Everyone understands that addiction to alcohol and drugs can impair their well-being, but you may wonder: What is speed drug? Most people have heard about it, though they’re not sure how dangerous it is or how easy it is to get addicted. Likewise, they may not understand the side effects and treatment options available for recovery. Let’s learn more!
What Is Speed Drug?
Speed, or a speed ball drug is the street name for stimulant drugs used by young adults, teens, and others to feel more focused and alert. In some cases, it provides a “high.”
Generally, people will use different forms of speed to control their appetite, such as:
- Methamphetamine – A powerful stimulant drug
- Other amphetamines – Often used to treat depression, narcolepsy, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
Methamphetamine is more potent and acts quicker than amphetamine, but both have serious risks.
Usually, teens and young adults take speed through amphetamine pills with no prescription to improve performances in sports, academics, and more. Likewise, both speed types are used recreationally and are sometimes mixed with other drugs. Though the short-term effects of speed are sought-after, they are all highly addictive and dangerous.
How Is Speed Drug Taken?
In most cases, you take speed orally in pill form, though a liquid can be made and injected into the body.
Do you wonder: how often is speed abused? It’s very prevalent in today’s world.
Speed Drug Street Names
There are many street names for speed, such as:
- Wake-ups
- Pep pills
- Eye-openers
- Dexies
- Christmas trees
- Black beauties
- Beanies
- Beans
Meth Street Names
Street names for crystal meth can include:
- Yellow powder
- Spoosh
- Scootie
- Tick-tock
- Tina
- Redneck cocaine
- Ice
- Go
- Glass
- Chalk
- Crank
What Are the Central Nervous System Effects of Taking Speed Drug?
Generally, speed causes the central nervous system to be more active than usual, increasing mood, sensory perception, and alertness. However, when the speed drug effects wear off, users often experience depression or exhaustion. Therefore, they crave more, which leads to a highly addictive cycle. Over time, they become physically and psychologically dependent, which turns to addiction to the drug.
Side Effects, Including High Blood Pressure and More
The short-term speed drug effects include:
- Excitement
- Heightened awareness
- Heightened energy
- Better concentration
- Increased focus
- Euphoria or pleasure
However, the side effects of this drug outweigh the benefits and include the following:
- Irregular or rapid heart rate
- High blood pressure
- Anxiety
- Aggression
- Fever
- Loss of focus
- Loss of appetite
- Nausea
- Dry mouth
- Headache
What Are the Long-term Effects of Using Speed Drugs?
The long-term effects of speed include various health risks, such as:
- Brain damage
- Depression
- Paranoia
- Heart attack or heart problems
- Psychosis
- Stroke
- Urinary tract infection
- Anorexia
Methamphetamine is primarily dangerous and addicting. It could cause permanent brain damage in the areas that manage memory and emotions. However, other long-term side effects of using meth include:
- Stroke
- Damage to vital organs
- Dental problems (meth mouth)
- Weight loss and malnutrition
- Skin sores
- Psychosis or hallucinations
- Aggression
- Mood swings
- Insomnia
- Anxiety and depression
- Cognitive problems
- Emotional instability
- Cardiovascular collapse from narrowing blood vessels
Who Typically Takes Speed Drugs and Why?
Young people often wish to improve their performance in sports or academics and take Adderall and other prescribed stimulants by swallowing them as pills. Those who use speed recreationally usually crush the tablets, snorting the powder. This causes a shorter-lasting high, but it’s more intense. Meth is injected, smoked, snorted, or swallowed.
Are There Any Risks Associated with Taking Speed Drugs?
If you’re worried that a loved one is dealing with speed abuse, it’s essential to determine if they experience symptoms like these:
- Boundless Energy – Those under the influence of speed generally have a heightened sense of energy and awareness, so they feel all-powerful.
- Unexplained Loss of Appetite or Weight Loss – The speed drug effects could reduce a person’s appetite or increase their metabolism.
- Emotional Instability – Those who use speed often fluctuate between feeling down when the effects wear off and feeling great while using methamphetamine.
- Loss of Interest in Favorite Activities – A speed addiction often means losing interest in activities and friends they enjoyed.
- Hyperactivity – People might be restless, irritable, or fidgety while under the influence of speed.
- Dental Problems – Methamphetamine users might develop dry mouth, which leads to tooth decay.
- Skin Sores – Some users of methamphetamine have itchy skin, so they scratch to the point of sore development.
Why Are Other Drugs (Like Methamphetamines) Called Speed?
Crystal methamphetamine is speed. This is a generalized term used on the streets, and methamphetamine and other uppers are caught up in the terminology.
You have uppers, psychedelics, and downers, but they all work similarly. They fall into specific classes because of how they affect the brain. The neurotransmitters communicate with the brain and can show inhibitory or excitatory features.
Speed is affecting those neurotransmitters that activate the effects in our brain.
How to Tell if Someone Is Using Speed
There are unique things about methamphetamine. When you talk briefly, most of the uppers can be substituted here. Therefore, you could be referring to cocaine and even nicotine because it’s highly addictive.
Generally, the uppers have a similar effect. If you eat some chocolate cake, you’ll get a 50 percent dopamine hit and feel good. However, sexual intercourse leads to a 100 percent dopamine hit. When you compare those to methamphetamine, you experience a 1,000 percent hit. After that, staying satisfied with anything other than the drug is hard.
People often head back to that feeling. However, it’s not focused on the initial use. Many people are functional addicts, so they think it’s not a big deal because they still live typically.
Drugs are often easy to hide, but amphetamines aren’t one of them. Outsiders can often see the addiction, and the effects will last a long.
One common sign if you’re on methamphetamine is that you are highly talkative. The drug stimulates the brain, which leads to sputtering and a lot of.
People generally stay up for many days because the drug keeps them awake. It’s a stimulant, so the person might be highly fidgety or might not be able to sit still for long periods.
Likewise, they might lose their appetite. If they used to eat healthily and now are uninterested in food for prolonged periods, it might indicate drug abuse. You may also notice that they sweat more profusely or always experience euphoria.
When you pair speed drug use with mental health issues, you often find that people have more digestive problems. They could be anxious, paranoid, or even aggressive. Likewise, they often hallucinate, which might lead to them harming themselves or others.
Usually, the brain develops a quick tolerance to speed, so people need higher doses to achieve the same effects as before. This leads to binging, where people overdose.
You can tell if someone has been binging on speed because they are extremely tired but can’t sleep, might sleep for long periods, hallucinate, have panic attacks, and much more.
What’s It Like to Detox from Speed or Meth?
Detoxing from meth or speed is not like alcohol detoxification. You could have a seizure. Likewise, the person was probably up for several days before choosing to recover from addiction, so they’re too tired to deal with the effects.
Overall, detoxification focuses on sleep, but it’s crucial to work with a healthcare team to monitor your heart rate and other things. Your body comes down from that high, and you could experience depression or anxiety. Naturally, you wish to get rid of those feelings, so you take more drugs. When you’re in a hospital-like setting, you focus on the root problem.
In some cases, outpatient treatment options aren’t suitable. People begin feeling better as the effects wear off and think they can do the rest themselves. However, recovery often fails, and they become addicted to speed again.
Overall, detox is medical and therapeutic both. Though they need medical attention, they must also engage in therapy to help them understand the reason for addiction to amphetamines.
What Drugs Are Used as Speed?
The prescription drugs used to make speed are:
- Dexosyn
- DextroStat
- Dexedrine
- Adderall
Why People Start Using the Speed Drug
People generally start taking amphetamines through a prescription. They get prescribed Adderall and realize that it helps them tremendously. Then, they notice a friend who has issues in school or on the field, so they offer it to them, which also makes them better.
It’s not a problem to use prescriptions the way they’re designed to be used. However, a person generally starts wondering if they could be more productive if they took an extra dose on the same day. As they start staying awake for more extended periods, they may notice that they have no appetite, so they begin using it for weight control.
In most cases, they don’t see it as a problem because their friend is using it, and there are no issues. However, they’re not taking it as designed, so they become addicted quickly.
How to Detox from Speed Drug Effects
It’s crucial to have your family and friends’ support while trying to combat addiction to speed. In some cases, family therapy is ideal because it helps your loved ones understand what you’re going through. However, that’s not the only thing you require for recovery.
You must also focus on medical detox and behavioral therapy. You’re often up for several days before you get into a medical facility and need constant medical care. Crestone Detox Austin – Alcohol & Drug Rehab can help you on your recovery journey. Please contact us today for assistance.
