If you or a loved one is suffering from a cocaine addiction, you ought to know the dangers. Help4Addiction can guide you through your options for seeking treatment or finding help. If you start using cocaine in social situations, you are playing with a dangerous substance. If you persist in using it, whether it be only at weekends of every night, you will develop a dependence on the drug. Dependence and addiction to cocaine is a pricey addiction that will ruin your working life, your mental and physical health, and your home life. Seek help for your addiction or reach out to Help4Addiction to discuss how to help your loved one. Here is all you need to know about the dangers of cocaine misuse.
Cocaine Statistics in the UK
Around 22,000 people in the UK each year seek help for cocaine or opiate abuse. As we know, only a handful of people will seek out that support, the rest go on with their addiction until it kills them. According to Drug Wise, the UK watchdog on addition and alcoholism, suggest that only 1 in 5 people seek help for their addiction. The actual size of cocaine use in the UK could be closer to 120,0000 people per year. The Office of National Statistics report that 7.4% of all UK adults will try a Class A drug over the course of a single year. Although they found that cannabis remains the favourite drug among UK users, cocaine use has neither grown nor slumped. The number of frequent users of cocaine has fallen. This may be due to supply issues during coronavirus, or even due to the lack of party situations during the pandemic lockdowns.Know the Dangers of Cocaine
What is it that makes cocaine use so dangerous? The primary danger is the risk of drug addiction. Developing an addiction to cocaine will soon leave you penniless. You will develop health problems and risk losing everything in your life that is important to you. Cocaine and/or crack addiction can ruin your career, when you fail to turn up for work or continually ask for advances on your wages.The dangers of ongoing cocaine use include:
- Drug addiction
- Heart attacks or strokes, particularly in patients with heart problems
- Overdose
- Damage to/erosion of the nostrils and nose cartilage
- Damage to unborn children
- Breathing problems if smoked
- Vein collapse if injecting
- Danger from dirty needles, such as HIV
- Ulcers
- Lesions
- Depression and anxiety
- Paranoia
- Flu-like symptoms
- Mental illness
Signs of Cocaine Addiction
The dangers of cocaine misuse are avoidable if you do not use cocaine again. There is no medical use for this substance, so using it is only ever recreational. This makes it misuse no matter how many times you use it. Cocaine is a party drug. If you keep using it, you will form an addiction.Signs you have a cocaine addiction include:- If you cannot go without cocaine, you have an addiction
- If you spend money you ought to spend on things like rent on cocaine, then you have a problem
- Someone with a cocaine addiction is either snorting, injecting, or smoking it. Have a look for paraphernalia if you suspect a loved one has an addiction
- Unexplained personality changes can be caused by drug addiction
- Mood swings can be a sign
- A lack of money is another sign, cocaine is an expensive drug
- Paranoia, sudden anxiety, and other abrupt lifestyle changes, can all indicate addiction
