How Cocaine Abuse Can Affect Your Mental Health

Impacts of Cocaine and Mental Health

People who frequently binge cocaine run a very dangerous risk for a user’s mental health. Side effects such as feeling on edge and restless, paranoid, and irritable are very common, with many users experiencing mood swings and anxiety because of cocaine use.

In extreme cases, a person can even develop psychosis from cocaine use, which is a serious mental health condition which requires professional treatment. Cocaine can cause the brain to experience hallucinations that feel powerful and hard to tell apart from reality. A common side effect of cocaine-induced psychosis is the user feeling convinced that they can fly.

Experiencing psychosis and other mental health disorders from cocaine abuse can be frightening for both the user and those around them.

Cocaine mental health side effects vary from person to person, and some people manage to recover their mental well-being after getting clean in rehab, but for some users, these effects can be long-term and permanent.

In many cases, cocaine has devastating consequences for those who binge use it regularly and many suffer from anxiety or psychosis as a result. For some people, the mental health effects of cocaine are like that of schizophrenia.

After the initial high, most cocaine users experience a crash in which they suddenly feel low, anxious, or scared as the euphoric effects wear off. Long-term use can cause mental health conditions like depression if a person becomes more dependent on cocaine to feel good.

Does Cocaine Make You Paranoid?

Cocaine abuse is linked to several mental health problems, such as depression, anxiety, psychosis and paranoia. Find out more about how cocaine abuse can affect your mental health below:

Cocaine Abuse and Paranoia

Have you ever wondered, does cocaine make you paranoid? If you abuse cocaine heavily, experiencing symptoms of paranoia is highly likely. In a recent study, of 55 individuals with cocaine dependence, 53% reported transient cocaine-induced psychotic symptoms. Paranoia can be highly dangerous to the user under the influence of the drug and those around them.

Because cocaine can increase feelings of anger and irritability, a user can become worryingly aggressive and even harm themselves or others, meaning long-term consequences and even affecting the user’s relationships with others in the long term. Cocaine-related violent behaviours occur in as many as 55% of patients with cocaine-induced psychiatric symptoms.

Cocaine-induced Psychosis

Psychosis most commonly occurs in a cocaine user who takes the drug by snorting or smoking it. If a person abuses cocaine for a long time, psychosis can last from a few days to a few weeks.

Research suggests that psychosis happens due to a lack of dopamine levels in a person’s system when they are under the influence of cocaine, which can lead to long-term mental health conditions like bipolar disorder and schizophrenia long term.

Symptoms of cocaine-induced psychosis include:

• Feeling anxious
• Demonstrating violent, aggressive behaviour
• Being delusional
• Experiencing paranoia
• Hallucinations and delirium
• Lack of cognitive function
• Confusion
• Inability to articulate properly
• Extreme depression/suicidal thoughts

Cocaine-induced Hallucinations

Cocaine can cause the brain to see and hear things that are not real. For an abuser, this can prove very dangerous as all senses are masked by the drug’s powerful effects. A user may become completely incapacitated as a result.

Almost half of cocaine users are unable to focus on present-day reality when taking the drug and may experience hallucinogenic dangers or threats that are imaginary. Frequently reported hallucinations from cocaine abuse involve a user feeling as though they are being monitored, followed by somebody, or watched when there is nothing and no one is present.