Meth Addiction in Linden, NJ

On the street, methamphetamine goes by the names “meth,” “ice,” “glass,” “tweak,” “crank,” and many others. Among health care practitioners and medical experts, it is known as one of the most potent and addictive drugs on the market. Its effects are so strong that using meth even one time has been known to cause meth addiction. Meth addiction is easily recognizable due to its clear pattern of binging and “crashing,” during which users go through large amounts of the drug over the course of hours or days and then experience an equally long or longer period of sleep and listlessness. The effects of meth may feel pleasant to the user, but meth addiction creates more demands on the body and mind than they are capable of keeping up with.

Effects of Meth Addiction

The sheer number of ways in which meth addiction negatively affects individuals makes it difficult to list them all. Generally speaking, it’s possible to break them down into three categories: physical, psychological, and lifestyle effects.

Physical Effects

These may start out as subtle or mild, going unnoticed for a time by the user. They include weight loss and malnutrition (meth suppresses the appetite) which can eventually become severe, skin infections (a result of constant scratching that stems from delusions), an irregular heartbeat, severe tooth and gum decay (nicknamed “meth mouth”), and brain damage (shown by neuroimaging to mostly occur in and around the brain’s centers for reward, memory, learning, and motor function).

Psychological Effects

While the immediate effects of meth use may seem positive and pleasant, the aftereffects tend to be opposite and just as pronounced. When crashing, users feel highly irritable, confused, and generally unwell. Long-term use just heightens and adds to these effects, causing users to become persistently moody and often violent, frequently displaying significant symptoms of psychosis (delusions, hallucinations, and paranoia).

Lifestyle Effects

It’s nearly impossible to overestimate the power that meth addiction can hold over an individual’s life. Chronic abusers will do almost anything to obtain more of the drug, including lie, steal, rob, and prostitute. These behaviors can be extremely disruptive to family life, relationships, careers, educational tracks, and elevate a person’s risk of being incarcerated or falling victim to violence or preventable diseases.

Treating Meth Addiction in Linden

The most important thing to know about treating meth addiction is that the earlier it is caught, the more likely an individual is to be treated effectively and achieve a lasting recovery, and the more likely that their symptoms will be able to be controlled and the damage they’ve caused be reversed.

Because of the pervasive and dangerous nature of methamphetamine use and withdrawal, the best option is to undertake detoxification and further treatment in a medical environment under the constant supervision of doctors and other professional health care providers. This way, the individual’s’ safety can be ensured in the event that withdrawal symptoms become serious.

At Drug Detox Centers Linden, we offer connections to state-of-the-art treatment programs and facilities for those struggling with meth addiction. If you would like more information, or have questions about meth abuse, we strongly urge you to get in touch with us today at (908) 368-4232.