Rehab, Treatment, and Recovery

Several treatment providers describe Methamphetamine abusers as "the hardest to treat" of all drug users.

The first step for a person to end an addiction to Crystal Meth is to acknowledge that he has a problem. This may be difficult because it might mean confronting family members and friends and telling them the truth. After confiding in someone who cares, the user must submit to rehabilitation. It is important for the user to seek help from those with professional experience because of meth's highly addictive nature. It is near impossible for a user to quit on their own.

Stop Meth Addiction provides a lot of information about rehab, treatment, and recovery. The site said that users going through rehab are provided with the knowledge on how to change their lives and how to live comfortably without meth. Research studies show that residential meth rehab programs of at least three months in duration have the best success rates.

Detox from meth is the first step which takes approximately four to six weeks. Those in recovery often report physical cravings for up to a year. Users also deal with a strong psychological addiction, triggered by common sights, conversations, and thoughts, which if not kept under control can lead to quick relapse when accompanied by recurring physical cravings.

At this point in time, the most effective type of intervention and treatment for meth addiction is Cognitive Behavioral. This approach is designed to help modify the patients' thinking, expectancies, and behaviors and to increase skills in coping with various life stressors.


There are many websites and programs that are dedicated to helping those who suffer from meth addictions. Some of these include:

Meth Rehab

Methamphetamine Treatment

Support Systems Homes

Stages of Meth Bingeing and Tweaking

Meth Rehab Center discusses the seven steps of a Crystal Meth binge:

There are 7 stages in the cycle of crystal meth bingeing:
1. Initial Rush
After smoking or injecting methamphetamine, crystal meth users experience increased heartbeat, metabolism, and blood pressure.

2. The Crystal Meth High
Meth often makes a user feel more intelligent and confident, and they may become more aggressive and argumentative than usual.

3. The Crystal Meth Binge
As the end of the meth high approaches, the user seeks to continue the high by smoking or injecting more methamphetamine. However, the euphoric rush is diminished each time after the initial dose, as tolerance is experienced immediately. A binge meth user will continue to use crystal meth over a 3 to 15 day period, until no rush or high is experienced, and become mentally and physically hyperactive, avoiding sleep.

4. Crystal Meth Tweaking
Toward the end of the crystal meth binge, the meth user experiences a crash with feelings of sadness and emptiness. This state is called “tweaking”. While tweaking, crystal meth users may take alcohol or heroin, to relieve the dismal feelings. Meth tweaking can produce extremely unpredictable, violent behavior, hallucinations and paranoia.

5. The Crystal Meth Crash
A crystal meth binge user eventually crashes when their body’s supply of epinephrine is depleted. They require immense amounts of sleep to replenish the body, often over 1 to 3 days.

6. Return to Normal
After crashing and replenishing the body, a crystal meth user returns to normal. However, the user’s condition will be somewhat deteriorated from what it was before using methamphetamine.

7. Withdrawal
Withdrawal from methamphetamine often sneaks up on a crystal meth user – one to three months may pass after using meth before withdrawal symptoms are recognized.
There are no acute, immediate symptoms of physical distress. However, the crystal meth user in withdrawal will slowly become depressed and unable to feel pleasure, lacking energy. Craving for methamphetamine can hit suddenly, and combined with the feelings of depression may lead to suicide.

Tweaking (stage 4) is the most dangerous stage of bingeing because of the harm it poses to others including law enforcement officers, family members, and other individuals near the abuser.


Stop Drugs.org provides several safety precautions to use while approaching someone who is high on meth.
1. Keep at 7-10 ft. distance. Coming too close can be perceived as threatening.

2. Do not shine bright lights at him. The tweaker is already paranoid and if blinded by a bright light he is likely to run or become violent.

3. Slow your speech and lower the pitch of your voice. A tweaker already hears sounds at a fast pace and in a high pitch.

4. Slow your movements. This will decrease the odds that the tweaker will misinterpret your physical actions.

5. Keep your hands visible. If you place your hands where the tweaker cannot see them, he might feel threatened and could become violent.

6. Keep the tweaker talking. A tweaker who falls silent can be extremely dangerous. Silent often means that his paranoid thoughts have taken over reality, and anyone present can become part of the tweaker's paranoid delusions.

Violent behavior

Crystal Meth use has been known to lead to violent behavior among users of all ages. Hallucinations caused by the drug can make the user see things that are not really there. It is not uncommon for people high on meth to complain about bugs under their skin which leads to excessive scratching and picking at the skin.



Violence causes stress of various relationships and puts other people in danger.

Here are a few articles I found related to the devastating effects that crystal meth has on families:

Crystal meth: coming to a town near you

Son cooked crystal meth at parent's home

Dad found guilty of raping daughter

Grandmother: State fails to protect baby

Domestic Violence and Crystal Meth Users

Effects on the Body

Crystal Meth has both physical and psychological effects on the body with short and/or long term consequences on health.

Stop Meth Addiction made a list of possible effects that meth can have on an individual.

Short Term:
Increased attention
Decreased fatigue
Increased activity
Decreased appetite
Euphoria and rush
Increased respiration
Hyperthermia

Long Term:
Dependence
Addiction psychosis
Paranoia
Hallucinations
Mood disturbances
Repetitive motor activity
Stroke
Weight loss



Meth use can also lead to cardiovascular problems which is one of the leading causes of death in the United States. Crystal Meth, Help Website on Crystal Meth says that "Methamphetamine use causes increased heart rate and blood pressure. These include rapid heart rate, irregular heartbeat, increased blood pressure, and irreversible, stroke-producing damage to small blood vessels in the brain. Chronic methamphetamine abuse can result in inflammation of the heart lining. Methamphetamine can cause a variety of cardiovascular problems including heart attacks, cardiovascular collapse and death."