than women abuse cocaine overall, but women tend to increase their rate of use of the drug more rapidly than men. Women may also become addicted more rapidly than men, and they may find it more difficult to quit once addicted.3

Understanding Cocaine Withdrawal Symptoms

As with many other drugs, the body’s reaction to cessation or reduction in cocaine intake after someone has developed cocaine dependence often results in withdrawal symptoms. Unlike with alcohol dependence, going cold turkey from cocaine use is unlikely to cause life-threatening physical symptoms, but it can still be notably aversive, leading some patients to seek out treatment centers for detox rather than trying it themselves.

Cocaine withdrawal symptoms can include exhaustion, difficulty concentrating, restlessness, inability to feel pleasure, and depression, which, in its extreme form, can escalate to suicidal thinking. Though the worst of these symptoms should begin to fade within seven to ten days, other after-effects of cocaine dependence may linger for far longer, and initial abstinence is only the beginning when it comes to longer term cocaine treatment.

 How To Treat Cocaine Addiction

As with other substance use disorders, cocaine addiction treatment tends to be quite a complicated process. Depending on the severity of the substance use disorder, cocaine treatment can take place in residential and outpatient settings. Residential treatment programs, also known as inpatient treatment, may be the best option for chronic cocaine users who are at high risk of cocaine relapse if they are left to their own devices.

Cocaine dependence treatment typically involves a variety of behavioral therapies aimed at helping cocaine dependent subjects to transcend their condition. One of the more common of many behavioral treatments is cognitive behavioral therapy. Cognitive behavioral therapy works by helping patients to identify flawed thinking patterns and unhealthy coping mechanisms, and to replace them with healthier thinking patterns and coping mechanisms.

Other forms psychosocial treatment of cocaine dependence include contingency management. Contingency management works by rewarding patients with cocaine use disorders for abstaining from the drug with tangible reinforcement—for example, a gift card or voucher.

While there are currently few medications used in the treatment of cocaine compared to methods like methadone maintenance treatment in heroin addiction, the field of addiction medicine is always evolving. Most of these medications would work by blocking cocaine-induced euphoria or allowing users to reduce cocaine craving. For instance, in one human laboratory trial, the beta blocker carvedilol was shown to reduce cocaine self-administration, and in a subsequent placebo-controlled trial the beta blocker propranolol was shown to reduce cocaine use and improve treatment outcomes.

In another placebo controlled trial, placebo treated subjects were found to be less likely than subjects taking the drug baclofen, which acts on the brain’s GABA receptors, to resume their cocaine addictions as indicated by a urine test. Similar results were found in placebo treated subjects in a clinical trial of another drugs affecting GABA receptors, topiramate, and both topiramate and modafinil reduced cocaine self administration in animal studies.

Interestingly, baclofen has also been used in the treatment of alcohol abuse, as has the anti alcohol abuse drug disulfiram, another of the drugs studied for the treatment of cocaine dependent subjects. This may be because alcohol dependence involves many of the same brain systems involved in cocaine abuse.

Other clinical trials have investigated a cocaine vaccine, which can help curtail cocaine abuse by preventing cocaine from passing the blood brain barrier, thereby reducing the associated “high.”

Why Reco Intensive Is Unique Among Drug Abuse Treatment Programs

In the meantime, help is available at RECO Intensive for those looking to overcome cocaine addiction. An addiction treatment program typically starts with medically-supervised detoxification, during which a team of professionals carefully monitors clients through cocaine or crack withdrawal. After cocaine and crack detox, clients can begin the process of healing without the burden of physical dependency.

We offer a continuum of care, including intensive outpatient treatment and sober living in a compassionate and supportive environment to give clients the best chances of success at long-term recovery.

Along with proven effective treatment like behavioral therapy, our treatment facilities offer a variety of holistic mental health services aimed at helping to heal the whole person from drug or alcohol abuse. Our treatment providers are also focused on addressing any underlying mental disorders that may co-occur with a person’s substance use disorder.

We are also accredited by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the National Association of Addiction Treatment Providers, the National Institute Of Health, the Florida Alcohol and Drug Abuse Association, and a variety of other organizations specializing in substance use disorders and drug counseling.

Call RECO Intensive today at 844-955-3042 to learn more about our programs and our state-of-the-art facility in Delray Beach, FL. There’s no time like the present to break free from drug abuse and get back on the road to a brighter future.