• Question: what afects will cocaine have on your day to day life

    Asked by Fintan boyle to Roisin on 5 Nov 2016.
    • Photo: Roisin Jones

      Roisin Jones answered on 5 Nov 2016:


      Hello again Fintan! Well, cocaine can have a number of effects on day-to-day life, most of them harmful: while some people are what you might call ‘functional addicts’, that is, seem to be able to lead a largely normal life despite their cocaine dependency, they are very much in the minority. Most people who are addicted to cocaine develop a tolerance to it over time: this means that they need to take larger and larger doses to get the same effect, however, as you take larger doses of cocaine, it can become toxic, causing side-effects like tachycardia (rapid heart beat), hypertension (high blood pressure), formication (a feeling like bugs are crawling on your skin), hallucinations and paranoid psychosis, all of which obviously have a massive negative impact on day-to-day life. Unfortunately cocaine is highly addictive, but there are treatments available out there to help people rehabilitate and hopefully lead a normal, healthy life.

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