Cocaine is a highly addictive drug but not all users are addicted to it. Those who are addicted to it believe that they are not addicted at all. They see themselves as being party poppers or people who can never be addicted to anything because they are employed and have a house along with a good bank balance.
The case is the same with alcohol and drug users also. Many people who have problems with alcohol say that they are not alcoholics for some reason. Doctors claim that cocaine is not addictive because it does not have any specific symptoms of withdrawal. They are wrong. Addiction is defined as the inability to predict what will happen on any day after the first use of a mood-altering substance or process on that day.
As with alcohol or nicotine, you can stop for a time but it is difficult to stop once you have started. Cocaine, alcohol, nicotine, and other mood-altering substances are addictive to those who are born with an addictive nature. We may not crave to return to using these and other mood-altering substances. We may believe at any one time that we can control their use. Addiction is always progressive and destructive.
We see cocaine addiction symptoms when we look at the damage that it causes in someone’s life. Snorting cocaine can cause perforation of the septum between the two sides of the nose. Cocaine use in any form can lead to paranoia and also cause heart attacks. But these are just the physical consequences of cocaine use. The professional, financial, marital, and social consequences may be much more devastating. In this way, paradoxically, the symptoms of cocaine addiction are often felt by other people, rather than exclusively by the person using it. We may not see the addicts when we look directly at them but we can certainly see where they have been.
When trying to diagnose someone else’s cocaine addiction, we can look for runny noses or wild eyes, or disturbed ideas but many perfectly stable people have those symptoms. It is the addictive behavior that specifically distinguishes cocaine addicts from the normal population.
Addicts will tend to isolate themselves from previous social activities. They will protect the time, energy, and money that they use for their addiction. They will continue to use, despite damaging consequences and the repeated serious concern of other people. Most characteristically, the first use in any day will tend to stimulate the perceived need for the next use. Once stimulated, the addictive urge continues. So if you are going through cocaine addiction, make sure that you get yourself into proper treatment before it gets too late.