Meth Addiction
Private Treatment for Methamphetamine Abuse
Methamphetamine or “meth” is one of the most potent illegal drugs on the street today. Meth is often found in a glass-like or white powder or form and is frequently referred to as “crystal meth.” It is a central nervous system stimulant that can be snorted, smoked, injected, or consumed orally.
Meth works by flooding the brain with dopamine, a neurotransmitter that regulates our pleasure and reward centers. The resulting euphoria can overwhelm the user, rewire a person’s neural pathways, and sow the seeds for a gripping need for the drug.
Meth addiction can cause a wide range of social, physical, emotional, and behavioral issues. As a result of the user’s erratic behavior, relationships often suffer, and the person may consistently avoid regular responsibilities and obligations.
Even among high-performing people, meth use can cause grades and work output to drop, resulting in financial strain, unemployment, and homelessness. Methamphetamine use disorders can also lead to risk-taking behaviors, dangerous relationships, and possible suicidal behaviors.
Our team of multidisciplinary professionals is skilled in treating methamphetamine addiction. We leverage an outcomes-driven suite of advanced clinical and medical interventions to help you recover.
Substance Use Disorders
Signs of Meth Abuse & Addiction
If you struggle with methamphetamine addiction, the drug can become the central focus of your life. Meth can affect your physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual well-being on many levels. Let’s look at a few of those signs and symptoms below.
Physical signs and symptoms of meth addiction include:
- Changes in appetite
- Weight loss
- Dehydration
- Sleep deprivation
- Shaking and trembling
- Elevated internal body temperature
- Degradation of teeth and bones
- Skin abscesses at injection sites
- Loss of skin elasticity
- Osteoporosis
- Decreased libido
Psychological, emotional, and behavioral symptoms include:
- Social isolation
- Paranoia
- Hiding drug use from others
- Risky or violent behaviors
- Impulsivity
- Relationship problems
- Increased aggression
- Hallucinations
- Repetitive behaviors
- Disorganized thoughts
- Sensations of bugs crawling underneath the skin
Methamphetamine Withdrawal symptoms
While detox from meth is not usually as dangerous as alcohol or benzodiazepine detox, meth-induced psychosis can arise during the withdrawal process. A psychosis resulting from meth use can be painful or lead to the user harming themselves or others. As a result, detox should take place under the supervision of a trained medical professional.
Meth users may experience delusions, feel paranoid, and or become highly irritable. Visual and auditory hallucinations are also common. These experiences can also cause users to incessantly pick at themselves, resulting in skin abrasions that can become infected.
Other symptoms of meth withdrawal include:
- Suicidal thoughts/suicide
- Extreme anxiety
- Depression
- Decreased energy
- Teeth grinding
- Increased sleeping
- Night sweats
Our skilled medical team includes doctors, psychiatrists, and dedicated nursing staff available to clients 24 hours a day. Whether you’re suffering from methamphetamine addiction, co-occurring mental health disorders, or other medical concerns, we can help.
Medical detox is a launchpad
Medical detox is only the first step toward recovery from substance use and does not guarantee permanent sobriety. Often, people fail to remain sober following detox without sophisticated medical care from trained professionals and effective clinical support. Stimulant use disorders are mental illnesses — and there is no one cause of addiction.
When every aspect of a person’s mental, physical, and psychological wellbeing are addressed, true healing is possible.
Highly customized treatment modalities
Methamphetamine users are often trauma survivors. Whether the trauma resulted from the dangerous lengths people go to obtain the substance or from childhood, drug users experience trauma at higher rates than most people. An individual needs to remain in a comprehensive addiction treatment program long enough to form healthy habits, learn techniques to improve their quality of life, and allow new brain connections to develop. The trauma-informed care approach used at Headwaters can enhance your recovery.
Our team treats co-occurring disorders such as depression, bipolar disorder, and anxiety. Headwaters’ psychiatrists, doctors, and psychologists work together to create a plan for rehabilitation that includes evidence-based neurological interventions to heal the brain as well as robust counseling sessions. Examples of Headwaters’ treatment modalities include:
- Trauma therapies, such as Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
- Neurofeedback
- Biofeedback
- Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)
- Recreational therapies and personal training
- Wellness activities, such as personalized yoga and massage
- Nutritional coaching
- Spiritual programming and support
Heal Your Brain
Methamphetamines affect the dopamine levels in your brain by flooding your neurotransmitters and disrupting your brain’s normal functioning. In addition to dysregulating the brain’s ability to feel pleasure, dopamine can affect your motivation, reward processing, movement, memory functions, and learning. Meth addiction repeatedly builds up a tolerance, which means you often need to take higher doses more often to feel the same effects. This can make it difficult to feel happy without meth.
No matter who you are, chronic meth use can lead to drug dependency in a short period of time. As drug use increases, changes occur in how your brain functions, affecting its overall chemical makeup and circuitry. But we can help you retrain your brain and uncover the path to healing. Our suite of personalized therapies is just a phone call away.
Call us today at (561) 270-1753 to see if Headwaters can help.
West Palm Beach, FL 33407
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