Cocaine Anxiety

What Are The Symptoms of Anxiety?

The term “anxiety” can address a wide spectrum of diagnosable mental health conditions as well as being a description of how you may be feeling under stressful or worrisome life circumstances. Though they vary greatly in severity, there are a few symptoms that ring true throughout that may be able to help you better identify the feeling of anxiety.

Physical symptoms can include behaviors such as restlessness or the need to constantly be moving. This can also include trembling or sweating that may result from more extreme forms of physical manifestations of anxiety. Weakness and tiredness can also be indicators that you have been dealing with anxiety. Inability to sleep and the accompanying irritability are all potential indicators that anxiety may be having an effect on you.

Physical Symptoms of Anxiety Include:

• Profuse sweating.
• Trembling or shaking.
• Weakness.
• Sleep-related issues.

Mental symptoms include, most notably, racing and uncontrollable thoughts. These thoughts are often centered on worries or fears that may be both rational or irrational. These thoughts may begin to progress to paranoia and aversion to anxiety inducing behaviors. Inability to concentrate and remember may also come into play as well due to your mental energy and focus being occupied by the racing and worrying thoughts.

However it manifests, anxiety can be detrimental to your well-being especially when coupled with a substance use disorder.

How Does Cocaine Use Affect Anxiety?

In the same way that anxiety has an effect on the mind and body, cocaine also has a dramatic effect on these elements as well. The regular overuse of stimulants like cocaine can negatively impact  overall mental health  and will frequently worsen an already existent anxiety diagnosis. Rarely are those in active addiction getting the regular treatment they need for their Anxiety and mixing this behavior with overstimulation of the brain through cocaine use can lead to increased anxiety over time.

In the same way that anxiety can cause racing and worrisome thoughts, cocaine use can stimulate the brain to compound the rate and severity of these thoughts. These can begin to take the form of paranoia more rapidly and increase in severity over time.

Is Cocaine Used to Self-Treat & Manage Anxiety Symptoms?

When symptoms associated with anxiety go untreated for an extended period of time, an individual may turn to  chemical substances as a way to self-medicate. As with any substance use disorder, one of the immediate effects  (replace the term “substance user” with “person” or “individual”) a person might be looking for is a sense of escape. With anxiety present, this escape can seem more difficult to resist as the user feels unable to control anxious thoughts or feelings. Though it will lead to long term consequences, the user will feel an immediate temporary “high” as their brain becomes flooded with the multitude of chemicals that induce these feelings of euphoria. As with any high, and especially that of cocaine, it will end quickly leaving the user to feel potentially more anxious than before due to the added shame of attempting, and failing, to manage a substance use disorder.

Another common misconception is that cocaine and prescription medication used to treat ADHD, such as Adderall, will have generally the same effect and allow the user to receive the benefits of focus and attention that could come as a result of taking a prescription. Though both substances could be classified as a stimulant, they are two very different substances. Adderall is a regulated amphetamine substance that is given under the care of a doctor and should only be taken as prescribed that serves a very specific purpose in the way that it interacts with the brain and body. Cocaine is not regulated and will not have the same effect on the mind and body often having the adverse reaction that the substance user seeks.