Cocaine in the Brain

This comment is to anyone who has not only snorted coke but also who has smoked it. 6 months ago I found small plastic bag with white powder residue and a glass pipe in jacket pocket of my roommate. I noticed prior his behavior was erratic and paranoid. He also shakes his legs and feet alot while sitting or lyin down. I've known him 1 yr now. Told me he snorted coke and drank alcohol in past but had quit. He smokes weed daily heavily nonstop til he's so high he falls asleep. Don't understand how he functions daily on job. Gets up every morning @ 3:45 and goes to work where he is supervisor in press room for newspaper. I confronted him recently about drug use and he didn't deny it. I don't trust him anymore nor believe him regarding how he spends money. What are short and long term effects of smoking coke and weed?

I'm a 16 year old girl From Blackpool. As you'll probably know, drugs in the uk are cut with lots of unknown chemicals, knowing this I still proceeded to take it with two friends tonight. I'm currently on an intense come down from cocaine, I looked up to share my experience.Over the past months I became increasingly interested in the nature of this drug and the feeling of euphoria. I struggle with mental health issues and negative thought patterns. I was stupid enough to believe that the effects of this drug would temporarily block out negative feelings and thoughts. I took at least two lines of blow each hour- For eight hours straight. At first, I felt amazing, I'd never experienced anything like this. Over the hours my behaviour became more and more embarrassing as each one passed. I felt the need to take more and more until the point where I was literally scraping the barrel for a last line. Usually, I will not behave I like this, I take pride in what used I be my sensible behaviour. The experience of the drug in it's peak was worth it at the time but I now regret every line. My eye started to roll backwards and I have a terrible mark beneath my lower lip where I was uncontrollably chewing at it and grinding my teeth.. Weather this was impaitance, while I was waiting for more or wether this was "gurning" Regardless, the mark is embarrassing, a rash looking type. I'm also experiencing shaking and twitches. I have been awake for 24 hours and it's impossible to close my eyes without feeling nausea. I'm reaching the end of the come down at this moment in time, I feel terrible, I cried for hours purely because I could t identify the unusual feeling. It may have a different effect on other people. I highly reccomend not a soul takes this drug. I don't know how my body is tolerating it myself. As I write this my whole body is shaking and I feel really cold even though I'm in bed wrapped up. It's honestly a disgusting and purile feeling. If you're reading this, especially if your young. Please avoid at all cost.
In a way, my experience has now taught my plenty and I'll never dabble with cocaine again.
If you absolutely must have it, please take in moderation.
All I got out of this drug was a half an hour good feeling and the rest of purley embarrassing for everybody Involved. Highly addictive once you start taking it. I found myself becoming very selfish and taking other peoples as well as my own as I was obsessed with my first ever powder high. Before anybody comments about how niave I'm being. I didn't comment to boast. I commented in hope that someone will read this and avoid cocoaine. This drug is over glorified, mostly by teenagers who have never taken it, in order to appear cool or adventurous. None of those things apply the morning after. It's nothing but painful and shameful

1 year 1/2 clean no help from no one it's possible but ya have to want to change its not gonna happen overnight. I set goals for day to day and keep them obtainable. No body can do it for ya

My girl used to get high and I can tell that there's damage .she's slow to discover error and live and responds like she's still a teenager before she got high... she clueless to lots of things. And every weekend she wants to g out or eateat

to those of you whom think using cocaine is a controllable habit, i can inform you that what you are engaging in is the development of a pathological illness that starts the minute you began using. it is why the call this a cunning, baffling, and powerful disease. This is truly a pathological illness furbished by construction of ones own ego in a manner that really just implodes upon itself.
A quote if you will - “Problems cannot be solved with the same mind set that created them.” ― Albert Einstein. Essentially the ego mind serves of a purpouse of protecting itself and its choices. Its rationalizations are used in the defense of its own choices, or mistakes (such as beginning the cycle of cocaine addiction). As a user continues down this path, and the using becomes greater, their own mind, the same mind and thought process that made the "rational" decision of trying cocaine, goes through various stages of as follows:

denial
arguing against an anxiety provoking stimuli by stating it doesn't exist
denying that your physician's diagnosis of cancer is correct and seeking a second opinion

projection
placing unacceptable impulses in yourself onto someone else
when losing an argument, you state "You're just Stupid;" homophobia

rationalization
supplying a logical or rational reason as opposed to the real reason
stating that you were fired because you didn't kiss up the the boss, when the real reason was your poor performance

reaction formation
taking the opposite belief because the true belief causes anxiety
having a bias against a particular race or culture and then embracing that race or culture to the extreme

suppression
pushing into the unconscious
trying to forget something that causes you anxiety

etc....etc....

as addiction continues, the pathology of your thinking accutally becomes designed to sabatoge you to continue using. It's really why the scientific and health comunity have classified addiction as a disease and mental illness.

I myself started the same way as Mr.:

haha
Submitted by love drug (guest) on Sun, 04/03/2011 - 10:15pm.
seriously the drug isn't anything like some of these comments have said.. maybe if you have grown up around nothing exciting, you will find that cocaine is the best thing thats ever happened to you

Woh woh woh. Take there own
Submitted by Tim (guest) on Mon, 10/17/2011 - 10:26pm.
Woh woh woh. Take there own life from a line. Ignorance is bliss.... Remember that. Are you one of the people telling our kids weed will kill you. Coke isnt really a problem in moderation

Essentially what these messengers comments are simply constitue the rational of their own diseased minds reassurement of denial, rationalization, etc. What im trying to say is that the minute drug abuse starts, you become your greatest enemy, The symptoms of depression which amost everyone on this page talks about is the same pathalogical mind defeating itself in an effort to either continue using or essentially commit suicide. Its the same mind at a different stage of the game. The same mind that created addiction, denied yourself about it, rationalized it, swore off from using, etc. The only difference is as this cyclke continues, your biochemistry changes. Once depleted of seratonin, neuropenephrine, etc, your mind creates self defeating thoughts of depression. As you no longer are on your favorite medicine. Thus when you use, the depression is gone, and the thoughts become re-assuring of why it is ok to use. Once the coke is gone, the depressive nature of your own mind comes back. Trust me, I know. I come from a polydrug use background including major cocaine binges, ecstasy, daily pot use, and heavy alchohol. I have done the whole, quit coke but conitnue drinking. Quit drinking and coke but conitnue smoking. Quit everywthing cold turkey then go back. Just drink and refrain from everything else. Iv had disabling depression, visits with the mental ward, anti depressant medications, etc. I went all the way to the point of literally a consciece hell. I could only think about commiting suicide all day.

What saved my ass so far? I have 21 months clean and sober. Completely clean and sober. I checked into rehab. I dived into a 12 step program and never left. Now how is my life? I have a car again, i have my career being re-established in mortgage banking. I work my program to the teeth and wire, am activer in sponsership. and regularly attend meetings. My depression is completely gone. I dont think about using cocaine at all. My thoughts about drinking alchohol are nill. And the pot, well please. We have bigger fish here to fry. So what can I say - for those of you whom are older-i havent seen one single case, at all, reflecting any positive outcome from cocaine use. For those of you whom are young, i know whom you are. Iv been there. The whole this is easy, I can control this, the craving is gone in a few days, so why is everyone so freaked out about it mindset. Why we cant stop despite all evidence suggesting we should? Again, this is a pathological illness. I dont know why. Ones own ego mind simply wont give the user that opportunity until a sufficient bottom is reached. Then, for a brief moment, whats called a "moment of clarity" is acquired, some which users act on and get help, some which users wig out on and simply refrain for months, years, until the depression gets so bad they go back to using or commit suicide, or which most users do, which is fucking just ignore and kill with a couple drinks after yet another coke bender.

The one thing i think almost everyone here can agree on is as follows:

1) Alcohol is usually the first drug cocaine addicts use, often addictively. (2) Alcohol is the drug abstinent cocaine addicts most often use before relapsing to cocaine. That is, alcohol is the most common reason for relapse to cocaine. (3) Because most cocaine addicts are alcoholics, effective treatment exists for them.

Thus the only solution for this whole mess we all got ourselves into total abstinence. Or suicide. I chose the former myself.

As the wife of an addict, I can personally attest to the addictive qualities of the drug and the psychotic delusions it fosters. I know I spent 5 years being tortured and pushed around by someone who had SEVERE persecution complex. He believed I was hiding all kinds of drugs all over the house, doing them in secret. He used to scrape gummy dirt from under the sink and call it black tar heroin, he would put it on tinfoil and light it, and say he'd found my stash. It was beyond ridiculous. He accused me of cheating on him with everyone, of making him look the fool... When he was making himself look foolish. His accusations always came with beatings. My children saw their father turn their mother into a weeping, bruised, bleeding mess. I was an enabler. I paid our bills and did everything I could to make a happy home for our kids, and I was afraid to go to the police for help. Afraid of how hard it would be to fight him, to make him stay away. Afraid of the lengths he would go to to get even with me for leaving him... None of the things I was afraid of were scarier than him, in the end.
Cocaine turned him into an absolute raging monster. He broke all the windows in our home, shattered the door framed, urinated and vomited on the floors and furniture, tore all the photos and pictures from the walls, and broke every one of our dishes just to get even when I finally left and called the police. Not ONE day later he was calling from jail, depressed, trying to make up, trying to get money. He actually thinks I'd let him back in to the house... He never had a job in five years, and every dollar he made on drugs he spent on drugs or gambled away. He even took most of MY money, the money I used for the house and kids, to use on his habit and his friends. He was a worthless excuse for a human being, and I blame cocaine. I hate it. I hate what it does to people and their families. I hate the people who say it isn't addictive, and that it's fun. Yeah, that's right, I HATE YOU. Because you're making it ok for people like him to try it, to use it, to abuse it. Cocaine turns some people into killers. I don't know if it turns everyone into raving lunatics, and I don't care, if it turns even one person into the kind of man who would torture innocent people, and I'm a witness who will testify to that, then it's pure poison.

But lucky you whoever you are!!! You could afford a cocaine habit for 10 or 15 or 18 or 20 or 26 years? Wow.. that meant you got very high for a very long time... and still you are complaining. Well, I am here to put in a vote for the side that doesn't get too many votes, The 'drugs-are-magnificent-parts-of-nature' side. I started using 'illegal' drugs when i was 14 years old and LOVED them... I spent many of my teenage years rocking out particularly on amphetamine, And then as a musician, moved to London, where, not only was amphetamine the most popular drug, but I met my boyfriend who later became my husband and he loved drugs as much as I did (and still do/does 35+ years later). We also both injected drugs for quite a long period, and then both stopped for different reasons. He went out to work on oil rigs in the North Sea and thus, smoked dope only for his two weeks offshore, as most of the men did as there was no alcohol allowed. For me, I would just periodically fly home to New York for a break in habit and have a personal health cleanse, and eat and sleep for a few months and forget completely about any urges to get high... it's that simple. Replace it with something equally enjoyable... food, sleep, a love affair. It's just, come on... let's get REAL: it feels THAT good, you never want it to stop... but then it does and you move on to something else. I stopped completely after about 5 years of injecting amphetamine (up to 7 grams a day) and to tell you the truth, I have no memory of why I stopped, except I moved to a new city (Amsterdam) and it was no longer part of my life. It was not in the least difficult, it really was just no longer a part of my life in a new place. Speed was a very 'London' thing at the time. So, end of the speed chapter. Eating and sleeping commenced. After that my recreational drug use was restricted to visits from friends from Great Britain who would show up for the odd weekend and we'd all get very high or drop some acid or take some Extacy as that was the new drug on the block. My drug use really dwindled to absolutely like 'none' over the next few years. I was a professional musician and I was pretty much what you'd call a health freak until I entered my 50's (yes, we're about to introduce the fully fledged 'adult right to choose' here) and moved to Tucson Arizona to take care of an ailing parent. Well, perhaps you can imagine the rest of the story. The introduction of an extremely handsome 22-year old Mexican Mafiosi coke dealer to my acquaintance and 'lover' list and WHAM.. for the first time in my life I was using cocaine. Why? Because it was there, and it made me feel good and I figured, 'you know what? I'm going to be dead some day anyway.. I want to rock it til it stops.' And for a year, that's exactly what I did. i could afford to. I had the money. Didn't have to steal or beg or borrow or inconvenience anybody else. I snorted great gear, 24/7 and yes, after a few months my nose got raw. I used to line my nostrils with medicated cream before I would snort my lines. I had a special table, where I would chop them out and say 'grace' and thank God for the high that was about to hit me. thank him or her or however many gods there are, that at my mature age, I could still have such fun and love it and enjoy it and not feel guilty about it. Then one day, I had to leave Tucson and I took my last line at 6am on the morning of my final departure. That was 2 years ago. I've not had a line since. I've not thought about it much as a great deal of sleeping and eating and getting chubby and healthy again ensued and I realized one very very very true and important thing that nobody here has mentioned. Cocaine is NOT physically addictive. And re: psychologically addictive? No more so than love. If you don't have it, you can do perfectly well without it, unless it is the ONLY thing that made your day worth getting up for. If it was the ONLY thing in the world that made you happy, then you will search for it everywhere. But it is not the 'bogey-man' of drugs as it is constantly professed to be. It was an incredibly pleasant way to spend a year of my life. End of story.... PS... I don't even drink wine... down the occasional beer, and I don't smoke or take pharmaceutical drugs, except Ibuprofen for a spinal injury. I do yoga every day, have a magnificent body and just had a full heart check that came out 100% great i.e. better than OK. My cholesterol is a little high because I LOVE cheese. Maybe Cheese will be the death of me. Just remember, you have to die of something. I think for most people who take drugs, it is the fact they really cannot afford them, they really have absolutely NOTHING else that gives them joy and they REALLY feel GUILTY taking them; these are the things that do the most damage over all. For those who go to jail.. .. what can I say, if all drugs were legalized that would not happen. I am an advocate for all drugs to be legalized and legally available to enjoy - without guilt or the sky-high life-wrecking prices of the mafia man. You could also monitor the quality, so it would not contain crazy chemicals that get chopped in to thin it out and do the most damage. Legalization is the only way to go. i won't even go into the roster of how many very famous people have lived on cocaine from Kate Moss to the Rolling Stones and how many Wall Street bankers made their careers on it. Legalize it so not only the 'rich' can enjoy it safely.

Melissa, first I would like to say....I read your report and it was excellent. I am a recovering cocaine addict with 18 continuous years clean and this is the first article I have read that was really on the money and not boring to read. As for Shane Skylar, let me advise you that you could use a meeting (NA) cause you are still using and second, go back to school with your illiterate behind. Shane, you really could use a narcotics anonymous meetings.......DRUGS ARE NOT YOUR FRIEND,...hehe. Look at what you wrote (see the part in Melissa's report, cocaine users talk too much). I'm just sayin.........

I started doing cocaine as a performer playing guitar and then doing Karaoke at bar for approx 10 years. I would do it sporadically at guitar playing shows or karaoke shows as it would help me stay alert and awake during shows almost seemingly creating a "good show" due to my alertness and talking.. I don't know, but I began suffering from seizures in 2008. The seizures I had resulted after a time when I believe I bagan drinking beer (alcohol) again and got pretty messed up by having these seizures about the same time I started drinking...so I thought - and that's why I'm researching this topic....cocaine and the brain.....At first I thought that alcohol had everything to do with my seizures....But, I really do believe that the cocaine I did...which was regular at intervals...maybe 10 continuous days out of 30 days I would take it....but when I took it...I would take alot of it.....snorting whatever I could at times...between the cocaine rush.,,,,My seizures included my loss of short-term memory also...in fact, I did not even know what I had done for about 1-2 months! I even had a Karaoke gig, which I did pay-but was told that i was fired from the bar were i worked......so, my life at that times was insanity...to say the least.....well, i had a motor cycle accident in aug 2008 that put me into a 3 month coma.....almost died.....and now i live with tbi! for the rest of my life! so, was it worth the cocaine effect i got from snorting the stuff? Heck no!!!!So, my sporadic-prolonged usage of it may have caused my brain deficits.....is there scientific proof of the brain-neuron/cell damage and loss? if so where can I find it online?

I've been a addict for over 8 years. The first 3 years it was fun and I felt like this would never affect me phisically or mentally. Now I'm 27 years old, my nose is damaged,I'm always tired, sad afraid of any social situation,very deppresed. DON'T EVEN TRY. But I have great parents,brother and sisters and acouple of people I would consider friends and they give a lot of support. I don't want to let them down so I quit couple of weeks ago and hope for the best... I know god will help me

Im only 14 years old...
with a normal home, im still all alone
cocaine gave me a crave.. took my soul to the grave and left me here to wait.
is 8o bucks a gram really worth the after pain that still stands.
I guess its all i know
pot was gold
coke was as beautiful as snow
now it melted and turned to brown
heroine and crack turned around
stabbed me in the back
now all I have is regret

I personally tried coke when I was 18. I worked at the bar and briefly dated a coke dealer. It was an interesting experience but I had bigger ambitions and I stopped and moved on with my life. I never returned back to thoughts about trying any drugs. Almost ten years later I started dating e a coworker who had drug problems. He is a nice guy. He has a good heart. However coke and other drugs that he have used through out his life (for about 14 years) have really affected his mental health. He is bipolar. He admits to that. However he does not admit that it is from drug abuse. He blames it on genes because his mom was a heroin user prior or during her pregnancy. He have used any imaginable drug out there except for heroin (he is scared of it, especially because him mom was an addict). I dated him for almost a year. It was really hard. He also smokes weed daily. He did not mind me smoking on occasion. However he would never want to do coke with me. He was telling me that I was too pure and he wants to keep me that way. Eventually we broke up but because of his mental irregularity and altered feelings he keeps calling me back. If I meet him he is happy and emotional. However if I show up without warning he freaks out and goes crazy. He does not want me to see him with other women or on drugs. I've tried to help him so many times and he have tried to stop abusing drugs so many times but every time he fails because he gets depressed and lonely. Then he goes out gets drunk and finds a bad company and bad girls that are ready to party. If you tried it and you liked it don't do it again... Don't make it in to a habit. If you haven't tried it don't go that rout... It's not worth it. Drugs really mess up your thinking, emotions and feelings... It's hard to get away from drugs once you are in...

seriously the drug isn't anything like some of these comments have said.. maybe if you have grown up around nothing exciting, you will find that cocaine is the best thing thats ever happened to you.. i however have been snorting at least a gram a day or more for two months now and the only problem i have is my fucken nose hurts at the end of the night. if you really find it that hard to go a day without it then you are a fucken weak minded piece of shit who deserves to be addicted to it. i've recently quit smoking weed because i realised that i had been stoned for 3 years straight. i'm 17 and i see my friends smoking everyday and feel sorry for them. if you really want to quit (anything), it takes 3 days and the cravings go away, then you feel your old self start to come back, and all it takes is you saying to yourself "ahh actually thats right i was coked for two months straight, i think i can go sober for a week" whatever the drug may be, if you cant ditch it, for a week at least.. who do you think you are? your a fucken nobody.