Why It’s Never Too Late to Stop Your Crystal Meth Addiction

Crystal meth addiction is a notoriously difficult problem to conquer. Relapse rates after treatment for all addictions hover at around 40 to 60%—about the same as those for other chronic diseases such as hypertension or diabetes—but the rates of relapse for crystal meth addiction are as high as 88%. It’s easy to get beaten down by an addiction this tough, especially if you’ve tried and failed to quit more than once before. But crystal meth addiction can be overcome, and you can do it. No matter how old you are, no matter how long you’ve been using, and no matter how much you’ve lost to addiction, it’s never too late to get a crystal meth detox and reclaim your life.

Crystal Meth Addiction in the United States

In 2011, crystal meth was the fourth most frequently cited illegal drug in emergency room visits, resulting in approximately 103,000 emergency visits that year. Just one year later, in 2012, there were over 130,000 new meth users putting themselves at risk of similar emergencies. Approximately 13 million Americans have tried crystal meth, and almost 530,000 of them are regular users.

Crystal meth is highly addictive, producing an intensely energizing and euphoric high that is followed by an equally intense crash, where the user is overcome by exhaustion and depression. This is because the drug has depleted their reserves of the feel-good brain chemicals they need to simply function normally. Between the drug cravings caused by physical addiction, and the knowledge that using again could make you feel better, is it any wonder that stopping a crystal meth addiction is so hard?

But it can be done, and it has to be done. Using crystal meth traps you in a prison of drug obsession and puts your life at risk. Even if you manage to stay alive, your life is filled with suffering due to side effects such as memory loss, difficulties thinking and learning, heart problems, rotten teeth, loss of coordination, skin sores, malnutrition, delusions, psychosis, paranoia, hallucinations, violence, confusion, anxiety, and depression. It has to end.

You have the power to free yourself from all this suffering; and the best time to begin is always right now.

It’s Never Too Late to Get a Crystal Meth Detox

Whether you’ve tried to overcome a crystal meth addiction many times before, or this is your very first time attempting to quit, it’s never too late to get a crystal meth detox and overcome your addiction. Addiction robs you of so much in life—relationships, dreams, security, health, self-esteem, and more—but there is always more to lose, and always so much to gain in recovery. As long as you are still alive, there is hope for a better future.

Yes, relapse is common after crystal meth addiction treatment, but it’s also common among patients dealing with chronic health conditions like asthma or high blood pressure. Addiction is a medical disease that requires specialized treatment, and ongoing attention. Giving up will never get you the life you want, but with professional help, you can find the skills and motivation to stay off crystal meth and become the person you’ve always wanted to be.

Don’t waste time feeling guilty and beating yourself up after a relapse. Slipping up and using again isn’t a moral failure; it’s a symptom of your disease, and it’s one that you can get past if you renew your efforts. Stop using again as soon as possible, get back into treatment or change the kind of treatment you’re getting, and figure out what went wrong.

Relapse can teach you more about your unique addiction and how to successfully recover from it than anything else, and counselors and fellow patients in treatment can help you sort through the experience to discover the lessons you need to learn from it. Maybe you started hanging out with old friends who are bad influences. Maybe you left treatment too early. Maybe you stopped going to meetings, or stopped taking care of your physical health. Maybe there were several reasons working together to bring on your relapse. The point is, you can figure out what happened, and you can stop it from happening again.

All the skills and knowledge you acquired in treatment before your relapse is still yours to grow from. It doesn’t disappear just because you used again. You may be starting over, but you are not starting over from scratch. You have the ability to skip ahead and get stronger faster than you were able to the last time.

Reasons to Stop Your Crystal Meth Addiction Now

It’s never too late to stop your crystal meth addiction, because as long as you’re still alive, there is hope and happiness waiting for you. Getting a crystal meth detox (whether it’s for the first time or the fifth time) will allow you to enjoy your life again, and build a better future. If you don’t stop using, however, you won’t have a future at all.

Which brings us to reason number one:

1. To save your life.

Addiction is a serious disease, and if you leave it untreated for long enough, it will be fatal.

2. To get your family back.

Crystal meth addiction can destroy relationships and isolate you from the people you love, but relationships can be repaired if you want them to be. Family and couples counseling can teach you better ways of communicating, and your counselor can help you find ways to heal old wounds and create healthier, loving relationships.

3. To enjoy life again.

Crystal meth literally robs you of the brain chemicals you need to be able to enjoy your life. The suffering you have to endure for the sake of a brief high is not worth the pain, while any suffering you’ll endure in a crystal meth detox is worth everything. Once the temporary pain of withdrawal is over, you’ll be able to rediscover all the joys that can be naturally found in the world around you.

4. To find out who you can become.

Detoxing from crystal meth will clear the slate and allow you to benefit from counseling, life skills training, and plain old simple life experiences that can show you new dreams to dream and new adventures to pursue. The world of crystal meth addiction is very small and limited, but getting off meth will open your world to opportunities that you didn’t even know you wanted. You’ll never know all the wonderful things you’re missing out on while using crystal meth until you stop using and get treatment.

5. To prove to yourself that you can do it.

Successfully completing a crystal meth detox and an addiction treatment program, then going on to build a healthy life for yourself is an accomplishment to celebrate and be proud of. Proving to yourself that you can overcome a crystal meth addiction will tell you that you are strong enough to do just about anything you set your mind to. It’s like knowing you have a not-so-secret superpower.

It Won’t Be Easy, But It Can Be Done

No matter how severe your addiction, treatment can help you quit crystal meth for good!

Crystal meth detox is not as physically dangerous as detoxing from other substances, but it is very difficult emotionally. Serious depression and fatigue are common symptoms of meth withdrawal, and should be treated with antidepressants and counseling. Other common withdrawal symptoms include: insomnia, poor concentration, irritability, and drug cravings. Suicidal thoughts are a rare, but definite possibility, along with a withdrawal syndrome that can include hostile and violent behavior, delusions, hallucinations, and paranoia. These symptoms will usually resolve after crystal meth detox, but they can sometimes last for much longer, making professional treatment all the more important.

Although there are no FDA approved medications for crystal meth detox, there are effective treatments available to help you through. Getting professional guidance, and being patient as your brain and body heals and rebalances, will get you past the withdrawal challenges, and carry you through recovery.

How to Get a Crystal Meth Detox

You are not alone in having a hard time kicking a crystal meth addiction, but getting residential rehab detox and addiction treatment will give you more than double the success rate of meth users who receive no treatment or who stop treatment after detox. Detox is the essential first step to your recovery, but stopping there won’t bring you the success you crave.

After detox, you need at least 90 days of addiction rehab that includes a variety of personalized treatments and therapies, such as:

• Quality health care to get you stronger
• Education about crystal meth and its effects on the body
• Behavioral therapy to figure out your drug use triggers and to learn how to avoid them and/or cope with them
• Antidepressants, antianxiety medications, or other medications as needed
• Counseling to deal with past trauma, to work on current challenges, and to set goals and create plans for achieving them
• Education and therapy for loved ones so that relationships can mend, and the home environment can become more supportive of your continued recovery
• Employment and housing assistance if needed
• 12-step or non-12-step peer support groups
• Drug testing to keep you accountable
• Aftercare services to keep you on track after being discharged from treatment

Meth Detox Tips

1. Stay in treatment long enough.

Crystal meth withdrawal symptoms tend to last much longer than the symptoms associated with detoxing from other drugs. Instead of just a week to ten days of detox, crystal meth addiction may require several weeks or months of detox treatment. It’s better to find a long-term care facility where you can get the thorough, quality care you need to recover than to rush through detox too quickly and increase your risk of relapse.

2. Take advantage of a variety of treatments.

Pay attention to all the advice and therapies available to you during treatment, and accept help when it is given. Prescription medications, natural supplements, and alternative treatments like acupressure and mindfulness training are all different ways of addressing the various challenges of crystal meth addiction recovery. There’s no way to know if something will work for you until you try it.

3. Don’t expect too much too soon.

Recovering from crystal meth addiction takes time, and you’re going to have to be patient with yourself through treatment. Celebrate every milestone and success, big and small, and take regular time outs to look at the big picture. Even if you’re having a really bad day today, you can probably look back and recognize that you’re still doing better than you were before treatment.

4. Be prepared for relapse prevention.

Learn everything you can about relapse prevention, and make sure you have plans in place for each transition in treatment, such as moving from a residential program to an outpatient program, or for moving from full-time treatment to aftercare services. Overcoming a crystal meth addiction is an ongoing, multilayered process, just like any other major life skill you need to learn. Think about learning to read. You have to learn how to recognize the letters of the alphabet before you can recognize words, and you have to learn to identify words before you can read whole sentences. Learning to read doesn’t happen in a week or two, and neither does addiction recovery.

5. Ask for help from the very start.

You don’t have to detox or recover from crystal meth addiction alone, and you don’t have to find the right treatment facility for your recovery on your own, either. Make use of resources like the Detox.com facilities directory to discover where to get a crystal meth detox near you. Call the hotline at 800-996-6135(Who Answers?) to discuss your treatment options and to get advice on insurance coverage and non-profit programs that can help you get a low or no cost detox.

It’s never too late to overcome crystal meth addiction. You already have the power inside you. You simply have to reach out for help to unlock it.