Methamphetamine How Bad Is It

Does Doing Meth Have Benefits

Is it as bad as some say? Or does doing meth have benefits?

In my case, and many others, it was bad. Rather, it is bad.

Methamphetamine in small amounts can result in the health effects of a decreased appetite, faster breathing, and increased wakefulness, amongst many other effects listed.

The Wrong People led to Meth

I remember meeting Amber for the first time. She was super cool.

At least I, thought. She had trendy clothing, knew all the cool party people, and charisma. She was beautiful.

Amber was dating one of the “coolest” guys in our high school, Tony. Amber went to a different high school and I still knew about her.

She ended up being one of my good friends for about one year.

I started doing crystal meth shortly after I met Amber. We met through friends.

During that hangout, she mentioned that she wanted a ride to the Twin Cities.

She didn’t have a car. We lived about 2 hours west of there. To impress her, I said I could do it.

I had no money. In addition, she wanted to go on a weekday, and I was in high school.

I wanted acceptance really bad, so I was the perfect person to do it.

I was desperate to be seen as special in her eyes.

Amber Wanted to go to a Party

She wanted to go to a party. It was a dark warehouse in a bad part of town. I was introduced as “the girl who gave her a ride to the cities.” Amber was perfectly aware that she could use people.

We stayed at the party much later than initially agreed upon. Since school was the next day, I had to be back at 8 in the morning. I kept on asking to go; she kept making excuses or avoiding me.

Finally, at midnight I went to sleep in my car. I was exhausted. It was parked in a bad neighborhood. It was cold, and I didn’t have much gas to have the car on.

It was 5 AM, and Amber hadn’t shown up. I couldn’t call or text. At that time, there were no cell phones. Finally, I left. I needed to get home. I heard from her; she was mad but could stay in the Twin Cities with friends.

She was cool, right? I wasted a year of my life trying to please someone who I knew was actively trying to use me. It says a lot about how inadequate I was at dealing with my self-esteem issues at the time. This led to meth use.

So, Is Meth Bad?

Unless you consider losing your senior year of high school to a crystal meth haze good, people that do meth are desperate to feed their meth addiction. The only thing you will share with them is the fact that you both like doing meth. By definition, The American Society of Addiction Medicine defines addiction as:

“Addiction is a treatable, chronic medical disease involving complex interactions among brain circuits, genetics, the environment, and an individual’s life experiences. People with addiction use substances or engage in behaviors that become compulsive and often continue despite harmful consequences.”

Harmful behaviors are hard to gauge when you are in the middle of them. When you meet someone on meth you aren’t thinking of their impact on your life. People on meth don’t have their own best interest in mind, much less yours.

Meth is Bad

If you think staying up all night as your mind races like a hamster on a wheel, meth is good. If you like being paranoid for no reason whatsoever, then it’s good. Paranoid all of the time. Paranoid that people are all secretly forming plans against you.

Do you like the feeling that bugs are crawling over your skin after a few days of being awake? According to a NIH funded literature review by Glasner Edwards and Mooney, methamphetamine can cause severe psychosis.

The Next day You Look Like You are 45

You might wake up looking your own age, let’s say 16 or so. Then the next day, you look like you are 45. Sleep is one of the most important things for a person to get.

Meth takes away the ability to have a good night’s rest. At first, meth seemed fun to me, a way to stay up when I normally would get tired. Then, it began to wear on me. I would stay up for a few days at a time. Then, the grand finale for me was staying up for seven days straight.

After that seven days, I was scared. I wanted to go to bed, but I was scared that I would not wake up if I fell asleep. My heart seemed to be barely beating.

According to this study done funded by the NIH, Meth causes heart issues. I did wake up, but when I woke up, I felt horrible. Imagine a hangover but multiply that by 1,000. Your body is trying to function after 7 days of no sleep.

I remember that I had a choir concert that evening. It seemed surreal because I could barely function. I made it out alive, and I vowed that I would never do meth again.

My Choice to Go to Rehab

After that something happened, I couldn’t ignore what was going on anymore. I needed to make the right choice for myself. The road I was going down led to no good. The friends I had were not actually friends. They were all addicts. And even though their story might be written, mine was not. I could change this.

I did change. I went to rehab. I think it was because deep down, I realized that doing meth wasn’t about the fact I really liked it. It was about the fact that I had a deep-seeded need to feel accepted. And the “cool kids” were the ones doing meth for a while.

The prettiest girl at the party and her cool boyfriend from England. But were they really cool? They had no plans for the future. They were not doing anything interesting with their lives. Their lives revolved around meth and meth only.

Luckily I did not do Meth for Very Long

Luckily, I did not do meth long enough to have experienced some of the horrible effects. I did change. I went to a strong rehab program that taught me how to be self-sufficient and gave me the life skills to move forward and be an independent adult.

After rehab, I got out of the town I lived in and surrounded myself by different people who did not do meth. I worked really hard. I ended up going to college, then onto graduate school.

I’ve lived as a functional adult for 20 years since I did meth. I owe all this to making the choice to go to rehab.

My Journey is not the Same as Yours

At this stage, I could not even imagine doing something that would get in the way of blissful sleep. I have gotten to a point in life where I no longer even need an alarm clock.

To me, that is a huge accomplishment. My journey is not the same as everyone else’s. Some of the “friends” I hung out with or met during my time doing meth had different paths. I lost touch with every single one of them over time. And I did not look back, once.

Meth Rehab at Emerald Isle

If you have struggled with Meth, we can help.

Our addiction treatment experts will talk to you about your addiction and your goals for recovery.

Next, we will put a plan together with you to reach your goals.

Call today so we can start with a free insurance verification.

You can give us the information we need to get you enrolled right away.

Call today and begin your recovery.