What Is a Cocaine Problem and How Do You Know If You Have One?

Cocaine addiction is a complex multifaceted condition, and if you are struggling with a cocaine problem you are fighting against a strong psychological pull to keep on using the drug despite serious adverse consequences.

Having a problem with cocaine doesn’t mean that you are using it all day or every day. Maybe you are one of those cocaine addicts that have a binge cocaine problem that may only manifest weekly or monthly or even as long as 3 or 4 months apart. Or perhaps you are struggling only at the weekends. Perhaps you only struggle with cocaine when you drink alcohol.

Answer the following questions and decide if you are having a problem:

1.    Do you feel that cocaine has taken over a part of your life?
2.    Is your cocaine use wasting your hard earned money or someone else’s money?
3.    Do you promise yourself or others that you will quit or cut down and find that you are failing to    keep the promises?
4.    Do you begin to crave cocaine at a definite time or the day or week?
5.    Has anyone close to you expressed concern about your use of cocaine?
6.    Has your behaviour or personality changed any since using cocaine?
7.    Does the thought of using cocaine preoccupy your mind at certain times?
8.    Have you started to believe that life isn’t much fun unless cocaine is involved?

What do you think – are you struggling with any of the above points. If you answer yes to any of the above questions, this indicates that you are losing choice and that cocaine is making the decisions in your life. Is that how you want it to be?


Cocaine directly impacts on your Brain affecting your central nervous system.  Cocaine acts as a dopamine re-uptake inhibitor and this results in sense of euphoria when you snort it. That is why it feels so good initially. But of course the good feeling wears off quickly (5/10/or 15 minutes maximum) At that time you will feel the need for another line. With each new line that you take you will notice that it isn’t as good as the last one and certainly no where near as good as the first – this is when, if you have a problem with cocaine,  you may start to chase that first good feeling but unsuccessfully – so a binge begins.

Prolonged exposure to cocaine inhibits the normal recycling process of naturally occurring dopamine. This results in those oh too familiar feelings of depression, anxiety and tiredness that you experience when you stop using. If you have a cocaine problem then you will at times experience intense withdrawal feelings and such powerful cravings that you are likely to find yourself using again against your better judgment.

If you or someone you are close to is struggling with a cocaine problem, you don’t have to keep on with the endless merry go round of addictive pain. We have over 50 years collective experience working successfully with addictions and specifically with cocaine addictions.
Why not give us a call now for help and advice on how Hypnotherapy and Addiction Coaching with Freedom The Freedom Therapy Clinic can help you break free from cocaine. 0700 340 1567


Alistair Rhind
Addiction Consultant, Hypnotherapist and Coach
www.freedomtherapyclinic.com

Alistair Rhind is also the author of the eBook: “Beat Your Addiction’ available for immediate download from Amazon Kindle

Hypnotherapy is proven to be the most effective method of stopping smoking

Stopping smoking for some can be the most elusive of events. Those of us who have smoked or who still smoke will know just how hard quitting can be.  So where do we turn to have the best possible chance of success? 

According to the largest ever scientific study of quit smoking methods Hypnotherapy turns out to be the most effective therapy to help smokers quit.  The study, carried out by Frank Schmidt and a research student of the University of Iowa was a meta analysis of more than 600 studies covering almost 72 000 Americans, Scandinavians and Europeans. 

Perhaps not surprisingly to many smokers, will power alone proved to have a pretty poor showing. But perhaps more of a surprise to our medical colleagues at least, is that GP’s advice alone had the poorest effect of all, proving to have almost no positive impact whatsoever.

The results, published in a recent issue of the Journal of Applied Psychology, show that the average success rate for all methods was only 19 per cent:  this suggests that about one in five smokers are likely to succeed overall, using methods included in the study. 

Encouragingly, for most smokers, the most effective quit smoking method was hypnotherapy. The analysis of hypnotherapy treatment that included 48 studies covering over 6000 smokers, gave an average success rate of 30%.  When compared to self-help, in the form of books or mail-order advice coming in at around 9% and nicotine gum at a poor 10% (the NHS stop smoking service has spent untold £millions in any given year on Nicotine replacement therapy) hypnotherapy comes out as the ‘can do’ therapy of choice for smokers.

What came top of the ‘quit smoking Pops’ was: Patients who had been diagnosed with serious heart disease problems who enjoyed a whacking 36% success rate. Well done them - I am just not so sure that I would want to wait until my heart was on the verge of breaking down and literally puffing to a standstill before I made my attempt at stopping though.

Make no mistake; smoking is without a doubt a killer. Shockingly, approximately one out of every two people die from a smoking related disease and according to The World Health Organisation;

 “The tobacco epidemic is one of the biggest public health threats the world has ever faced, killing nearly six million people a year. More than five million of those deaths are the result of direct tobacco use while more than 600 000 are the result of non-smokers being exposed to second-hand smoke. Approximately one person dies every six seconds due to tobacco, accounting for one in 10 adult deaths. “

On a positive note, 3 out of every 4 smokers would like to stop, it’s never too late to quit smoking and quitting greatly reduces the risk of smoking related illness and premature death. 

Many people have successfully given up smoking and while often people who want to stop don't feel ready, there is never a better time to quit than now. Clearly hypnotherapy with an experienced specialist hypnotherapist can help you quit, so why not start right now by giving us a call on:

0700 340 1567

http://www.freedomtherapyclinic.com