Ecstasy Addiction
Ecstasy, a club drug that promotes feelings of warmth and well being, energizes and connects you with music, can do great harm. It can do harm from the first time you try it, and with heavy use you can get addicted and it can cause serious lasting emotional and cognitive damage.
Ecstasy creates its high through a change in the neurotransmitter serotonin in the brain. Serotonin systems, which are widely involved in sensory perception, in mood and in sleep and memory performance, are negatively affected by ecstasy use and even first time users show some lasting neural changes from their drug use. With long term abuse, serotonin can get depleted and leave the ecstasy addict with lingering feelings of depression, with sleep disorders and with decreased memory and cognitive performance.
The brain cannot be altered for long without getting overloaded. It is simply not intended for manipulation, and when you do take a substance that distorts its natural functioning over a long period of time, there are inevitably consequences.
Ecstasy Withdrawal
Once psychologically addicted to the effects of ecstasy, ecstasy addicts will need to go through a period of withdrawal and detox off of the drug. During this period, addicts will feel very low, will have insomnia, mood fluctuations, will feel irritable and will experience memory problems. These symptoms can endure for months after quitting ecstasy.
Additionally, because the ecstasy taken in the club is almost never pure, ecstasy addicts tend to suffer a concurrent addiction to a secondary drug, often an amphetamine like substance. This poly drug addiction and withdrawal complicates detox and makes treatment more problematic, as no one can say with certainty what they have been getting from street level ecstasy.
Ecstasy is harmful. It creates acute and chronic damage, and the effects of ecstasy abuse can be far ranging and long lasting. If you are addicted to ecstasy, you need to get help now, to learn how to stay off of the drug, and to learn why you need such intoxication in the first place.
The damage done by very heavy ecstasy abuse is likely permanent, and you need to get help now before your habit creates tragic and lasting emotional devastation. A few hours of happiness in a club are surely not worth a lifetime of depression and insomnia, and when you play too heavily with your brain chemistry, you are at risk for lasting effects.
Therapies That Work
Thankfully, if you do struggle with ecstasy addiction, there are people that understand what you're going through and treatments that have proven very effective. You don’t have to go through ecstasy withdrawal alone. Get the help you need to make sure you never again risk your future health and happiness, to make sure that you learn the tools you'll need to overcome temptation, and the self awareness to understand why you needed the drug in the first place.
If you deal with an ecstasy addiction, get some help. On an in or outpatient basis, therapies, group session and individual counseling have proven very effective in the treatment of the addiction, and greatly increase the odds of a successful break from ecstasy.
