Once having tried cocaine or crack cocaine, it is very difficult to determine what someone will do next.  experience using it. And over 30% of cocaine and crack cocaine abusers can be labeled “addicted”. Cocaine addiction happens very, very quickly. Studies have shown that lab mice will abuse cocaine even when the consequences of using more are extreme physical punishment, or even death.

A natural extract from the coca plant, Cocaine is publicly available in two basic forms:
1. As a powder that can be used nasally, orally or injected intravenously, and
2. As a hard, crystalline substance (crack, or rock cocaine) that is smoked through a glass pipe or on tin foil.

Crack is often mis-identified as free-base cocaine. While crack is generally made by mixing powder cocaine with baking soda or ammonia, freebase is a process in which ether is used to return cocaine to its “base” properties, removing any additives or “cut.”

Both Cocaine and Crack Cocaine are highly addictive. Crack cocaine, however, produces an effect that has considerably more impact than powder cocaine, and is generally thought to be more addictive. Crack works on the brains pleasure receptors very rapidly and more intensely than powder. They are equal in that they both initiate brief, intense euphoric feelings, a high level of physical and emotional stimulation and increased energy.

While some users of cocaine or crack feel a sense of well-being, other users experience feelings of anxiety, restlessness and paranoia. When the effects of the initial rush wear off, a crash takes place- depression, lethargy and an intense craving for more cocaine.

When crack or cocaine is used habitually, users can begin to feel paranoid or depressed all of the time, even while using. They can experience hallucinations, seizures, heart attack or stroke. One nasty complication of habitual use is known as “formication”, a sensation of having insects crawl under your skin. Chronic cocaine abusers have even committed suicide because of the intensity of their depression or because of hallucinations that included a constant feeling of formication.

To make matters worse, some users can worsen the already high addiction potential by combining cocaine with heroin or morphine, a “speed ball”, or by combining it with alcohol.

The real danger of cocaine and crack is that the constant need to get “more” wrecks families, jobs, health and can lead to resorting to illegal activities like burglary and robbery—even if it’s behavior a person has never been associated with, simply because it’s the only way to get the next short-lived hit.

More information on Cocaine and Crack Cocaine can be found at http://www.800Cocaine.com

Treatment Center Listings are available at http://AffordableDrugTreatment.com and http://Treatment-Hotline.com

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There is now a vast amount of research devoted to understanding how cocaine produces its effects, and why it is so addictive. Cocaine is able to get deep inside the brain very quickly. Scientists now know about regions deep within the brain that are stimulated by rewards. One reward system that appears to be heavily affected by cocaine is located in a region deep within the brain called the ventral tegmental area (VTA). Nerve cells that branch out from the VTA extend to the nucleus acumens, one of the brain’s key reward areas.

For example in lab studies using animals, all forms of rewarding stimulus; food, water, sex, and many addicting drugs- including cocaine, enable increased activity in the nucleus acumens. Scientists are discovering that when a rewarding event takes place, it is followed by a large increase in the amount of dopamine released in the same area. Normally, dopamine is released by a neuron into the synapse (the small gap between two neurons), where it binds with dopamine receptors. Addictive drugs such as cocaine interfere with this communication process.

Scientists have also discovered that cocaine blocks the removal of dopamine from the synapse, resulting in a constant build-up of dopamine. This buildup causes continuous stimulation of the neurons, causing the euphoria commonly reported by cocaine abusers.

Cocaine, quite literally, tricks the brain into releasing more and more dopamine, which can explain the crash that addicts suffer through after a binge. The brain simply has nothing left to give.

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Drug addiction is a treatable condition. Characteristics include: drug seeking, compulsive cravings, continued drug use despite adverse consequences. Generally, drug addiction becomes a chronic disorder. Based on follow-ups of people who have attended a drug treatment program, relapse back into addiction is common, however with each relapse a person that is trying too remain drug-free comes closer to that goal. Relapse can occur even after long periods of abstinence.

Because it is a chronic illness, sobriety from drug addiction can require multiple treatment admissions. These residential treatment admissions provide an increase in the time period between relapses and help to lessen their severity. It is vital that treatment is tailored to an addicts individual needs.

Drug addicts can and do recover from addiction and lead healthy, productive lives. While the ultimate goal of addiction treatment is lasting sobriety, the immediate goals are to reduce drug abuse, help an addict in their ability to function, and to minimize both the medical and social complications caused by drug addiction.

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So anyways, as most of you have known, pills are not very cheap. After a few years of doing pill after pill every day my bank account was drained, my 401k drained, I sold just about everything i owned just to get high for a few more weeks, my addiction was at an all time low and i was lying …

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Quality Treatment Doesn’t Have to Be Expensive. Visit the Detox and Treatment Centers listed on www.AffordableDrugTreatment.com for immediate detox and residential treatment. For 24 hour intake and admissions call 866-96-SOBER. Please, don’t wait another day…

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Alcohol-induced psychosis is an inevitable result of chronic alcoholism, if the alcoholic lives that long. There are a variety of other mental and  that show up much earlier. As to total destruction: we should be so lucky! Alcoholism and addiction are diseases that destroy our …

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