How Long Does Meth Stay in Your System?
The answer to ‘How long does meth stay in your system’ is variable depending on the method of ingestion. This answer is also dependent upon the amount or dosage. The effects can last anywhere between 8-24 hours after use. How long does meth stay in your system after the effects wear off? Methamphetamines are detectable in the blood as long as 72 hours after use for casual urine samples. Hair follicles can retain traces of meth for as long as 90 days. However, the majority find it difficult to remain clean for 72 hours, let alone 90 days.
That’s precisely why physically and mentally cleansing its addictive properties from your body is an entirely different matter altogether. It requires close monitoring and assistance from a medical recovery specialist. An individual with a thorough understanding of meth, its effects, and its addictive properties is a must to properly achieve recovery. Bearing that in mind, here is everything you need to know about Methamphetamines and how to achieve freedom from their vices.
What is Meth?
Meth is categorized as a potent chemical stimulant of the central nervous system. This overstimulation produces excessive dopamine levels that destabilize natural neuronic frequencies. The overstimulating exposure to meth and its reactionary overproduction of dopamine is what causes neurotic dependency. This means the longer your brain goes without methamphetamines, the more it craves those overstimulated dopamine levels. That’s why attempting self-cessation can result in fatal consequences once methamphetamine dependency is developed. Rest assured, First City Recovery has all the quality therapy you need to enjoy recovery and achieve lasting sobriety.
What are the Symptoms of Meth Withdrawals?
The uncomfortable and often painful experience of meth withdrawal symptoms often ends up being the reason people can’t stop using. Meth use is the only way to fend off unbearable withdrawal symptoms without the help of a professional therapist. That’s why trying to quit by yourself is a harmful and often fatal decision. Bearing that in mind, the following are the most common symptoms associated with methamphetamine withdrawals.
Depression
For every high of methamphetamines, the extreme low to follow is your brain’s attempt to regain its neuronic balance. That is to say, withdrawals from meth’s overstimulation of the brain’s happy cells cause the extreme opposite. This results in extreme depression until your next dosage of meth. Thankfully, groundbreaking treatment and medications under strict medical administration can make these withdrawal symptoms easier to bear.
Insomnia
The inability to go to sleep or stay asleep is a common symptom of meth withdrawal. This can be one of the most uncomfortable withdrawal symptoms, especially as it compounds over time. The good news is you don’t have to suffer to the extent that you normally would with medical assistance.
Doctors can prescribe medications as approved and offer coping tools to help you sleep easier. Contact a First City Recovery receptionist today to learn how doctors can help you endure the insomniac phase of withdrawals.
Unexplained Lack of Energy
Unrelated to insomnia, starving a dependent body of methamphetamines can induce otherwise unexplained tiredness. This means regardless of adequate sleep, you’ll experience an utter lack of energy. Depending upon the individual these bouts of tiredness may be continuous or suddenly come about without warning.
Increased Irritability
A miserable side effect of detoxifying your body of meth is elevated levels of irritability. This is because your body has grown dependent upon overstimulating your dopamine pleasure cells. Therefore, starving your body of that stimulation can make you more irritable at the simplest things. You can learn how to overcome these bouts of irritability from our team of highly-trained specialists.
Anhedonia
Anhedonia is a neuronic chemical deficiency that induces an inability to experience pleasure, regardless of the circumstances. This means your dopamine cells or pleasure centers have almost completely shut down. This withdrawal symptom occurs when your body has reached such a state of dependency that meth has become a means to function. When the body has grown accustomed to overstimulated dopamine levels, any absence of the affecting drug can suppress these pleasure centers. Thankfully there are medications that a doctor can prescribe to help you overcome this depressing withdrawal symptom.
Anhedonia is a neuronic chemical deficiency that induces an inability to experience pleasure, regardless of the circumstances. This means your dopamine cells or pleasure centers have almost completely shut down. This withdrawal symptom occurs when your body has reached such a state of dependency that meth has become a means to function. When the body has grown accustomed to overstimulated dopamine levels, any absence of the affecting drug can suppress these pleasure centers. Thankfully there are medications that a doctor can prescribe to help you overcome this depressing withdrawal symptom.
Troubling Statistics on Meth Abuse
Despite pharmaceutical attempts to reduce accessibility to methamphetamine-based medications, meth use has skyrocketed. According to studies conducted by the NIH, meth abuse has risen by a staggering 66% in recent years. In 2021, over two million Americans over 21 admitted to using methamphetamines. This troubling statistic does not include the nearly 2 percent of children under the age of 18 who report having used the drug.
Subsequently, overdoses and deaths related to meth have seen a 170% increase in recent years. Experts attribute much of these bloated numbers to a combination of a lack of meth recovery treatment options and ease of accessibility. Thankfully First City Recovery has numerous high-quality treatment options to help you achieve sustainable sobriety.
How To Cleanse Meth from Your System
More important than the question, ‘how long does meth stay in your system?’ is ‘how can you cleanse methamphetamines from your system?’ Both have very different answers. While a drug test can be passed in as little as four days, the cleansing process of expelling withdrawal symptoms and cravings is a much longer one. The answer to the latter requires the utmost support from friends, family, and medical personnel. All of which can be found in the following proven ways to successfully cleanse methamphetamines from your system.
Seek Medical Assistance
There is no other way to successfully cleanse methamphetamines from your system outside the parameters of medical guidance and administration. Attempting to quit on your own will not only discourage you deeper into addiction but also causes permanent and often fatal health consequences. Reach out to our dedicated recovery experts who are solely devoted to making your recovery process a pleasant and thorough experience.
Medical Detoxification
The most important and difficult step in achieving freedom from meth dependency is the detoxification process. As alluded to earlier, this phase should never be attempted alone as doing so could have self-harming consequences. That’s why First City Recovery has highly-trained specialists to aid you each step of the way of the detox process.
Have An Accountability System
Perhaps the most important part of the recovery process is having an accountability system in place to prevent relapse. This means having a point or multiple points of contact you can reach out to when you feel the urge to use. This also requires you to make yourself available to these points of contact to maintain these accountability measures. You’ll find having one or more accountability partners could be the difference between relapse and sustaining your sobriety.
Take Your Sobriety Day-by-Day
Where we often falter as humans come when we attempt to tackle the bigger picture all at once. The key to achieving any task in life is taking small steps towards the ultimate goal to achieve the bigger picture. Sobriety is no different.
Sobriety isn’t achieved overnight. That’s why it takes setting small achievable daily goals to help you achieve the bigger picture of sobriety and sustain it. That’s one of the many reasons a strong medically-aided recovery structure is necessary to successfully gain independence from your strongholds.
How Can First City Recovery Help You Detox?
How well you detox often dictates how well you succeed in recovery and beyond. That’s why First City Recovery has a variety of top-notch detoxification programs to help you thrive in sobriety beyond recovery. We pride ourselves on having thorough detoxification programs that ensure you can stand on your own two feet. Bearing that in mind, here are a few ways our specialists help you thrive and enjoy the detoxification process.
Forming Highly-Trained Support Groups
People who need medically-aided recovery often understand the importance of having a support team in their corner. This issue is very few know how to utilize support groups to their advantage in recovery. That’s where First City Recovery’s highly-trained support group techniques come into play.
Our recovery support experts ensure you have all the support, encouragement, and training you need for each stage of your recovery. These encouraging support groups often serve as the motivating factor you need to achieve and sustain a sober life.
Special Training
First City Recovery experts give you individualized training tools specifically designed to meet the needs of your personal struggle. Getting to know you and the background of your substance struggles allows doctors to chart an effective individualized recovery path. This means teaching you relapse prevention and other preventative training techniques that help you maintain sobriety independently.
Prescription Medications
First City Recovery gives you access to specific drugs that make the detoxification process easier to withstand. These prescriptions are administered and directed under the utmost monitoring and supervision as directed by your physician.
Replace Your Addiction with Proactive Habits
One of the primary reasons for relapse is the failure to replace addiction habits with new activities you enjoy. First City Recovery gets to know you and your likes so you can find new hobbies to replace old bad habits and help fend off your former addiction desires. You’ll find that indulging yourself in a new enjoyable hobby can be your greatest relapse prevention technique.
First City Recovery Helps You Gain Freedom from Your Strongholds
The question, ‘How long does meth stay in your system?’ is irrelevant compared to the importance of stopping meth altogether. The latter is a task that can only be achieved through medical guidance. First City Recovery has all the tools you need to succeed. All you need to do is reach out to our caring representatives today. You’ll be glad you did.
MD, Psychiatrist
Dr. Vahid Osman, MD is a psychiatry specialist in Indianapolis, IN.
Dr. Osman completed a residency at Austin State Hospital. He has over 32 years of experience in Psychiatry & Behavioral Health. He is board certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology.
