Symptoms of Cocaine Use
What is Cocaine?
What do you know about cocaine and the symptoms of cocaine use? Cocaine is a powerful stimulant that produces feelings of euphoria. It is derived from coca leaves, and healthcare professionals used to use it as a local anesthetic. Cocaine can be snorted, smoked, or injected. Many users mix cocaine and heroin together, which is known as speedballing.
What Are The Symptoms of Cocaine Use?
Symptoms of cocaine use can often be very subtle, but with long-term use, the signs of cocaine use get harder to hide. One of the most obvious symptoms of cocaine use is a loss of appetite and weight loss. Cocaine is a stimulant and causes the user to lose weight drastically because it speeds up their metabolism and suppresses their appetite.
Other common symptoms of cocaine use are:
- Euphoria
- Agitation
- Rapid thoughts/speech
- Shortness of breath
- Dilated Pupils
- Track marks – If a person uses cocaine intravenously, there will often be ‘track marks’ in the places where the user is injecting cocaine. The most common areas are the veins near the insides of the elbows, so this would be the best place to look if you are trying to figure out if someone is using cocaine or not.
- Nose bleeds – This is a common symptom of people who use snort cocaine. Snorting cocaine can also cause the nasal cavity to erode.
- Respiratory issues for users who smoke cocaine
Some of the symptoms of cocaine use may be evident to the person using the cocaine, but can be more challenging for other people to notice. Even if they do notice these symptoms in the user, it may be difficult for someone to determine that these are symptoms of cocaine use. Cocaine is a very addictive and dangerous drug. Aside from causing physical and psychological dependence, cocaine can have very severe side effects.
More Consequences and Symptoms of Using Cocaine
- Heart attacks
- Strokes
- Seizures
- Headaches
- Nausea
- Overdose/death
If a user smokes or injects cocaine, the onset of the effects is almost immediately. The high lasts from 5-10 minutes. If snorting cocaine, a user feels the effects within 10 minutes. This high lasts for 30-60 minutes, depending on tolerance and how much cocaine the user ingests at a time.
Once a user builds a tolerance, they will start to use more and more cocaine at once, often going on binges. When a user goes on a binge, they eventually crash and will sometimes sleep for days. When a user crashes, they may experience the following symptoms:
- restlessness
- insomnia
- exhaustion
- agitation
- depression
As you can see from the list of possible side effects and consequences, cocaine is a very dangerous drug. If you or someone you know is using cocaine, or you think you notice these symptoms in a loved one, get help now! Getting help from a trained professional is ideal if you can afford treatment or if your insurance covers it. You can read more about treatment options here.