Meth Addiction Treatment

A Journey Within and Beyond Methamphetamines

Meth (also known as methamphetamine or crystal meth), an incredibly addictive and destructive chemical, breaches, burrow a hole into, and hooks into the human body, mind, and spirit by attacking two fronts. Its qualities are truly captured in the image of a hungry ghost – methamphetamine’s appetite for devastation and expansion is endless.

On the one front, meth affects mood, inducing a euphoric, speeded-up experience of elevation, including a sense of personal omnipotence, as many stimulants do. On the other front, it artificially powers up experiences of heightened sensuality. By inorganically forcing the body to create overwhelmingly enjoyable, instantaneous, intense pleasure, the drug snags millions in its web, which continues to expand into and across our communities, to terrible effect.

Synthesized in Japanese and German labs at the end of the 1800s during the big world wars, meth was initially distributed in the military in Nazi Germany under the name Pervitin. Pervitin helped Luftwaffe pilots be particularly focused, psychopathic, and aggressive, better soldiers in Hitler’s genocidal agenda. However, even there, the drug’s detrimental effects became a cause for rolling it back due to severe addiction, psychosis, and violent behavior.

In its origins, meth had a genuinely anti-human intention and effect: to assist in genocide. Since that time, it was resurrected under a different name when revamped, marketed, and widely prescribed in the United States as a diet pill in the mid 20thcentury. Meth addiction due to dieting created a generation of brain-damaged, addicted Americans, leading to children born with the chemical in their system, who consequently had to undergo meth addiction withdrawal upon leaving the womb. Then, healing lasting neurological impacts lives.

Meth is still occasionally prescribed to treat obesity, despite universally known ill effects, including severe addiction, severe multiple health problems, and neurobiological devastation. Amazingly, a medically sanctioned version of it, Desoxyn, continues to this day to be prescribed to children tagged with the ADHD label to aid in “focus.” Meth is also produced and trafficked illegally, enjoying ever-rising popularity as the drug expands into communities that did not use to be associated with it.

Areas such as African American communities in inner cities, where crystal meth now competes with crack for the most sought-after substance’s title due to its intense, fast-acting high. Like crack, meth addiction is notoriously hard to kick, and at the same time, relatively cheap to produce, creating “lifetime customers” often after one use. To date, drug cartels operating in and outside of the US provide us with an abundant flow of the street versions of this chemical, known under different names and mixtures, including crystal, ice, speed, and crank.

In a way, via the epidemic spread of crystal meth as a street drug in the United States, combined with the continued use in some medical contexts, the substance is keeping true to its original genocidal design, effectively wiping out vast swaths of human spirit wherever it goes. Crystal meth appeals are sticky and easy to hook into because they create euphoria or intense feelings of feeling good, which emerges immediately upon ingestion. It also connects to sexuality, functioning as an aphrodisiac affecting libido.

Meth is widely used in some subcultures to prop up the sexual drive and sensual experiences through whipping arousal into a frenzied state, producing amplified sensations of sexual pleasure while exacting a breathtaking toll on the body and spirit of the person consenting to use the substance. Crystal meth is a chemical that “hits” the pleasure and reward system by design has multiple ways, including dopamine, like many addictive substances, and serotonin and norepinephrine.

Many users find themselves unable to override their pleasure centers and maintain their free will in the face of that multi-tiered, sophisticated onslaught of pleasurable experiences. Instead, more than a million and a half Americans and still more worldwide find themselves submitting control of their lives to this substance and the harmful spirit behind it. In return for exciting pleasure sensations, meth extracts a nasty toll from the body. Common symptoms of meth use include (but not limited to):

• • Hyperactivity
  • Anorexia due to loss of appetite
  • Meth mouth (infections and loss of teeth due to dry mouth and teeth grinding)
  • Chronic headaches
  • Cardiovascular issues
  • Respiratory problems
  • Twitching
  • Numbness
  • Diarrhea or constipation
  • Tremors
  • Skin problems

Meth use results in an exponentially increased risk of sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV, both from IV drug use (if needles are shared and IV is the administration route – meth can be injected, smoked, or snorted) risky sexual behavior caused by sexual disinhibition. The psychological wreckage wrought by meth use includes (but is not limited to):

• • Chronic dysphoria (equal and opposite to that initial boost)
  • Erosion of libido
  • Disruption of alertness, ability to learn, and concentration
  • Sleep pattern disturbances ranging from extreme fatigue to insomnia
  • Irritability
  • Excessive ego inflation alternating with deflation, violence, or suicidal feelings
  • Obsessive, repetitive behavior
  • Anxiety and depression
  • Psychosis

Meth is linked to Parkinson’s disease, as well, due to the neurotoxic impact on dopaminergic systems in the brain. Brain imaging studies of methamphetamine users indicate atrophy, or deterioration, in several key brain areas. The need for meth addiction treatment and the risk of overdose, while not as high as some, is still high and can result in death preceded by convulsions and coma. Withdrawals of meth addiction treatment are complicated to override, nearly impossible to get through without meth addiction treatment community support.

They include powerful drug craving, intense anxiety, profoundly negative mood, loss of motivation, sleep disturbances, and vivid nightmares. A substance that stimulates speedy, high feelings that mimic aliveness, adrenaline, and excitement, and at the same time amplifies sexual drive (which is ultimately about our sacred draw towards energetic union) is a real below-the-belt type of trickster. The spirit of needing meth addiction treatment appeals to our deepest wounds, temporarily creating those sensations many of us miss most in our disconnected, spiritually dead, and heartbroken lives.

The drug can be used to induce a nearly ecstatic state temporarily, generally reserved for spiritual union – during which we get to glimpse what it would be like to be fully awake, connected, and enlivened, exchanging energies with others in a divine merge. And yet it is an illusion – crystal meth’s simple design was to be destructive, to create pathways in the body and brain that house a psychotic spirit that wants to consume and will destroy us in the process if we do not wrest ourselves free.

The nature behind the spreading crystal meth epidemic is indeed a hungry ghost, never sated. In the words of Gabor Mate, author of In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction, “Addictions provide fleeting pleasure or gratification, but never leave you satisfied.” Certain synthetic or lab-manufactured drugs are so devastating to the human body, mind, and soul that it is a wonder that we, as a species, continue to want them to be manufactured.

Some effort has been made to curb, control, and at least stop colluding with the synthesis of illegal methamphetamines. For example, attempts have been made to outlaw the production and distribution of some of the chemicals needed to cook meth. But those efforts are undermined by pharma interests fighting any legislation that calls for chemical companies to stop production for fear of a loss of profit.

Simultaneously, some meth addiction treatment specialists, like Mate, argue for deregulation and unconditional treatment, curing users from within by working with the fragmented psyche through therapeutic approaches, with total compassion rather than criminalization. These attempts are equally resisted. Either way, it seems that although its severe addictiveness and destructive potential on our communities have been recognized, the allure of crystal meth for users and peddlers alike is still irresistible to us.

Integrative Meth Addiction Treatment for Women

Until a systemic solution becomes possible, the way for us to be freed, collectively, is for each of us, one by one, to do so. If you need help and are ready to seek meth addiction treatment, Villa Kali Ma is a place where you can free yourself of its destruction. In a meth addiction treatment environment of fierce, unconditional defense of your right to live free and govern your spirit, we will treat you, heal you, rehabilitate and repair you, and give you the support you will need to maintain your freedom from meth addiction, over time. Please know that you will be met with love and power, compassion, and forgiveness here in our meth addiction treatment community of healing and sobriety at Villa Kali Ma.

What is Meth Addiction?

Meth Addiction is a serious substance use disorder that affects many women.

Meth Addiction is infamous in the world of addiction treatment for being particularly damaging, causing significant harm to women’s physical bodies, mental-emotional capacities, and their lives at large.

Villa Kali Ma works with women affected by Meth Addiction at the physical, mental, emotional, lifestyle and spiritual levels to help women root out this particular form of severe suffering. 

With hard work, dedication, surrender to the process and sufficient healing support, women suffering from Meth Addiction can go on to live meaningful, connected lives in recovery. 

Meth Addiction is defined as being unable to stop using the substance methamphetamine, also called meth and crystal meth. Methamphetamine is a cousin of amphetamine, or speed. Meth is different from speed due to its chemical components, which include known neurotoxins, such as ammonia (an ingredient in windshield wiper fluid), that contribute to its corrosive impacts on the physical body.  

Methamphetamine is highly addictive. It comes in the form of small, clear shiny crystals and is typically injected, snorted or smoked to induce a state of euphoria distinguished in particular by a sense of energy and invincibility. 

Crystal meth is widespread in the United States in part because of its low manufacturing cost, and is often made in homemade labs. 

Symptoms of Meth Addiction

Like all addiction, Meth Addiction follows a pattern of increasing dependence physically, emotionally, and mentally on a substance that has severe negative consequences for the person.

The overarching pattern of all addictions is recognizable in the case of Meth Addiction. Hallmark signs of tolerance, withdrawals, and inability to stop using the substance even in the face of serious life consequences characterize this life-threatening disease.

Tolerance means needing higher and more frequent doses of a substance to achieve the same high. Due to tolerance, meth addicted women eventually become consumed with getting high if only just to fend off the intense unease of withdrawals. The risk of overdose lies in this situation of needing ever higher doses of a substance that is also toxic to her body. 

Withdrawals refer to physical, emotional and mental discomforts that overwhelm you when you are not able to get your fix, thus setting you up to use again, partially to defer the physical and psycho-emotional pain of withdrawal itself. 

In the case of Meth Addiction, withdrawals are characterized by severe anxiety and irritability, fatigue, depressed mood and outlook, inability to think clearly (brain fog), and loss of ability to feel pleasure. In some cases withdrawal can include suicidal wishes and even psychosis. 

Signs of Meth Addiction include not being able to abstain from meth despite wishing to stop, returning to using meth after a period of abstinence, changing one’s mind about quitting, self-deception and denial of the severity of the problem, and an overall pattern of increasing negative impacts to one’s physical, emotional, and behavioral state. As with all addictions, Meth Addiction targets a person’s character and willpower. The ability to say no to the drug disappears and is replaced with compulsion and obsession.

One of the negative impacts of Meth Addiction is the gradual loss of control over one’s external life and the many problems that accrue due to usage of the drug. Such problems include health consequences associated with using, such as degradation of skin and teeth, as well as other tissues of the body. 

Other life consequences related to Meth Addiction are due to the fact that users will frequently expose themselves to criminal and otherwise dangerous situations in pursuit of procuring the substance. Meth Addiction is highly correlated with legal troubles for this reason.

Causes of Meth Addiction

Meth Addiction has multiple causes. From the societal side, meth production is a lucrative illegal business that has gained traction for reasons of economic viability. 

Due to its almost instantly habit-forming properties, meth is similar to crack cocaine in that it frequently ensures immediate creation of “customers for life”, sometimes after only one or two uses of the drug. At the same time, meth has relatively low production costs and can be synthesized in local, home-made labs relatively easily and without dependence on substances sourced outside the United States. 

Meth is aggressively and efficiently distributed by drug cartels today because it is “good business” from that point of view. Also, meth’s increasing association with certain party scenes and other subcultures has contributed to its meteoric rise in popularity in recent decades. 

In addition to the substance’s design, which makes it particularly euphoric, intense, and binding, meth addiction is caused by underlying issues in the psyches of those who end up getting caught in its web. 

As in all cases of addiction, pre-existing conditions such as chronic developmental trauma, depression, PSTD and other forms of psychological pain set people up to seek relief outside of themselves through chemical means. Genetics play a role, in that a family history of addiction is a correlative factor for meth addiction.

Meth is addictive because it is a stimulant, creating feelings of physical energy, hyper-focus, delusions of invincibility, and intensely elevated mood. Methamphetamines are said to have been distributed among Nazi soldiers during WWII as a way to increase alertness and reduce empathy.

Treatment for Meth Addiction

Treatment for Meth Addiction ideally begins with medically supervised detoxification. Medical supervision is recommended in the case of meth detoxification because withdrawals are notorious for being very uncomfortable, and come in stages as the body metabolizes and releases the chemicals. 

The extreme discomfort of the detoxification experience is the primary reason meth users frequently find themselves unable to quit on their own. Overpowering cravings to use in combination with severe psychological suffering when a person has impaired willpower and reasoning, is a challenging set up. 

It’s also important to be advised that in some instances, the withdrawal process may be life-threatening due to meth’s severe toxicity to the body. Overall, however, you can be assured that detoxification is a natural process that the body wants to do, and if it is appropriately supported to do so, it will shed the toxin as foreign to its well-being.

Nutritional support for the body during chemical detoxification stages is helpful for restoring the body to health and balance as the toxin is gradually purged. Massage therapies, acupuncture, earthing groups, diet and exercise therapies such as those provided at Villa Kali Ma can do wonders to assist the body’s adjustment back to thriving. We believe in compassionately assisting the physical body to do its detoxification work while being as comfortable and safe as reasonable during this challenging phase. 

As soon as cognitive functioning has been sufficiently restored as to be able to participate in treatment programming, meth-addicted women should engage in the recovery and psychological healing process. Psychiatric conditions caused by meth use will likely emerge, such as severe depression, anxiety, as well as possible hallucinations. 

It is important to understand these emotional discomforts as difficult but temporary stages of getting sober and beginning a life in recovery. Though these impacts of meth use take longer to heal than some of the acute physical problems, they are also healable in recovery and respond well to compassionate care and treatment. 

During treatment, while learning about their disease and its cure, meth-addicted women should also be given the opportunity to connect with other formerly meth-addicted women who once shared similar troubles and understand the experience from the inside. Such friends on the path will help with sharing tips and tools, representing both the hope and the lived reality of recovery. 

The stage during which a woman has achieved detoxification and now actively engages fully with treatment for her meth addiction, is the time during which she can shape a new template for her life and behavior. This is an exciting phase of new beginnings, when she can courageously make the many needed changes that will support a life in sobriety and protect her against relapse when she leaves the rehab environment.

Meth Addiction Treatment Options

Because of the severity of Meth Addiction and the significant lifestyle changes needed for recovery, it is usually necessary to change location, friends, and paths of daily behavior completely to have success staying sober. 

Therefore residential treatment for Meth Addiction is ideal, not only as a way to separate the vulnerable, newly-sober woman from bad influences, but to give her a safe sandbox in which to learn, try out, and settle new behavioral patterns. 

Villa Kali Ma’s holistic treatment program for women assists those recovering from Meth Addiction through a variety of services and offerings, integrating a Western medical perspective with alternative healing modalities of all stripes. 

With a focus on inner emotional health, balance, and well-being, women of the Villa Kali Ma team provide tailored assistance that honors the unique spirit of each woman, guiding her through the most difficult early stages of sobriety. 

While a lot of hard work and courageous surrender will be required, recovery from the miseries of Meth Addiction is absolutely achievable and 100% worth fighting for!