HOW TO QUIT COCAINE: 11 IMPORTANT (PRACTICAL) TIPS - ARTE - 2025

In this article I will show you how to quit cocaine, in fact if you really want to get it and you set your mind to it, you could stop taking it today. Do you use cocaine or do you know someone who does? If the answer is yes, you will already know very well what are the problems that this addictive substance can cause.

You will also know how harmful it is for all areas of the person who consumes it and how difficult it is to get out of an addiction to this substance. In this article we will discuss 11 tips that will give you great help to overcome this addiction step by step and get out of its negative consequences.

Why does addiction occur?

Cocaine is a psychostimulant drug for the central nervous system and has a high addictive potential. Specifically, what it does is to radically block dopamine reuptants, thus increasing the release of this substance in the brain.

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter closely linked to the brain's pleasure and reward system. Therefore, the large release of dopamine makes cocaine highly addictive.

In addition, the brain has a great capacity to adapt to high stimulation, which is why it likes to receive inputs from the outside that reinforce its pleasure and gratification system.

In other words: our brain likes the stimulation that cocaine produces, so if we consume it, we will want more.

This means that although the cocaine user normally believes that he can stop taking it whenever he wants, this is not the case. The cocaine user will be addicted before he realizes it.

Brain stimulation and pleasure

When we use cocaine, our brain gets used to working with extremely high levels of stimulation, and these levels can only be reached through the use of cocaine, so our first need will be to provide this substance to our brain.

This great stimulation produces high degrees of pleasure, provides a high sense of well-being and eliminates feelings of discomfort. However, after the effect of cocaine that lasts between 15 and 60 minutes, the well-being disappears.

What does it mean to be addicted to cocaine?

When well-being after cocaine consumption disappears, a totally opposite state appears, with secondary effects such as: moral collapse, malaise and a decrease in mood.

This means that our brain is modified and only works correctly if we administer cocaine, so if we have this substance within reach, we will consume it to eliminate the discomfort that not consuming it produces.

Thus, cocaine becomes a very high addiction since we are only well when we consume it and we notice its effect on our brain. However as any addiction can be overcome, in fact you can quit cocaine for good today if you do it with conviction and determination.

What is an addicted person like?

First of all, the first thing that comes to mind when we think of an addict is the typical person who lives on the street with a very deteriorated physical appearance, but we forget those who are equally addicted and lead a "normal life" They live as a family, they have jobs, but these go unnoticed by the rest of society.

Do not forget that to be an addict it is not necessary to consume daily, it is enough to consume sporadically, or only to be a weekend consumer.

The ultimate goal of both types of addicts is the same, to experience or seek the sensation of pleasure and euphoria that cocaine use causes and to abandon the state of anxiety and discomfort that not consuming it produces.

Therefore, if you have a friend, relative or acquaintance or you yourself have an addiction problem, these 12 tips will help you get out of that vicious circle as long as you are under the supervision of a professional. In no case do they replace a treatment.

12 Tips to Quit Cocaine

1. Acknowledge that you have a problem

First of all, before making any behavior change or making a decision, you must be firm with yourself, and openly acknowledge that you have an addiction problem and are therefore prepared to receive the help of a professional to overcome it.

Without this first step, it will not be possible to begin the next stages of change. Once the problem is recognized, essential to start a detoxification treatment, we can begin to consider a new life without addictions.

You have to understand that even if you only consume sporadically, if you continue to consume each time it will be more difficult to convince your brain to stop needing that substance.

2. Seek support

If you want to leave it alone, it will be tremendously difficult. Find the people closest to you and ask them for help. When you stop using, sooner or later you will need someone to support you, give you advice, encourage you and understand you.

Look for those people, the more you have the better for you, they will be essential for you to win the battle against cocaine. Don't try to carry all this load by yourself.

3. Distract yourself

Surely thoughts of consuming often come to you, if this is so, stop for a moment and go for a walk, meet a friend or relative who does not consume, read a book, immerse yourself in it, etc… so that you break with those thoughts now that if you indulge in them, the desire to consume will increase.

When carrying out an activity, for example if you are walking, look at all those details of the environment, and try to avoid going through places where you consume. The longer you are in an activity, the less time you will spend under the influence of cocaine.

4. Rethink the change you need

Once you have acknowledged being an addict, you should know that to overcome your addiction, new changes will be necessary in your life.

To do this, it would be useful for you to write down the pros and cons of ceasing to be a consumer in order to learn more about your perception of the problem, and thus increase the perception of alternative behaviors at the same time.

In addition, while you consume, you will be unbalanced emotionally and psychologically, since when you consume you get used to very intense sensations due to the great stimulation that your brain receives.

So if you want to go back to real life and to be you, you must convince yourself from the first moment. With this drug, half measures or partial intentions to quit are not worth it.

5. take some time and think about your addiction

There are times when it is necessary to know how to stop in time, otherwise the path of self-destruction may never stop. At this moment, it is not a question of making a review of what cocaine has meant for you, but rather that you do it especially in your vital areas.

Can you continue with this situation? Can you keep taking it? Make a list of all the areas of your life, how they work and what changes have occurred lately.

When you have done it, think about what changes you need and what is preventing you from making them now. Consider how you will make those changes and keep them as an end goal after you overcome the addiction.

6. Imagine a life without drugs

Cocaine provides you with the state of well-being you want at the precise moment, but if you stop for a moment to think, you are sure to know what comes next. And it is that this state of well-being only lasts as long as the effect of the drug lasts, then the opposite appears.

In other words, if we made a scale from 0 to 10, where 0 is absolute discomfort and 10 is maximum gratification, in the life of a normal person, you could be between 4 and 7 most of the time.

In some moments the gratification could go up to 6 or 7 depending on the stimulus received, and in some moments it could go down to 5 or 6, but rarely would it move from these terms.

On the other hand, when you consume cocaine, you easily reach a value of 9 or 10, but as soon as the effect of the drug ends, you quickly drop to 1 or 0. In fact, when you consume cocaine you only move in those terms, maximum gratification when you consume and apathy the rest of the day.

So rethink whether this is what you want, whether to continue to flee forward with cocaine or regain a normal life as before.

7. Become aware

Once you have definitely considered this new change in your life, you must fully realize that it will not be an easy road, but with the help of professionals, family and friends it can be overcome.

By becoming aware, I mean that you have to do the necessary exercise to realize that the best solution for you is to stop using cocaine. Lack of conscience in abandoning a substance like this is common when addicted.

And it is that the most rational part of your brain can tell you that the best solution for you is to give up consumption, but the most primary part (the addicted part) will tell you otherwise.

That is why it is very important that you work on your most rational brain and make it overcome the most primal instincts that incite you to consume.

Find out what are the factors that have led you to use: why do you use, how often, in what places, with what people, and what has happened to you since you started.

Write all this down on a sheet and become aware of what cocaine really provides you. Also think about the changes you should make in your approach to life so that you can stop feeling the need to use cocaine.

What you need to be well is not to continue consuming, but to make the appropriate changes in your life to achieve well-being. The bad thing is that until you get over it, it will be very difficult for you to make those changes, be aware of it to start.

The call of conscience is very powerful, when you become aware of something your mind awakens and you realize the multiple inconveniences that this drug has for you.

When you activate your consciousness everything is transformed and progress can begin.

8. Stop using

Cocaine can be stopped overnight. So if you want, the last dose you have consumed today can become the last of your entire life.

However, it is usually difficult, especially if you are used to consuming high amounts of cocaine. So, an exercise that I recommend is that you organize your withdrawal from cocaine. How can you do it?

An effective technique is that you consider the days that you will be without consuming, for example 8 days. From this moment you must be 8 days without consuming cocaine. After these 8 days you can consume a dose and increase to 9 the days that you will spend without consuming.

If you do this exercise, there will come a time that there will be so many days left for the next dose that it will not make sense to get back on the drug.

9. Consult a doctor

When you stop using cocaine, it is very likely that you will experience withdrawal symptoms, which are all those physical and psychological symptoms that occur in your body due to the absence of the desired drug.

Some of the symptoms can be agitation and restless behavior, discouragement, fatigue, general malaise, increased appetite, dreams that are too intense and unpleasant, and decreased activity.

The appearance of these symptoms usually cause immediate relapse since if you consume the drug the symptoms and discomfort disappear.

So, if you find yourself in this situation, consult a doctor to give you the corresponding pharmacological treatment to overcome the withdrawal syndrome. Usually the drugs administered are usually antidepressants or anxiolytics.

10. Avoid relapses

Even if you have already stopped using cocaine, you should keep in mind that you are still a potential addict to this drug, since if you use it, it is very likely that you will relapse. Do not get carried away by thoughts that you have already given up the addiction and using once will not affect you at all.

This is not the case, you will have overcome the addiction as long as you do not use, but if you use again, even once, things can get complicated.

Although it is not easy, you must avoid small relapses, and for this it will be necessary that you continue with the treatment until the professionals indicate it to you.

But as we all know, the small relapses are there and they must be seen not as a failure, but as new opportunities. It is a difficult process but not impossible.

11. Start a new life

A common mistake is to think that the moment you overcome cocaine all aspects of your life automatically improve, however this is not the case.

When you overcome cocaine, your life remains the same, but the great advantage you get is that you acquire the necessary capacity to be able to improve all those aspects of your life that you do not like.

It is at this time that you must stabilize your life through a proper profession and establish personal relationships, which provide you with tranquility and well-being. If you can, you can forget about cocaine forever.

As a final tip, I would recommend that you incorporate physical activity into your life. Doing so will fortify your new lifestyle where cocaine has no place and it will be much less likely that you will be able to use again.

12. Be strict and understanding

If it is a family member or friend of yours who has this type of addiction, you must keep these two adjectives present at all times. You must be strict with the use as long as the addicted person has no intention of giving up the drug.

You cannot have any kind of tolerance with cocaine nor can its consumption be justifiable at any time, so you must take the necessary measures that are within your reach, no matter how harsh they are.

However, as long as the addicted person has the will to quit the drug, understanding should reign in your action towards them.

Giving up cocaine is a very hard process in which you suffer a lot, so whenever a person is working hard to eliminate cocaine from his life you should be understanding with him.

"Remember that the big lie about drugs is that you are in control"