Meth (Methamphetamine) Addiction: Signs, Symptoms, and Treatment
A meth overdose is a medical emergency. Call 911 or the Poison Help line (1-800-222-1222) immediately for anyone showing overdose symptoms.
Methamphetamine addiction produces increased wakefulness, decreased appetite, rapid heart rate and rising body temperature in the short term, and dental damage, skin sores, paranoia and psychosis over years of use, and treatment begins with medical detox.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse records more than 23,000 deaths from an overdose involving methamphetamine and other stimulants in 2020. Methamphetamine and stimulant use rates have risen over recent years, and the number of stimulants circulating on the street, including diverted prescription drugs, has risen with them.
What Is Crystal Meth and How Does It Work?
Crystal methamphetamine is a synthetic psychostimulant that acts on the central nervous system and changes the structure and function of the brain over time. Methamphetamine was first prescribed in the United States as a decongestant and weight loss aid, in tablet and injectable forms. The FDA classified those products as Schedule II controlled substances in 1970 after misuse. One prescription methamphetamine drug remains, Desoxyn, which treats obesity and severe attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Street names for methamphetamine include crank, tweak, ice, glass, rock candy, poor man’s cocaine, and crystal.
Stimulants cover a large class of medications, including those that treat ADHD. Stimulant medications such as Ritalin and Adderall also treat narcolepsy. Methamphetamine sold on the street is not a prescription medication and carries no medicinal value. Meth remains available on the street because of the intense high it produces.
How Do People Take Methamphetamine?
People take methamphetamine in 4 ways:
- smoking the powder or rocks
- swallowing a pill
- snorting meth into the nose
- dissolving the substance and injecting it into the veins
Methamphetamine acts fast and fades fast. People take repeated hits to sustain the high, which drives a binge and crash pattern and raises overdose risk with each hit.
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What Are the Effects of Methamphetamine Addiction?
Methamphetamine increases dopamine in the brain, and that dopamine surge drives the reward pattern that produces addiction. Dopamine is tied to the brain’s reward system. The brain releases dopamine to reward behavior, and methamphetamine triggers that release directly.
The dopamine release produces a high and reinforces the behavior that caused it. People then repeat use to reach that high again, which is how addiction to methamphetamine and prescription stimulants develops.
What Are the Short-Term Effects of Methamphetamine?
Methamphetamine produces 7 short-term effects, which mimic prescription ADHD medications or cocaine:
- dramatically increased wakefulness and reduced need for sleep
- sudden bursts of energy and increased physical activity
- markedly decreased appetite, to the point of going days without eating
- increased respiratory rate
- rapid heart rate, including irregular rhythm
- raised body temperature, mistaken for fever
- increased blood pressure
A methamphetamine overdose requires hospital treatment.
What Are the Long-Term Effects of Methamphetamine Addiction?
Long-term methamphetamine use damages teeth, skin and brain structure, and injecting it raises the risk of HIV, hepatitis B and hepatitis C. HIV, hepatitis B and hepatitis C transmit through infected blood and body fluids, and people who use meth share needles.
The intensity of the high drives risk-taking that a person would not otherwise engage in. People spend all their money, combine methamphetamine with other drugs, or have unprotected sex, each of which raises infection risk.
There are 9 further long-term effects:
- extreme weight loss, to the point of being underweight
- extreme dental damage, including tooth loss and extensive periodontal disease
- extreme itching and scratching that opens sores across the body and leads to infection
- extreme anxiety and paranoia, producing deep distrust of other people
- problems falling asleep and staying asleep
- long-term, and in some cases permanent, changes in the structure and function of the brain
- confusion and memory loss
- emotional lability, producing violent behavior
- psychosis, marked by hallucinations, which are visions and sounds that seem real and are not
The long-term effects trace to methamphetamine’s action on the brain’s dopamine system, which produces impaired verbal learning, reduced coordination, motor problems and sensory disability. The same damage produces permanent changes in emotion and memory, and the resulting cognitive problems are visible to family and friends.
Some of these changes reverse after a long period off methamphetamine. The prognosis improves the earlier treatment starts.
How Is Meth Addiction Treated?
Meth addiction treatment combines medical detox, cognitive behavioral therapy, group therapy and medical management, sequenced to the person rather than applied as a fixed program. There are 4 treatment steps:
Medical Detox
Medical detox is the first step, and it clears methamphetamine from the body under inpatient supervision before other treatment begins. Sustained methamphetamine use produces dependence and tolerance, and treatment starts once methamphetamine has cleared the body.
A person addicted to methamphetamine develops withdrawal symptoms during detox. Withdrawal symptoms are severe, which is why detox belongs in the presence of medical professionals at a meth addiction treatment center.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
Cognitive behavioral therapy addresses the thought patterns that led to methamphetamine use, and it is the core therapy for staying sober after detox. Once methamphetamine has cleared the body, the work turns to staying sober. Cognitive behavioral therapy treats mental illnesses of all types and is the most widely used option at this stage.
Working with a treatment professional, a person identifies new ways to cope with stress, addresses the root cause of the substance use disorder, and learns to manage cravings. That work replaces the impulsive response that drove methamphetamine use, and it holds after leaving the treatment center.
Group Therapy
Group outpatient therapy adds the accounts of other people in recovery, which individual therapy alone cannot provide. Working with a treatment professional carries the clinical work, and hearing from other people who have been addicted to drugs and alcohol, including methamphetamine, adds what that work cannot.
People in group therapy learn from one another and support each other toward long-term sobriety. Group therapy helps a person get sober and stay sober with methamphetamine addiction.
Medical Management
Prescription medications manage cravings, ease withdrawal and restore sleep during recovery from methamphetamine addiction. Some medications support the withdrawal process, and others help a person fall asleep and stay asleep at night.
Not everyone recovering from methamphetamine addiction needs prescription medication, and it remains a treatment option where it helps. That is one reason to work with a treatment center that offers specialty psychiatry care.
Where Can You Get Help for Meth Use Disorder?
Riverside Recovery of Tampa treats methamphetamine addiction in Tampa, Florida, with an individualized plan built around the person rather than the substance. There are 3 reasons individuals and families work with us:
- Experience: Our providers work with all types of substance use disorders (SUDs), including methamphetamine addiction, and build your behavioral health treatment program around that experience.
- Amenities: We provide amenities that remove other stresses so you focus your attention on getting better.
- Compassion: Everyone arrives from a different situation. We listen without judgment and provide the compassionate care you expect and deserve.
Riverside Recovery of Tampa stays current with mental health research to provide a comprehensive, individualized treatment plan. Contact us today to speak to a member of our admissions team.
- National Institute on Drug Abuse, Methamphetamine Research Report: https://nida.nih.gov/publications/research-reports/methamphetamine/what-scope-methamphetamine-misuse-in-united-states
- National Institute on Drug Abuse, Methamphetamine DrugFacts: https://nida.nih.gov/publications/drugfacts/methamphetamine
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2883750/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8098650/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK546585/
