What Is It Like to Be on Meth
Editor Melissa Carmona
Equally the content manager at Advanced Recovery Systems, Melissa Carmona puts years of writing and editing... read more
Medically Reviewed By Jessica Pyhtila, PharmD
Dr. Jessica Pyhtila is a Clinical Pharmacy Specialist based in Baltimore, Maryland with exercise sites in... read more
Updated on 02/25/22
Methamphetamine is a dangerous illicit drug that tin can affect the body in a number of means. Being the spouse, parent, friend or loved one of someone using meth tin can be difficult in one case you recognize the effects that meth has on the body and mind. Mayhap you're only familiar with the side effects based on what is portrayed in the media, or you lot aren't sure what signs to look for in your friend or relative. Knowing the signs of meth use can help y'all talk to your loved one about getting treatment. It tin even save their life.
Article at a Glance:
- Methamphetamine, or meth, is a Schedule 2 stimulant frequently trafficked illicitly.
- Signs a person is on meth can include behavioral changes like psychosis and concrete signs similar premature aging.
- Meth use is often accompanied by paraphernalia, including needles, spoons and homemade pipes fabricated from drinking straws.
What Is Meth?
Methamphetamine, as well called meth, is a stimulant drug with many street names, including crystal meth, chalk, ice or speed. It is a Schedule Two controlled substance often trafficked illegally in the The states. In its legal form, it can be prescribed to treat attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) .
Every bit of 2019, almost two meg people annually are using meth. This number includes nigh 1.7 one thousand thousand people aged 26 or older, 275,000 people aged 18 to 25, and 41,000 adolescents aged 12 to 17.
What Does Meth Look Like?
In most cases, methamphetamine looks like a white crystalline powder. It is also sometimes pressed into a pill form. The drug is odorless with a bitter sense of taste and can dissolve in water or booze.
The form of the drug known as crystal meth is shiny, clear or bluish crystals that look like glass fragments or rocks.
Crystal Meth
Crystal meth is a more potent class of meth that tends to be purer and more concentrated than other forms. It is typically smoked, or heated into a liquid and then injected. Like other forms of meth, crystal meth is entirely synthetic rather than derived from a plant like many other illicit substances. Making crystal meth is dangerous, as it creates toxic, explosive chemic byproducts.
What Does Crystal Meth Look Like?
Crystal meth earns its name because of its crystal-similar physical properties, earning the street proper noun "ice" due to its glass-shard and water ice-like advent. The crystals can exist white, clear, blue or a combination of these colors.
Meth Pulverization
The powdered course of meth may be more than common, as information technology is less potent and potentially less expensive. Powdered meth is most usually used by snorting it, simply can be taken in pill form or dissolved in fluids and ingested.
Producing powdered meth is similar to creating crystal meth — it's just as dangerous, with the possibility of toxic or explosive chemicals occurring as a byproduct. Powdered meth is often cut, or combined, with other substances. This can either dilute the corporeality of meth to increase the turn a profit to the dealer or combine the intended effects of meth with other substances.
What Does Meth Powder Expect Similar?
Powered meth tin can vary in advent, only is normally a white or yellowish powder. It is usually impossible to tell powdered meth autonomously from other drugs that are in powdered form. It is likewise difficult or incommunicable to tell if other substances have been added to powdered meth.
Liquid Meth
Meth is normally used in its solid crystal or pulverization forms, but tin be turned into a liquid for transportation. In this process, powdered meth is dissolved in water, and then transported. To prepare the meth for use, the water is boiled off, leaving but the powdered form.
Liquid meth can also exist injected equally-is. It is normally prepared in a spoon or a similar utensil then drawn into a syringe.
What Does Liquid Meth Look Like?
Liquid meth is usually a articulate liquid, just information technology may have a tinge of color depending on its purity, and whether or non it was cut with other substances. It is typically difficult to tell if a liquid contains meth just by looking at it.
How Is Meth Used?
Meth comes in different forms and can be taken several unlike ways, including snorting, injecting, consuming orally or smoking it. Crystal meth is near commonly smoked. In a recent report of current and former meth use, 63% of people smoked meth, 44% snorted meth, 27% injected meth and 30% swallowed it. Well-nigh half of all people who use meth swallow information technology with multiple methods, and seven% use all four methods over their lifetime.
When meth is starting time used, it creates an firsthand rush. That blitz lasts upward to 30 minutes and is described equally extremely pleasurable. Following the initial rush, a meth loftier tin concluding for upward to 14 hours. The onset and length of the loftier vary based on how information technology is taken.
According to our 2021 survey of erstwhile and current meth use, meth apply tends to be frequent. In fact, 44.4% of respondents employ or used meth daily and 22.9% use or used information technology several times per calendar week.
Mutual Signs Someone Is On or Using Meth
People on meth typically showroom certain physical signs. If you're wondering how to tell if someone is using meth, symptoms can include being energized or physically agile, and a reduced ambition.
Look For Meth Paraphernalia
Paraphernalia includes accessories that people use when taking drugs. Some types of paraphernalia are used for multiple types of drugs. Mutual paraphernalia linked to meth include:
- Needles
- Syringes
- Spoons, often with burn marks on the bottom from being heated
- Cotton balls
- Butane lighters
- Tinfoil
- Pocket-size glass or metal pipes
- Plastic pen casings
- Drinking straws
- Small mirrors
- Razor blades
- Plastic cards, such as credit cards, for breaking upwards the substance
- Rolled newspaper, such as dollar bills, to snort the powdered substance
If you doubtable someone may be cooking meth, there are telltale signs to identify a meth lab. Exterior, yous may see blacked-out windows or smell unusual odors, and signs within can include the appearance of funnels and lab equipment. Be enlightened of the concrete effects that can come with cooking meth, including asthma, insomnia or tremors.
If you come across a meth lab, do non approach it. Protect yourself and others by leaving immediately and alerting law enforcement.
Behavioral Signs of Meth Employ
If a loved ane is struggling with meth, you may notice some of the drug'south side effects. Some behavioral signs that a person is using meth include:
- Dilated pupils
- High blood pressure
- Elevated body temperature and eye rate
- Shortness of jiff
- Grinding of teeth
- Being very alarm or physically agile
- Reduced ambition and weight loss
- Outbursts or mood swings
- Paranoia or hallucinations
In a survey past The Recovery Village, people who currently and formerly used meth reported symptoms that lasted long-term, even after they stopped using meth. 23% reported loftier blood pressure, 27% reported sudden or astringent weight loss and 16% reported hallucinations. People who utilized multiple methods doubled their chances of experiencing weight loss and hallucinations.
Physical Signs of Meth Use
Methamphetamine is a dangerous and highly addictive drug, and its signs of use are among the near recognizable of all substances. Some of the well-nigh common signs of meth utilize are credible in the person'southward advent. Crystal meth can dramatically bear upon the user's looks and give them sure distinctive characteristics. Roughly 37% of people who apply or used meth study a pregnant bear upon on their appearance.
Some visible meth symptoms can include:
- Premature aging
- Picking at peel or hair, causing meth sores
- Loss of ambition and weight loss
- Outbursts or mood swings
- Paranoia or hallucinations
- "Meth mouth," the characteristic tooth decay caused by meth employ
Visible signs are less common than y'all'd think, so merely because someone isn't exhibiting these signs doesn't mean they aren't using meth. One in three people who employ or accept used meth reported meth mouth or broken teeth, and 31% reported sores, abscesses or infections on their peel from scratching.
Nonetheless, these signs are more mutual among people who report heavy meth use. People who use meth heavily are iv times more than likely to feel meth rima oris and two times more likely to have sores or infections.
The method of use as well plays a part in physical signs of use. In our survey, people who smoked meth were three times more than likely to get meth mouth, while those who snorted it were 2.v times more likely to have nasal damage. Those who injected meth were three times more than likely to have sores or infections on their peel.
A combination of particular visible signs and matching paraphernalia — sores and a needle or syringe, for example — is a telling indicator.
RELATED: Starting Treatment with Online Rehab
What Is Tweaking?
"Tweaking" is another chemical element that tin can help make up one's mind whether or not someone is using crystal meth. Tweaking occurs at the finish of a drug binge when the person using can't achieve a blitz or high anymore, struggles to achieve feelings of euphoria from meth and is frequently left with intense cravings and a sense of desperation.
Some boosted signs of tweaking can include:
- Feeling like bugs are crawling under the peel
- Being unable to sleep for days
- Being in a psychotic state or completely asunder from reality
- Growing increasingly frustrated, paranoid and unstable
- Experiencing hallucinations
- Self-harm
- Strong cravings for meth
What Is a Tweaker?
A "tweaker" is a slang name for someone who uses meth and comes from the term "tweaking". While calling someone a tweaker may be used to refer to tweaking specifically, information technology tin also refer to someone in the context of their meth utilize in general.
The Crash
Another common sign of crystal meth utilise is the crash stage. During this period, the person's body collapses subsequently constant stimulation from meth, normally resulting in long periods of sleep. A crash can concluding anywhere from one to 3 days , and it tin can exist an outward sign of meth use that's apparent to people around the user.
Meth Withdrawal Signs
If someone with a meth use disorder of a sudden stops using information technology, signs of withdrawal may be apparent. Withdrawal from meth can cause mental symptoms, particularly in those who accept used the drug long-term. Forth with intense cravings, signs of withdrawal tin can include anxiety, fatigue, headaches and low.
Headaches are the most common meth withdrawal symptom, occurring in 63% of people who use meth, followed by fatigue in 57%, slumber problems in 52%, and depression and feet in 41%.
Call up that these withdrawal symptoms are also associated with many other medical conditions and should not exist considered a sign of meth use on their own. They should instead reinforce other visible signs and behaviors associated with meth utilize.
Recognize the Signs of Meth Apply So Y'all Can Prevent the Damaging Effects
Meth can have damaging effects on the user, both physically and psychologically, including:
- Changes in brain structure and office
- Deficits in thinking and motor skills
- Severe dental issues
- Psychosis
- Aggressive or violent beliefs
- Eye or encephalon damage from the stress meth causes on the body
Some neurobiological effects could be partially reversible, but information technology'south of import to address meth use as early every bit possible to prevent any long-term furnishings and increase the chances of successful treatment.
Taking the Next Step
If y'all recognize the signs of meth use, you should seek help from a medical professional or professional person rehab treatment program . Someone who is using meth can not only harm themselves just can exist a danger to people around them.
If you or a loved i are struggling with a meth addiction, The Recovery Village can help . Calls are free and confidential, so pick upwards the phone and showtime the road to recovery today.
- Sources
U.S. Department of Justice Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). "Drugs of Abuse." 2020. Accessed April xi, 2021.
McCance-Katz, EF. "The National Survey on Drug Use and Health: 2019." Substance Corruption and Mental Health Assistants (SAMHSA), September 2020. Accessed April 11, 2021.
Foundation for a Drug-Free World. "The Truth About Crystal Meth and Methamphetamine." Accessed Apr 11, 2021.
U.S. Section of Justice. "Crystal Methamphetamine Fast Facts." National Drug Intelligence Heart. Accessed Feb 9, 2022.
The State of Nevada. "Forms of Meth." Nevada Attorney Full general Aaron D. Ford. Accessed Feb 9, 2022.
U.S. Department of Justice Archive (USDOJ). "Meth Awareness In The News." 2021. Accessed Feb nine, 2022.
The University of Arizona. "Liquid." MethOIDE: methamphetamine and other illicit drug education. Accessed February 9, 2022.
National Plant on Drug Abuse. "What are the long-term furnishings of methamphetamine misuse?" Methamphetamine Research Study, Oct 2019. Accessed Feb 9, 2022.
- Medical Disclaimer
The Recovery Village aims to improve the quality of life for people struggling with a substance use or mental health disorder with fact-based content nigh the nature of behavioral health conditions, treatment options and their related outcomes. We publish material that is researched, cited, edited and reviewed by licensed medical professionals. The information we provide is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Information technology should not be used in identify of the advice of your md or other qualified healthcare provider.
View our editorial policy or view our research.
Source: https://www.therecoveryvillage.com/meth-addiction/faq/know-someone-crystal-meth/