According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, methamphetamine is one of the most addictive and dangerous substance available today. Almost everyone knows that most people start using this drug to feel good. It causes the brain to flood the brain with dopamine which makes you feel wonderful for a short period of time. Unfortunately, methamphetamine has a much darker side. Although everyone’s experience is different, there are a few common descriptions of what methamphetamine addiction really feels like.
Paranoia
One of the key symptoms of methamphetamine addiction is that you become paranoid. Some people believe that there are terrorists or mass murderers in their closet while others thing that their friends and family are out to kill them. The paranoia does not stop there. It spreads from simple thoughts of the police coming to get you to full on delusions of killers stalking them from the darkness of behind their eyes. Some describe the thought that friends and loved ones plotting their violent death or worse. This paranoia takes over your life causing you to live in fear of everything.
Hallucinations
Methamphetamine addiction causes such intense paranoia, it can disrupt your entire life.
Methamphetamine can cause a variety of hallucinations. These are not described as the pleasant calm hallucinations of LSD or peyote but terrifying visions of rape and murder. Some people see people while others see impossible objects and monsters. What you see may be so real to you that you might call the police and report crimes that are not happening or decide that hiding in your closet is a better solution than talking to anyone. Most people describe hiding in the closet because they truly believe what they are seeing is real and out to get them.
These hallucinations just add to the paranoia. The darkest parts of your mind seem to awaken and wander around you unchecked. Even though you feel sober at times, you are still hallucinating adding to the fear. The more addicted to the meth you are the more likely these hallucinations will occur even after you come down off the drug.
Feeling Hollowed Out
Many people describe feeling as if they are hollow on the inside. You feel like there is nothing left that is you. The meth has eaten everything that you were and filled you up with pain, paranoia, and imaginary hallucinations. Some say they feel as if they do not exist anymore and that there is nothing left for them. Some even attempt suicide because of this feeling. They wake up in mental hospitals, coming down off the drug with just emptiness inside them.
It is described as taking everything from you. The meth swallowed your life, who and what you were before you started taking it, before the addiction. Addicts often start to believe that they no longer exist or deserve to exist. This leads to intense depression and suicidal thoughts and feelings.
These are all feelings that people describe while they are in the throes of methamphetamine addiction. If you feel like this and want it to stop it is time to seek treatment for your meth addiction. Treatment is only a phone call away. For help call us at 800-816-1059(Who Answers?).
