Cocaine dependence (or addiction) is a psychological desire to use cocaine regularly. Cocaine use can result in cardiovascular and brain damage such as constricting blood vessels in the brain, causing strokes and constricting arteries in the heart, causing heart attacks specifically in the central nervous system.
The use of cocaine can cause mood swings, paranoia, insomnia, psychosis, high blood pressure, tachycardia, panic attacks, cognitive impairments and drastic changes in the personality that can lead to aggressive, compulsive, criminal and/or erratic behaviors.
The symptoms of cocaine withdrawal (also known as comedown or crash) range from moderate to severe: dysphoria, depression, anxiety, psychological and physical weakness, pain and compulsive craving.
Historically, the addiction was known as cocainism.
Read more about Cocaine Dependence: Risk, Presentation, Mechanism of Dependence, Treatment
Famous quotes containing the words cocaine and/or dependence:
“Woe to you, my Princess, when I come ... you shall see who is the stronger, a gentle little girl who doesn’t eat enough or a big wild man who has cocaine in his body.”
—Sigmund Freud (1856–1939)
“As, therefore, we can have no dependence upon morality without religion;Mso, on the other hand, there is nothing better to be expected from religion without morality;Mnevertheless, ‘tis no prodigy to see a man whose real moral character stands very low, who yet entertains the highest notion of himself, in the light of a religious man.”
—Laurence Sterne (1713–1768)