Meth Addiction Symptoms and Recovery

Meth (also known as methamphetamine, ice, chalk, glass, shards, crank, and crystal) is a powerful stimulant that’s highly addictive. Most people who don’t live in areas where meth is available are familiar with the drug through the hit series “Breaking Bad”, where a teacher ends up cooking meth in order to fund for his family after he discovers he has cancer.

So what is meth addiction? It’s obviously addiction – which means physical and mental dependence – to meth, but what makes meth so addictive? Meth’s chemical properties are quite similar to amphetamine, and users run a high risk of developing dependence.

This bitter-tasting powder is white, odorless, and either taken orally, dissolved in liquid (alcohol or water) then injected, or snorted. Meth addiction symptoms and recovery can get quite complicated. Meth is a hardcore illicit drug, after all.

Recognizing a Meth Addict

In regard to how to tell if someone is smoking ice or meth, just take a look at their room. The likeliest signal of methamphetamine use is if you find drug paraphernalia all around their apartment or home. To wit, here are the signs someone is on ice:

• Syringes
• Crumpled aluminum foil with burn marks
• Straws or hollowed out ballpoint pens for smoking or snorting
• Small pieces of cigarette filters or cotton used to filter the solution
• Spoons with burn marks used to melt crystal in water before injection

It’s also common for crank users to end up in jail, go bankrupt from buying so many drugs, lose their families, and become homeless derelicts. They’ll then become depressed individuals characterized by their self-hatred, yet loss of self-control because they’re unable to quit meth usage.

Many ice addicts even end up suicidal. Even if they don’t act on the impulse to end their lives then and there, these thoughts are quite devastating to their mental health. Many chronic meth users ignore treatment or idly wonder how to get off ice without rehab while still resorting to using more methamphetamines because they couldn’t help themselves.

Meth Mouth and Crank Bugs

As for meth addiction symptoms that are more physical, just watch out for “meth mouth”. Chronic meth usage can lead to the following oral-related consequences:

• Dry mouth
• Less saliva production
• Bad breath (Halitosis)
• Bruxism (Excessive jaw clenching or teeth grinding)
• Increased risk of dental erosions, periodontal lesions, and cavities

72 percent of chalk users have dry mouth, 68 percent undergo bruxism, and 47 percent have to deal with temporomandibular joint pain.

Meth users also experience what is known as “meth bugs” or “crank bugs”. This makes people who are addicted to ice incessantly pick at or scratch their skin, as though there are bugs in their skin. This is because using glass increases blood flow to and body temperature of the skin.

This results in excessive sweating. This sweat has an enzyme that increases skin blood flow as well. When the sweat evaporates, this strips out the sebaceous oil that normally serves as the skin’s protection. From there, formication of the sensation of bugs crawling under or on your skin happens.

Formication is essentially a combination of the following symptoms:

• Dehydration
• Excessive sweating
• Loss of sebaceous oil

The worst-case scenario for this involves chalk abusers taking razor blades, knives, or scissors to get rid of the nonexistent bugs, creating open wounds and festering sores that can cause them serious infection

People who are addicted to crank can also suffer from the following meth addiction symptoms aside from the major ones outlined above:

• Liver damage
• Kidney disorders
• Blood clots
• Impaired immune system
• Impaired sexual performance and motivation
• Reproductive health issues
• Eye damage and vision impairment
• Microvascular hemorrhage
• Collapsed nasal cavity
• Nosebleeds
• Respiratory abnormalities
• Uncontrollable bruxism
• Tremors
• Nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea
• Headache
• Sleeplessness
• Loss of appetite and extreme weight loss
• Elevated body temperature
• Increased blood pressure
• Faster breathing rate

As you can see, the whole process of meth addiction symptoms and recovery is a long and involved one in light of the consequences of methamphetamine abuse.

Meth Stats and Facts

Here are some saddening factoids and statistics regarding meth addiction symptoms and recovery.

• Between 2010 and 2014, the number of current crank abusers aged 12 and up increased by 61 percent. In the same time period and demographic, the number of new users also increased by 71.3 percent
• Also, in 2015, there were 897,000 people aged 12 and up who were glass users. About 13,000 of them were preteens to teenagers aged 12 to 17. Meanwhile, 128,000 of them were young adults aged 18 to 25.
• In 2013, there’s a 10.6 percent increase from 2012 admissions (numbering a sum of 130,033) to publicly funded rehab facilities. As for the entire U.S., 3 percent of students from grades 9 to 12 have used crank once or more than once.
• In the same grades 9 to 12 demographic, the prevalence of ice use among these students was 3.6 percent in boys and 2.3 percent in girls. Recent research also uncovered how 15.6 percent of pregnant women who look for a substance to abuse turn to meth.

Why It’s Hard to Quit Meth

It’s hard to quit crank not only because it has addictive chemical properties and a quality high that people can’t get enough of once they get a taste of it.

• Psychological Dependence: The high you get from it can lead you to become psychologically dependent on it rather than just chemically. If you lack willpower from the start, it’s a bad idea to get into drugs like ice. The meth addiction symptoms are quite numerous indeed.
• Meth Intoxication: A meth high or intoxication essentially affects your feelings, perceptions, and sensations. It involves emotional blunting or euphoria that stimulates your brain like real accomplishment does, sense of empowerment that makes you more aggressive, “tweaking” or physical changes of stimulation, and even sexual stimulation
• Chasing the First High: The thing about drugs like meth is that you’ll always be chasing that first high. In order to replicate that first high, you need to take increasingly higher doses because your body builds up tolerance for the drug. If you’re taking strong doses every time, you get closer and closer to an overdose or at least a hard-to-stop addiction.

Dosage Problems Galor

For every euphoric high you can get from glass, you’ll also encounter not-so-pleasant effects like brain dysfunction, risky behavior, lack of self-control, and cravings. And that’s just the beginning.

Truth be told, getting off ice addiction isn’t as simple as popping another drug that nullifies your addiction to shards. Meth is also produced in home labs or clandestine hideouts. Therefore, it’s hard to predict how strong or toxic the illicit drug is going to be. There’s no standardized dose for these shards.

You might end up taking more than you intend, so your meth high can end up being a new low for you (in the form of an overdose). Withdrawal is also more intense when you’ve been taking high glass doses. This is just the physical side of addiction in action.

At any rate, this meth addiction symptoms and recovery article is here to show you all the warning signs and what you can do to save yourself or a person you love from the downward spiral of methamphetamine abuse.

Meth Recovery and Detox Options

In regards to how to get someone off ice, there are many ways to go about methamphetamine recovery and detoxification. However, do realize that meth addiction recovery is easier said than done. You will need a lot of help and a solid support system.

Recovery from chalk typically involves psychosocial and pharmacological interventions as well as community-based prevention. Research shows that the most potential-laden pharmacological meth addiction treatment options are linked with the administration of:

• Naltrexone
• Bupropion
• Modafinil

As for psychosocial interventions to prevent meth addiction symptoms from occurring or worsening, they’re quite effective in the short term. As for community-wide prevention approaches, there are also a number of benefits stemming from such attempts.

The idea here is to get the addict to rehab by intervention, administration of certain other medication, and by community programs. The major

ity of inpatient treatment programs in rehabilitation centers use a combination of proven therapies and strategies. You can even call a meth addiction hotline for you or on behalf of someone else if you have to.

In order to take the first step in recovering from meth addiction, you need to go to learn all about meth addiction symptoms and recovery, then go to a rehabilitation center either by your own volition as an addict or with the help of friends and family.

Meth Symptoms of Withdrawal

Even though there are a few symptoms linked to chalk withdrawal that are physical in nature, it’s important to realize that there are no set ice withdrawal stages and instead there’s a whole set of psychological symptoms to watch for.

These side effects can be quite discomforting and they collectively serve as a major mental barrier from recovery. Indeed, your greatest foe will always be yourself and your own weaknesses.

Addicts undergoing withdrawal typically experience intense cravings for shards and deep psychological lows that often make them relapse back to their old habits. The specific withdrawal symptoms include:

• Fatigue
• Anxiety
• Lethargy
• Paranoia
• Irritability
• Aggression
• Intense cravings
• Suicidal thoughts
• Increased hunger
• Severe depression
• Sleeping for days on end

Quitting Meth Cold Turkey

If crank recovery through rehab is easier said than done, this goes double for quitting ice cold turkey! Cold turkey in this context refers to attempting to quit meth without a formal treatment plan or assistance from a medical facility. You just decide to quit and use your willpower to fight off the meth addiction symptoms and withdrawal side effects. Cold turkey is also a phrase borrowed from heroin addiction.

Sometimes, having a loss of finances or having a new social role can be enough of an impetus to quit taking meth. However, more often than not, chronic glass addicts end up in a life of crime or stealing/borrowing money (without any hope of paying it back) from friends and family in order to buy more crystal. Indeed, meth addiction and lying go hand-in-hand more than meth addiction and recovery.

The Risks of Stopping Meth Cold Turkey

There are no symptoms of physical dependence when it comes to meth (a la nicotine addiction that you can taper off with a nicotine patch). The symptoms of withdrawal from glass outlined above are more psychological than physical.

These are severe mental symptoms that pit you against your own self and ability to control yourself. These include:

• Depression: After recovering from or going cold turkey on meth, it’s only natural to feel really, horribly depressed for a long while.
• Cravings: Your brain will crave meth to make you feel better (like how a fat person eats to comfort himself). This is also part of the meth addiction symptoms and recovery process.
• Loads of Sleep: Former meth-heads also tend to sleep a lot for quite some time (both because they’re so depressed that sleep is their only escape and because they haven’t been sleeping at all while they’re addicted to crank).
• Overeating: Overeating can also happen (because of their lack of nutrition while being an addict and using food as their replacement drug).

Meth Relapse Symptoms and Signs

Meth addiction is like the hydra. Take one head off, two heads sprout out in its place. You and your loved ones should know the potential signs of relapse on top of withdrawal and addiction symptoms in order to know when to intervene again and get professional help. They include:

• Skipping Rehab Meetings: After you’ve attended 12-step meetings for a couple of months or a few weeks, then stayed clean, you might drop your guard and think that meetings are no longer needed. This is a mistake. You might fall back into bad habits if you discontinue these meetings altogether
• Hanging Out with Old Meth Addict Friends: The negative influence of old meth-head friends could lead you to a path of darkness and despair once more after you’ve just quit meth for good. It’s tough ditching friends, but it’s for your own good. A recovering addict can become addicted again through bad company.
• Just One Time Won’t Hurt: Yes, it would. When you end up chasing that first-time high again after your body just got used to not taking meth anymore, you might risk triggering a relapse due to this slippery slope of thinking just one more meth session won’t hurt. No, you can’t handle it if you’ve been an addict once in the first place.
• Using Other Drugs or Drinking Alcohol: A recovering meth addict may think they can substitute ice with scotch on the rocks or a bottle of jack. They can even justify popping a few painkillers, smoking a joint, or even having a caffeine addiction to fill the hole left by not using chalk. This will only lead them to a meth relapse sooner or later. It’s better to learn self-control that to substitute glass dosages with, say, an e-cig.

A meth addict attempting to clean himself or herself up should understand that he’s about to undertake a long and difficult process towards recovery. There are no real shortcuts towards weaning yourself from chronic meth usage. There is no real and dependable ice comedown cure

• It’s Hard to Do Alone: Addiction recovery is something few individuals can undertake alone because it requires a huge amount of willpower to resist the temptations and addictive properties of crank (willpower they lack since they ended up addicted in the first place).
• Long-Term Addicts Find It Harder to Quit: The longer you’ve been using chalk, the harder it is to tackle crystal rehab. You’re also faced with high levels of meth depression as a consequence to boot. You’ll feel like you’re being pulled apart from the seams at all corners when attempting to quit.
• Medical Supervision in Rehab is the Answer: The best way to go about meth detoxification is to have it under constant medical supervision usually found in rehabilitation centers. You should also be kept from away from shards access as well as any other intoxicating substances
• The Dangers of Relapse: Although completing rehab can give you a shard of hope in overcoming meth addiction symptoms, the nightmare isn’t necessarily over. Addiction is tough to conquer more often than not and you have to deal with the fact that many addicts relapse.

There is a rainbow after the storm that is the meth addiction symptoms and recovery process. There are ways to overcome methamphetamine abuse and withdrawal symptoms through proper (albeit difficult) rehab. Those who love and care for you may breathe a sigh of relief after you’ve completed rehab.

However, in light of the difficulty of overcoming a meth addiction, maybe the old chestnut of prevention being better than the cure really does ring true. If you can help it, don’t ever start taking meth in the first place. It’s not worth the effort.

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