What Happens the First Time You Try Cocaine?
When first used, cocaine produces a number of effects that impact the physical and psychological health of the user. Cocaine is a stimulant substance that affects the brain immediately after use.
In its powder state, cocaine is regularly abused via snorting through the nose. Others will mix cocaine with water and inject the liquid or rub the substance onto their gums.
Cocaine (including crack cocaine) can also be smoked—either alone or in combination with other drugs like tobacco or marijuana. In some cases (albeit rare), first-time cocaine use can result in heart attacks or seizures and may even be fatal.
When a person uses cocaine for the first time, they will likely feel the following effects almost immediately:
Often, because it is a novel experience for the brain, the first time using cocaine will be the most intense. Tolerance builds almost immediately and subsequent episodes of drug use will elicit relatively decreased levels of pleasure.
Side Effects of Cocaine Use
While cocaine use produces a high, it affects people differently. Increasingly large doses raise your risk of experiencing a range of adverse consequences. When using cocaine, you are at risk of:
Factors influencing the intensity and duration of cocaine effects include:
While using cocaine once or even on occasion does not necessarily mean you’ll become addicted to it, any use of cocaine puts you in harm’s way physically and psychologically and raises your risk of becoming dependent on the drug at some point.
Why Do People Use Cocaine?
NIDA reports that drug use is often fueled by one or more of the following reasons:
What Does Cocaine Do to Your Brain?
Several brain systems have evolved to reinforce a number of activities that promote survival and/or result in pleasurable sensations. Examples of these activities include eating and sexual activity.
Natural, healthy rewards trigger a release of the neurotransmitter dopamine, which makes you feel good. The brain responds to cocaine initially in the same way that it would to a healthy, life-propagating activity—with an accompanying release of dopamine.
However, cocaine next blocks a process known as reuptake, leaving the released dopamine sitting in the synapse. The resulting excessive dopamine activity results in heightened neural stimulation and causes a “high.”
As cocaine use continues over time, the brain adapts to its persistent presence and doesn’t respond as intensely with successive use.
This phenomenon is known as tolerance and helps explain why the first cocaine high is usually the most intense and attempts to recreate it are generally less successful. Many drug users will take larger or more potent doses as time goes on to feel similar effects.
This ramping up of cocaine use behavior over time is one main contributor to the development of addiction. The adaptation of the brain can also lead to trouble responding appropriately even to healthy rewards, resulting in a diminished ability to feel pleasure from anything but cocaine use—a problem that further propels addiction and adds to the risk of relapse in recovering users.
Why Is Cocaine Dangerous?
As cocaine begins to trigger addiction, its devastating impact is often felt across a number of dimensions. Addiction can result in:
Aside from the list of negative life changes that the majority of people in active addiction experience, cocaine use may result in a laundry list of negative health consequences:
Can You Overdose on Cocaine?
Another concern is the risk of overdose on cocaine, which is usually expressed as a severe cardiac event. Mixing cocaine (a stimulant) with a depressant like heroin (a mixture referred to as a “speedball”) or alcohol can significantly compound the risks of overdose and death.
How Do You Get Addicted to Cocaine?
Aside from the rewarding feelings that cocaine triggers in the brain, addiction is impacted by the following factors:
How Long Does It Take to Get Addicted to Cocaine? Depending on the interaction of these factors, it could take a few hours or even a few years to get addicted to cocaine. Each person’s path from one line of coke to addiction, tolerance, and dependence is unique to them. As cocaine abuse continues and tolerance sets in, more of the drug will be needed, which can quickly lead to eventual cocaine dependence.
Cocaine-dependent individuals feel as if they need the drug to maintain a sense of normalcy and will both feel and function terribly without it. In fact, cocaine dependency almost guarantees some form of acute cocaine withdrawal at the point that the user hasn’t used the drug for a while.
To varying degrees, tolerance, physical dependence, and withdrawal avoidance all contribute to the development of addiction, which is characterized by the compulsive desire to use a substance even when it’s causing negative consequences to your life and health.
What to Do if You’re Considering Trying Cocaine
Any time you’re considering using drugs, it’s important to really think about why you’re doing it. Are you trying to solve another problem by using? Drug use may help you suppress or ignore a problem, but it won’t make it go away. Consider what you are really risking when you begin using an addictive substance—your initial problem will still be there, and you’ll risk compounding it with a number of other harmful effects of addiction. Finally, you’ll put your own life in danger—remember, first-time cocaine use can lead to fatal cardiac events and seizures.
If you are compelled to take cocaine but you know it’s not worth the risk, reach out for support—from a friend or family member, a therapist, or a support group.
