Stimulant Addiction Side Effects
It is necessary to familiarise oneself with stimulant addiction side-effects before engaging in the use or abuse of these drugs.
Most of the known stimulant addiction side-effects only become manifest at times when the addicts fail to consume the stimulants. Such side effects are not usually physical and they may or may not clear away once the addict resumes consumption of the drugs. These stimulant addiction side-effects include extreme mood swings and paranoia.
The addict may shift from a mood of hyperactivity to another of extreme depression. Depression normally sets in as the effects of the stimulants previously consumed begin to wane. In many cases, addicts have been reported to become suddenly very paranoid. They develop some very deep rooted fears of phenomena such as death and insanity that otherwise held no irrational fear for them. In this state, they sometimes start to imagine that everyone or everything is after them and is seeking to destroy them.
Another of the sensory or behavioral stimulant addiction side-effects is the compulsive repetition of actions. Addicts sometimes do some things repeatedly where such repetition is entirely uncalled for. Very often such repetition happens to be compulsive and the addicts are usually completely unable to stop themselves from doing so. In addition, people addicted to stimulants experience chronic sleep problems or disorders. They are unable to fall asleep, or when they do so, they are only able to sleep interminently for a short period of time.
The stimulant addiction side-effects tend to become more pronounced depending on the dosage of the stimulant consumed. Many users of the drugs, especially those who use them for recreational purposes, have fallen victim to unintentional overdose.
In such incidents, they overdose because the exact composition of the drugs that they used in terms of strength and purity could not be ascertained with any reasonable degree of accuracy. This is the case with the illegal stimulants such as speed and ecstasy. These drugs are manufactured illegally in some backyard laboratories, where the health of the final users of the drugs is not really a priority.
Apart from the behavioral stimulant addiction side-effects outlined above, there are a number of physical side effects associated with the drugs that have also been reported. These side effects include extreme weight loss and impotence. The weight loss can be attributed directly to the loss of appetite normally experienced by addicts. They hardly ever consume any nutritious food as they find absolutely no enjoyment in doing so.
Because they eat very little, addicts consequently end up losing a lot of body weight within a short time. Addiction to stimulants has also been linked to impotence as many of the users and addicts of stimulants normally exhibit little or no sexual urges.
All of the stimulant addiction side-effects are definitely aggravated whenever the drugs are consumed alongside any depressant drugs. Consumption of the depressant drugs in this way may serve to heighten the effects of the stimulant. The results, which include high blood pressure and increases or irregularities in heartbeat, can cause cardiopulmonary arrests and seizures which could well turn out to be fatal.
