Methamphetamine is an extremely addictive drug targeting the nervous system. The intoxicant is a potent stimulant that comes from the amphetamine family. When someone who struggles with a chemical dependence on methamphetamine uses the drug, they experience an intense and brief high that lasts between five and thirty minutes long, after the peak high dissipates the drug will still increase the person’s energy stores and give them a sense of wellbeing that can last for six to twelve hours, depending on many variables like the physical wellbeing of person taking the drug and how much was used. Some people binge the drug, taking it rapidly over a few hours, or for days at a time. Due to the stimulant qualities of meth and it’s high potency, users have been known to stay awake for long periods on the drug without consuming food.
Meth is a drug that has been causing individual addicts as well as their friends, families and communities at large to suffer for decades. But it became even more of a household name when the television series Breaking Bad was released in 2008. The show was riveting with a math teacher who turned criminal due to a desperate need to make money for his cancer treatment. The show easily romanticised the drug even while it showed how devastating the results of a meth addiction can be. But there’s nothing at all romantic or adventurous about someone who is struggling with the chronic disease of an addiction to methamphetamines. If someone suffers from a meth addiction they should seek treatment the best New Jersey rehab they can find.
What Is Meth
Methamphetamine is an illicit substance created in criminal labs across the United States, though methamphetamine is usually produced in the southern parts of the country like Texas, California, Arizona, and Utah, the drug is reaching further north due to trafficking and is becoming more and more available to places like New Jersey. Methamphetamine has several nicknames and can be heard called the following:
- Meth
- Crystal Meth
- Ice
- Glass
- Speed
- Crank
How is the drug taken?
- Inhaling or smoking the drug via a pipe
- Snorting a powdered form
- Swallowing a pill
- Mixed with water or alcohol and injected into the veins
Side Effects of Meth Use
- Persistent wakefulness
- Increased physical activity
- Heightened respiratory activity
- Heightened cardiac activity
- Irregular cardiac activity
- Increase in blood pressure
- Abnormal body temperature
- Loss of some cognitive functions
- Compromised memory
- Increased likelihood of contracting HIV
- Increased likelihood of contracting Hepatitis B or C
- Increased likelihood of contracting a sexually transmitted disease
- Dramatic weight loss
- Major dental issues
- Intense body itching that leads to breaking of skin and sores, making meth addicts easy to spot
- High anxiety
- Steady confusion
- Incessant sleep complications
- Violent outbursts
- Extreme and irrational paranoia and distrust of those around the user, in their community & outside the community
- Hallucinations, or visions and experiences of things that are not based in relation
Treatment For Meth Addiction in Top Rated Drug Rehab Centers in New Jersey
If a person suffers from an addiction to meth they should seek help immediately. The drug is potent and can lead to psychosis or death. There is help for treatment at NJ detox centers like Discovery Institute which has been named one of the top rated drug rehab centers in New Jersey.
Dr. Joseph Ranieri D.O. earned his BS in Pharmacy at Temple University School of Pharmacy in 1981 and His Doctorate Degree in Osteopathic Medicine at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine in 1991. He is Board Certified by the American Board of Family Medicine and a Diplomate of the American Board of Preventive Medicine Addiction Certification. Dr. Ranieri has lectured extensively to physicians, nurses, counselors and laypeople about the Disease of Addiction throughout New Jersey and Pennsylvania since 2012.
