If you’ve previously beaten a cocaine and/or weed addiction...

Advice54321 · 2021-03-27T15:48:42+00:00

... would you be willing to share what consequences this is still having on you? My DH has been clean for two years now (that was his last slip up, he’d been dealing with his addiction for a while before) but I’m sure some of the issues he experiences now are a result of his past addiction. I’ve tried googling it and everything seems to focus on the effects of taking it or the immediate withdrawals, I can’t find anything which explains long term effects despite being clean.

purrswhileheeats · 27/03/2021 16:04

Do you mean personality/behaviour issues?

vampirethriller · 27/03/2021 16:10

My sinuses are shot and my front teeth are dodgy. No other physical effects though and I never smoked weed.
I don't drink alcohol anyway any more but if I did I know that would trigger me wanting coke.

Original poster

Advice54321 · 27/03/2021 16:15

@purrswhileheeats yes, sorry if I didn’t make it clear.

OP posts:

ChiefBabySniffer · 27/03/2021 16:20

Ex Coke addict. Gave up 14 years ago.

My sinuses are absolutely fucked. I had to have surgery two years ago to remove scar tissue and fix my septum. I've got a chronic long term MRSA infection in my sinuses as a result of the long term usage, now in looking at a second surgery to really clear everything out. The surgeon said it's like knocking down walls to make one big space. This will hopefully allow infection to be rinsed away. Instead of it collecting in the Swiss cheese pockets of tissue that the Coke burned into my sinuses.

Long term effects . Erm. I get triggered by songs on the radio that remind me of that time. I still can't watch scenes on tv/movies of people cutting up and snorting as it massively makes my mouth water, my heart rate shoot up etc. I hate it but it gets easier and easier to deal with the longer away I am from relapse. Certain smells affect me too. That paint thinner/chemical smell makes my legs go a bit wobbly and my mouth water. I have major depressive issues but no idea of that is linked or not as I was far from stable before the Coke.

GeidiPrimes · 27/03/2021 16:23

Not cocaine for me, still class A drugs, but addiction is addiction. The recovering addict will always have an addictive nature and needs to learn ways to live with it. So it's important to recognise this otherwise we fall into the trap of cross-addiction (eg food or work). I became alcohol addicted for some time after kicking the heroin. The addicts substance of choice is really a symptom, something to focus their obsessive behaviour onto.

Has your DH done any work (with a therapist) on getting to the root of what caused this behaviour? I firmly believe that people don't become addicts if their mental health is OK, we're attempting to medicate away some type of trauma usually (always?) Life can seem a tad flat in recovery for a while at first because you're no longer getting those intense highs of pleasure and lows of comedowns.

I overused the word addict a lot, but couldn't think of another suitable word - hope it's legible.

RizzleRazzle · 27/03/2021 16:37

DP is 3 years clean tomorrow and his ongoing effects are that he can't smell properly and has bad anxiety and panic attacks and it had a big impact on his social life as all his friends previously were also drug users.

RizzleRazzle · 27/03/2021 16:40

Also following on from what PP said, he stopped doing drugs and started eating a lot so has gained a lot of weight

vampirethriller · 27/03/2021 17:28

Same as @ChiefBabySniffer with songs and smells being a trigger for me as well.
I had to cut out most of my social circle and move cities to get away from it completely. I was addicted to coke, heroin, crack, painkillers, amphetamines and alcohol though so it needed drastic measures.
I can't watch certain films and series because I used to have them on in the background and they just mean drugs to me now.

Original poster

Advice54321 · 28/03/2021 10:48

Thank you for all your replies.

Funnily enough my DH has put a lot of weight on, I never associated it with getting clean but it makes sense. He definitely has an addictive personality.

He really struggles to handle stress. He tries to put positive measures in place to help and they do always help for a while but it all still comes to a head eventually. I’m not sure if this was a contributing factor to him starting to use or is a consequence.

In his sleep he will regularly have vivid dreams where something bad is happening and he ends up kicking and punching out. From what I’ve read online this can happen when withdrawing but I can’t see anything about how long it lasts. Should this still be going on two years later?

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RizzleRazzle · 28/03/2021 10:58

@Advice54321

Thank you for all your replies.

Funnily enough my DH has put a lot of weight on, I never associated it with getting clean but it makes sense. He definitely has an addictive personality.

He really struggles to handle stress. He tries to put positive measures in place to help and they do always help for a while but it all still comes to a head eventually. I’m not sure if this was a contributing factor to him starting to use or is a consequence.

In his sleep he will regularly have vivid dreams where something bad is happening and he ends up kicking and punching out. From what I’ve read online this can happen when withdrawing but I can’t see anything about how long it lasts. Should this still be going on two years later?

That's actually really interesting you mention that as DP thrashes about in his sleep every night, like a massive twitch sometimes his whole body and sometimes just his legs and he does it every few minutes, all night every night (I've had to sleep on the sofa most nights because of it)

He's been clean 3 years but I've only noticed this in his sleep since my insomnia started a few months ago so not sure if this has been an ongoing thing for him. He's also coming off his antidepressants at the moment so I thought it might be linked but as his doses have been getting smaller the twitching hasn't decreased so perhaps it is linked to the drug addiction.

It would be interesting to know if anyone else has experienced similar

Original poster

Advice54321 · 28/03/2021 12:20

@RizzleRazzle that’s interesting that they both do the sleep thing. Have you ever asked your DP what he is dreaming about?

I too would be interested to know if anyone else has suffered with this.

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RizzleRazzle · 28/03/2021 14:21

[quote Advice54321]@RizzleRazzle that’s interesting that they both do the sleep thing. Have you ever asked your DP what he is dreaming about?

I too would be interested to know if anyone else has suffered with this.[/quote]
A lot of the time if I wake him up he doesn't even realise he was doing it but he does have very vivid and weird dreams he says

Frownette · 28/03/2021 15:21

@vampirethriller

My sinuses are shot and my front teeth are dodgy. No other physical effects though and I never smoked weed. I don't drink alcohol anyway any more but if I did I know that would trigger me wanting coke.

Oh actually a friend lost his sense of smell with coke. Obviously this was awkward with COVID symptoms!

But the plus side is that if he suddenly grabs me for a hug I don't need to worry if I've showered or not, just focus on wriggling away.

JovialNickname · 28/03/2021 15:33

There's a good book I read recently on addiction, called Never Enough by Judith Grisel. The author was a serious drug (including coke) addict, and is now a neuroscientist. Her book delves into the science of addiction, including long term effects, and is written with a lot of personal experience and empathy. I bought it for the alcohol section but it has a long chapter on cocaine use as well. There is a lot in there generally about addiction too, and some of the revelations she makes in terms of why our brains work the way they do, was genuinely life changing to me (recovering from alcohol dependency). I would definitely recommend giving this book a read, you can get it off Amazon.

grisen · 28/03/2021 15:41

5 years clean... emotionally I’m a wreck and I can’t sleep still.
Before my son was born I used to twitch so badly I slept on the sofa most nights, however it’s gotten much better and he even cosleeps.

ChiefBabySniffer · 29/03/2021 01:01

Op, you can literally search my name and see I commented on a a sleep talking thread a few days ago. Just last night I tried repeatedly to Rock my husband to sleep to protect him from goats. In our bedroom. I also apparently blamed a tiger from blocking the kitchen door t way.

My dreams are bstshit bonkers. No idea if drugs are to blame!