I constantly see methamphetamine side-effects (aka crystal meth or ice) as an addiction specialist. It’s not occasional, but standard physical and mental damage due to the drug.
Most clinicians won’t discuss that with you, but I will lay it on the table in the very first session. One of the major rules I follow in working with addicts is teaching you to live in the real world.
You may be deluding yourself that you got away with damage when using. You didn’t and are maybe ignoring it, pretending it’s not happening or don’t yet understand what’s happening.
There are short-term side effects, long-term damage that will affect you for the rest of your life, and medical problems that may not show up for 20 years (1).
What is methamphetamine?
As a chemical methamphetamine was discovered in 1893 and exists as two enantiomers: levo-methamphetamine and dextro-methamphetamine. Like most chemicals, chemists are unsure of its use at the beginning (2). It’s a potent synthetic stimulant of the central nervous system.
In the US methamphetamine hydrochloride has FDA approval as a weight loss treatment, due to its ability to suppress appetite. It’s also used for narcolepsy and idiopathic hypersomnia off-label. Sometimes it’s used in decongestants.
Any use carries major warnings of addiction, misuse and loss of cognitive ability and rational thinking. There are no exceptions.
It’s a neurotoxin that interferes with normal brain function which happens instantly when you’re given it or by self-administration. This includes metabolic dysregulation (a group of conditions that occur together, increasing your risk of heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes), dopamine interference, oxidative stress (cell damage), creation of high risk of Parkinson’s disease, brain damage, shrinkage of the hippocampi, cingulate cortex, limbic cortex, and paralimbic cortex, gut dysregulation; and many more disturbances to metabolic function.
How addictive is crystal meth?
Crystal meth is one of the most addictive drugs as its effects are very fast acting, almost immediately giving a sense of energy and invincibility. It can be snorted, injected, smoked or even taken in pill form.
It suspends the rational thought process in your brain, so you begin to engage in high risk-taking. You can no longer truly assess the danger of high-risk behaviours, which also includes the risk of addiction.
For many individuals it initiates mental illnesses, such as anxiety, depression, paranoia, extreme aggression, schizoid-type behaviours, hallucinations, and suicidal thoughts (3).
Due to these thought pattern distortions it’s easy to get addicted very quickly. When it’s happening, you don’t actually understand it’s happening to you until it’s too late and you’re an addict.
Micro-circulation damage
As with many drugs, including prescription drugs, damage to the small vessels that feed the organs of your body comes first. Remember some of these vessels are super small, with a width off only one cell (4).
Physiological, biomechanical actions such as Cystathionine gamma lyase (CSE), hydrogen sulfide (H2S), nitric oxide (NO) (CSE/H2S/NO) which are dependent pathway for vessel health become dysfunctional when taking methamphetamine.
Cardiovascular damage
The volume of blood flow goes up when the heart is over-stimulated, and vessels can’t cope with the excess flow. This means the wall of the micro vessel becomes damaged, stiff and bursts. The vessel walls are supposed to remain flexible to accommodate changes in systolic pressure from the heart. The tissue doesn’t get enough oxygen or nutrition to repair cells, so complete tissue death begins.
Methamphetamine-induced heart failure is common in emergency departments (5). With the explosion of recreational crystal meth consumption over the past 10 years, the numbers have skyrocketed.
This includes initial heart attacks due to immediate drug use, attacks due to chronic use, and accumulated damage from secondary heart attack.
This may also lead to permanent angina, vascular damage, disability and death. If you have been using ice for a long time it’s not matter if, but when.
All areas of the body are affected by that vascular irregularity, including liver, kidneys, lungs, and pancreas, not just the heart.
Brain damage from methamphetamine
Think of your brain as your hard drive. If your hard drive goes, you lose function and storage to run the programs and data. If the hard drive isn’t working, you can’t boot-up the system (6).
Due to microvascular collapse in areas of the brain, the cells don’t get oxygen and nutrition, so they die. Due to vascular stiffness the blood flow is erratic, pumped to the brain at high pressure and the unnatural force brutally damages the brain.
This causes thousands of tiny strokes in the brain every time you take ice, without exception. We can see them on an MRI scan as thousands of white spots where there have been thousands of mini strokes.
What we also see is holes in the brain where certain parts of it have shrunk. This leads to hormone dysregulation, inability to follow a thought through, loss of coordination, language skills, memory, vocabulary, and comprehension.
What functions are recoverable?
It’s a million-dollar question and depends on what kind of damage, how much, and over what period of time it’s been happening. It also depends on you as an individual, your genetics, medical history and the way you intend to live your life in the future.
Let’s remember medically that a life-threatening incident can happen the very first time you take crystal meth and for some people does. Chronic users are at risk of overdosing, leading to death (7).
A large number of deaths are due to other diseases that are consequences of taking the drug. Since it also damages your immune system, you’re also at a higher risk of infectious diseases.
How well you recover or partially recover is largely dependent on how much you’re prepared to change your life. Just stopping using won’t initiate the repair, you have to live a far healthier life.
Recovery from mental complications
Again, you must make big changes to learn to think, act and live differently. You’ll require help, whether that’s professional help or community support.
Addiction can leave you mentally damaged in so many ways, so you have to become someone else, and yes, the change needs to be that big.
Many people have gone on to live a better life, but it takes a lot of work, and you have to be prepared to make those changes and take that leap. You don’t know best, as you’ve been an addict, and you need to learn from non-addicts.
I ask my patients to be 100% committed to change. If you’re not, I won’t take you into my clinic.
Sometimes that change may be easy, and sometimes hard, but you must do it anyway, because that’s what it takes to recover. I always hold you accountable. I’m not your aunt with a cup of tea and biscuit. I’m there to guide you, not agree with the delusions of addiction.
Hypnotherapy makes recovery quicker
A meth addiction is brutal, whether you’re using daily, weekly, or occasionally. Not only does it damage your body, but your mind has no real perspective on life.
Hypnosis reaches deep into your unconscious mind, so you can rearrange your automatic thoughts and actions in a more healthy, clean and sober way.
Clinical hypnotic techniques used skillfully by an addiction recovery specialist make those changes happen fast. And fast is the way we work.
Also, as a medical hypnotist and naturopath, I am working with promoting the health of your body at the same time.
You do deserve the best life you can have – don’t you?
I will help you get control to overcome methamphetamine addiction fast with hypnotherapy, psychotherapy and counselling. Either in clinic consultations or by Zoom anywhere in the world. Take action now and call me: 0403 398 808.
About Dr Tracie O’Keefe DCH
Dr Tracie O’Keefe DCH, BSc, ND, is one of the most highly qualified and experienced clinical hypnotherapists, psychotherapists, counsellors, naturopaths, and mental health professionals practising in Australia today. She has received worldwide recognition and praise for her research, development of clinical procedures and teaching. She is the author of nine books and hundreds of articles and papers.
References
- Richards, J., & Laurin, E. (2023). Methamphetamine Toxicity. StatPearls Publishing. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK430895/
- Dyer, K., & Cruickshank, C. (2009, July). A review of the clinical pharmacology of methamphetamine. Addiction, 104(7):1085-99. doi: 10.1111/j.1360-0443.2009.02564.x.
- Chang, X., Sun, Y., Zhang, Y., Muhai, J., Lu, L., & Shi. J. (2018). A Review of Risk Factors for Methamphetamine-Related Psychiatric Symptoms. Front Psychiatry, 9: 603. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6251327/
- Kolluru, G., Glawe, J., Pardue, S., Kasabali, A., Alam, S., Rajendran, S., Cannon. A., Abdullah, C., Traylor. J., Shackelford, R., Woolard, M., Orr, A., Goeders, N., Dominic, P., Bhuiyan, Md., & Kevil, C. (2022). Methamphetamine causes cardiovascular dysfunction via cystathionine gamma lyase and hydrogen sulfide depletion. Redox Biol., 57: 102480. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9513700/
- Kevil, C., Goeders, N., Woolard, M., Bhuiyan, Md., Dominic, P., Kolluru, G., Arnold, C., Traylor, J., & Orr, A. (2019, August 21). Methamphetamine Use and Cardiovascular Disease. Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology, 39:1739–1746. https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/ATVBAHA.119.312461
- Kim, B., Yun, J., & Park, B. (2020, September 1). Methamphetamine-Induced Neuronal Damage: Neurotoxicity and Neuroinflammation. Biomol Ther (Seoul), 28(5): 381–388. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7457172/
- Kuo, C.J., Liao, Y.T., Chen, W., Tsai, S.Y., Lin, S.K., & Chen, C.C. (2011). Causes of Death of Patients with Methamphetamine Dependence: A Record-Linkage Study. Drug Alcohol Rev., 30(6): 621–628. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3117111/
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