May 10, 2016 | By Nadia Sheikh

Methamphetamine and Psychosis

Addiction Resources Mental Health Methamphetamine Addiction Recovery

What is Meth Psychosis-

What Is Meth?

You might call it speed, chalk, ice, crystal, or glass. All of these typically refer to methamphetamine, a powerful stimulant that is usually found in the form of a white, odorless, bitter-tasting crystalline powder. The drug brings on a surge of energy, an intense euphoria, incessant chattiness, and decreased appetite—along with a host of problems after long-term use.

Related to amphetamine, which has been used in some nasal decongestants and ADHD medication, methamphetamine is much more potent because larger amounts of the drug are able to get to the brain. Because of this, the drug is extremely addictive and has longer-lasting, harmful effects on our bodies and brains.

Effects on Chronic Users

Research on long-time meth users reveals they almost always become addicted, whether they’re shooting, smoking, or snorting it. Meth provides an intense high that brings the user back for more, but the effects of meth on chronic users are severe.

Meth can cause insomnia, weight loss, and increased heart rate and blood pressure. Those who choose to smoke meth have serious problems with their teeth decaying and falling out. Chronic users also exhibit extreme mood swings, as well as confusion and memory loss.

Effects on the Brain

Many of these physical problems can improve with abstinence from meth. But, there are effects on the brain that can take over a year to repair, and they are often only partially reversible. According to research gathered by The Meth Project, the drug can impair a chronic user’s ability to learn, to perform basic verbal tasks, and their motor skills. The user can develop uncontrollable twitches, ticks, or tremors.

Meth disrupts the brain’s inhibitory controls which leads to obsessive behaviors, the user repeating tasks over and over. It impairs the frontal lobe, which controls judgment and impulse control. Meth also over-stimulates the amygdala, our emotional control center. These effects on the brain combined cause an amped up state of anxiety which leads to aggression and violence.

As a user becomes addicted and experiences the huge dopamine surges induced by meth, they can develop anhedonia—the inability to experience pleasure. There is a theory that drug abuse “resets” our reward pathway, so it’s harder to experience the pleasure from a normally enjoyable experience. Many long-term meth users report depression, and that they don’t feel like the same person anymore.

Meth also actively damages non-neural brain cells called microglia. Microglia defend our brain against infections and remove any damaged neurons. Meth users typically have two times the amount of microglial cells as a normal brain. With too many microglia in the brain, they actually begin to attack our healthy neurons, causing measurable brain damage.

Psychosis

Perhaps the most infamous effect of meth on long-term users, though severely understudied, is psychosis. Often called “tweaking,” there are many aspects of psychosis—a severe mental disorder in which people lose contact with reality, very similar to acute paranoid schzophrenia.

A psychosis is generally characterized by:

Strong delusions

  • strange beliefs about things that aren’t plausible
  • grandiosity
  • insects crawling under the skin

Extreme paranoia

  • feeling overly suspicious of people
  • feeling like other people are ‘out to get you’

Hallucinations

  • hearing voices
  • seeing things that aren’t there
  • talking to people who aren’t real

Obsessive-compulsive behavior

  • cleaning
  • peeking out the window
  • taking things apart and putting them back together

Often, the paranoia a user experiences becomes debilitating. Paranoia is a self-reinforcing loop of beliefs that escalates in a fearful emotional state. Meth can distort reality, altering belief systems, and lessens the ability to control emotions, making fear and anxiety prevalent.

From my own experience with psychosis, symptoms arise gradually and intensify. I started having vivid hallucinations, seeing things like Einstein’s head blooming out of a tulip in my ceiling. I began to hear voices of the underworld coming through my air vents. I started peeking out my window, running to the door in the middle of the night to check the peephole.

As I progressed with my using, my hallucinations became more tactile. I would feel a tug on my hand or a kiss on my cheek when no one was in the room. An enormous glow worm erupted from the center of my bed one night, and it felt so hot and real that it knocked me to the ground. I was often visited by a tiny girl in a cat costume who would meow at me and I would chase her around my room. Eventually, I started seeing invisible beings spray painting my walls, my room lit up in a laser light show, and I began to believe that aliens were casing my room and trying to communicate with me – so much so that I told one of my friends about it and considered reporting my experience to BBC.

This may sound humorous or light-hearted, but much of my psychosis was dark and terrifying. There came a point where no one could reason with me and I became violent in confrontations, a 90-pound girl swinging punches in the grocery store. Eventually my hallucinations continued even when I wasn’t high, I couldn’t turn them off. I would be speaking to someone and my roommate would ask “who are you talking to?” I lived in persistent delusions for months that people were watching me, that the cops were outside waiting for me, that I had a brain aneurysm and I was about to die.

A psychosis can last for hours or days, or it can persist for months and years. Some scientists argue that a meth is the only drug that can leave a user in a permanent psychosis.

There are many users who experience psychosis even after they’ve stopped using methamphetamine. Extreme stress, especially, can precipitate the spontaneous reoccurrence of psychosis in a former methamphetamine abuser.

Is It Just Meth?

In a study by the Australian National University in Canberra, they found that 60% of meth abusers in their study reported psychotic symptoms. Many factors affect the occurrence of psychotic symptoms, like the number of years of abuse, sleep deprivation, and mixing meth with other drugs. After 16 or more days of consistent meth use, participants in the study were 48% more likely to have psychotic symptoms. If users mixed meth with alcohol or marijuana, they were were 69% more likely to have psychotic symptoms.

Other drugs also have the potential to induce a psychosis. Other stimulants, like cocaine, can also cause severe delusions. Marijuana can increase a person’s risk of developing psychosis by 40% to 200%, depending on how much and how long a person has been using it.

People with underlying mental health conditions, especially schizophrenia, are much more likely to experience a drug-induced psychosis. An underlying anxiety disorder can also play a role.

What to Do

If you find yourself in drug-induced psychosis, you may not be able to realize it or to listen to a loved one’s suggestion for help. If you are concerned about psychosis, for you or for someone else, the best initial step is to stop the use of all substances. A visit to a doctor can also help, opening up access medical resources like anti-psychotic medications to ease the transition from psychosis back into a sober reality.

If you are trying to help someone who is in the midst of a psychosis, speak to them calmly. Try to avoid confrontation and argument. Keep a safe distance in case they become upset or violent. Ultimately, be reassuring and supportive, be the person who is on their side rather than one who is ‘out to get them.’ Depending on the severity of the psychosis, your efforts to help may or may not be well-received. The most that can be done in some cases is to simply ensure that the person is safe, whether that entails close monitoring of them or institutionalization. There is no “cure” for a drug-induced psychosis, though most symptoms improve with time and consistent abstinence from substances.

My concept of reality is still skewed after my chronic meth abuse. When I went to treatment, I thought that I was schizophrenic or losing my mind. My psychotic symptoms continued for weeks with no substances in my body. But eventually, my hallucinations faded, I no longer heard voices that weren’t there, and I never imagined that I could recover my sanity. Psychosis is a terrifying experience, constantly questioning oneself and what is real, but a life of recovery offers hope.

16 responses to “Methamphetamine and Psychosis”

  • Jaime

    8 years ago

    Reply

    Great article, yeah I’m 3 years clean off meth and still shaking psychosis symptoms here and there! I think!

  • Uanique

    8 years ago

    Reply

    I am still a victom of meth which left me with a mental illness. I am on medication and atleast I don’t have a psychosis anymore but I can remember the uncertainty I had and thinking that I would become a vegetable. Fantastic article I appreciate it very much.

  • rob

    8 years ago

    Reply

    OK hi my name is rob I have been using for 30 years on a daily bases.
    I am not here to advocate drug use but the psychosis as you call it is just another thing u learn to live with
    Mine use to take 13 days to start and would continue upwards of 40 days when I would finally fall out …..that was in the 80’s…..
    Now your lucky if u don’t sleep for 1 night, no matter how I do it or how much I do
    I usually go to sleep or nap 3 times a day and 4 to 5 hours a night and yes I smoke 2 minutes before I am passed out for the night

    I weigh 165 lbs and go between 30 to 32 inch waist for the the last 30 years
    I eat food ambitiously I don’t hold back except the sweets( those are worse than meth by far as are soft drinks)
    I am way less depressed then most all of my non user friends but then with all the Chen trails etc etc how can anyone truly feel free and happy
    As far as voices and hallucinations they all went out with the 80’s

    Is it even meth ? No
    I believe that we will wake up some day and they will be pointing and laughing and saying u have been smoking vitamins for the last 30 years.

    They ,the gov,cia,definitely dumbed down the dope before it hits the street
    They want us medicated not picking up weapons for a cause

    PS the guy up top who is taking meds, do a little study anything a psychiatrist can prescribe causes irreversible brain and kidney damage within 6 month’s

      • Fuckmeth

        7 years ago

        Reply

        This guy is twanked as he was writing this. I’m dealing with two friends dealing with meth delusions and they all say the same shit “no it’s not like that it’s actually like this”. Keep trying to “repair” the fucking dryer for the fifth time and tell me how Einstein smoked meth

        • Alicen

          7 years ago

          Reply

          My kids dad died from this he was clean a few days then not he was hearing voices aND carrying on conversations with himself then hung himself do you think the voices made him do it this is all so confusing

          • >^.^

            7 years ago

            I knew and loved someone who suffered the same date, and I know he was using meth. There were also a lot of other things going on in his life that caused him great pain, and I know he suffered with depression anyway. I just wanted to tell you that i’m sorry for your lost, and I know how confusing it can be…. I struggled for a long time just trying to make sense of what happened… To figure out why, feeling guilty that maybe I could have done something, trying to figure out what even happens when we die. It still causes me a lot of heartache. Sending love your way.

  • Mindy

    8 years ago

    Reply

    That’s a great informative article. I used for almost 4 years on and off. I could write a book of the things that I and my “friends” would hear or see. It was so real and sometimes scary when we swear we saw UFO’S or someone staring out the peep hole for hours. I can laugh about them now but it sure wasn’t funny then.

  • David

    8 years ago

    Reply

    Great article, I hope you don’t mind me sharing this on my project’s blog. We’re in Ireland and you’ve got some great information here that we’d love to share with our clients/community.

  • Kevin Jones

    7 years ago

    Reply

    I’m so glad that I’ve come across this article today as I was once a substance misuser myself and had many of the believes above with many many more symptoms some so terrifying and shocking that I tried taking my own life by overdosing on a large amount of antipsychotic medication given to treat paranoia and Schizophrenia.
    I ended up in intensive care in a coma a couple of years ago and now today I’ve come across this article in the hope that it’s going to help my sister in law who is now going through similar side affects as myself (it’s like reliving my past again almost like looking in a mirror) she’s not being given the help from others in the way that they should be helping her because they haven’t been there themselves and think why should they help her because all she’s going to do as soon as she feels ok is take more drugs but I’ve experienced it hands on so I thank you for this because not a single word we or I say to her will make her believe what’s going on in her head are only false believe and by banging on at people about these thoughts and believes that people will start talking about her and stare so with insight from yet another victim of drug psychosis the information above might just be able to help this poor girl as I know from experience that if she doesn’t listen now and get help asap I fear she will bring her life to a devastating end and that’s speaking from experience of (TAKING THAT SHIT) she will not only be hurting herself but also us who care, her friends, her family, her loved ones and her child.
    People might not be giving her the help she needs in the right way but do want the best for her and hopefully this might give her some kind of understanding of the side-effects of what taking speed (amphetamines) are doing to her.
    Who knows this article might have just saved a life.
    I hope she sees this comment and sees that we do care and I will do my darn best to getting my old friend back. 🙂 we all love you sis. 🙂 xx

  • C2dajab

    7 years ago

    Reply

    I am wondering how many of you that suffer from induced psychosis ( drug induced) hit REM SLEEP when trying to sleep. My psychosis is natural, and is alleviated by consumption of meth and pot (believe or not its true)I have been delusional(hear things) since I was 9 years old, and had a traumatic experience where I began talking to myself to make my situation make sense. Since that day, it has always been there telling me things, aiding my daily life.(id, unconscious self, internal parent) I spent 7 years going progressively more insane before I started smoking pot daily at 16 because of major manias leaving me without sleep for days on end and high adrenaline levels. At 19 meth became part of the use because the pot made me too sleepy to stay awake and function due to increased usage, but nightmares from past traumas refuse to let me stay asleep or hit REM sleep without waking myself up. meth enabled me to either stay awake for
    I can’t hit rem sleep without meth in my system. Meth keeps me awake for 3-7 days at a time, but this is how long I normally am awake due to energy levels when I have no drugs in my system. 6 months once and 11 months once is longest without I have gone since 16 and it sent me insane. Literally. I am 31 now, and since daily use of pot and meth began at 28 and anti psychotics were removed from my medication, my daily life has progressively become easier for myself, but those around who worry about me make things hard because they feel the need to have a opinion on something they shouldn’t have one on. When I was medicated on 600 mg of seroquel a day and a vegetable( not really but so emotionless that I was a zombie essentially)noone cared I had no goals dreams or ambitions. And it hurt logic and emotions to not have the other me’s to talk to anymore, or help reason out my problems. I am quite happy hearing and seeing things, I know the difference between real and not real. I think the problem most have, is that it comes on so fast, and they have no basis to understand what is going on. My mind learnt from a young age, that this is the only way to function and survive the environment I lived in. Leaving that environment is what leads me to need drugs, as the stresses it held for my mind no longer exist but my mind finished its early developmental process having control of those voices. Thos who lose control during psychosis are not a developing psychotic from birth, they are predetermined to suffer maybe but the process isn’t happening/begining unless they experience mental trauma that drugs can cause, or social trauma like abuse.
    My psychosis began at 9, and hasn’t stopped unless anti psychotics are taken. This leads me to be a zombie. Which isn’t fair on me or my future to expect me to go without a life, because society FAILED ME AS A CHILD AND LEFT ME TO BE ABUSED, which in turn created what society deems a dangerous monster, but in reality is as normal as the next guy.

    • Pania Te Maro

      7 years ago

      Reply

      I was abused as a child as well. Do you really need the meth and pot? Serious question, not a dig. Do you really believe that you cannot cope without them? The psychoses and the way you describe your condition, is that supported by your own diagnosis, or a range of diagnoses? I’m asking because I have a son who is doing meth and pot. Do you get angry at anyone who disagrees with you? He does. No matter what the issue, it’s only his way or the highway. He yells aggressively at his ex partner, punches walls, brings knives out and places them in front of her, says she has abused him, when actually, he has been aggressive to her because she won’t be passive – because he is the man (Rasta) who is supposed to dominate, while the women and children do as they are told. He tells her, and us that she should do exactly what he tells her, when he tells her to. He had a dog. He kept on and on making the dog be submissive, when the dog had already been told off. Yelling at it, making it cower, telling it that he was the master, not the dog, the dog had to do what it was told. All good, but not when the dog is already being submissive, and he keeps going on and on, and on, until my husband told him, after at least 20 minutes, that he didn’t like it. If people don’t do what he wants them to do, when he wants them to do it, he abuses them. He tells them things like he will stomp their heads in and squish them if he sees them. Is this ok? Is this what you mean when you advocate the use of meth and pot? Do you act this way to people? Do you think it’s ok? What he also does is say that if we don’t like to be exposed to that kind of aggression then we are wrong, psychotic, bad, have issues, should just let him express himself this way. I know, through the abuse and upbringing that I had, that children don’t need to see that kind of anger, or to be exposed to it for any length of time. Are you saying that it’s ok? That we should all let him treat us and others like that, let him say nasty, angry, aggressive things? Again, I’m not saying you’re wrong, I actually really want to know, because you are experiencing it. I’m not. Thank you for considering what I’ve asked, I hope you have time to help us out as a family.

  • TAURUS VALVE INC

    7 years ago

    Reply

    My dilemma is I have a 31 year old daughter. I know without a shadow of a doubt she is addicted to meth or crack. I have confronted her, this is where the psychosis takes over , you don’t understand, you don’t know what I’ve been through. The BS that people are watching her following her, she has every sign and symptom that is on the list, paranoia to delusion of grandeur. Hearing voices and talking to them. Her looks have changed drastically. Once a highly intelligent absolutely gorgeous young woman now almost unrecognizable. How do I get her to admit that she is using. She thinks she has the wool pulled over my eyes. It’s a game she’s playing. I’ve tried everything in my power to get her help. I’ve called various attorneys, I’ve called the police, the FBI. Every place and anybody I can think of for help. For an adult child there is nothing out there for a parent. I’m losing my daughter to this addiction. “PLEASE” if anybody has any advice to give me I am open to anything at this point.

  • maria

    7 years ago

    Reply

    TAURUS VALVE INC , My daughter was so bed on meth we would have to babysit her. Hospitals did not help took her to the ER a number of times we even put her in treatment and a mental hospital. Nothing worked. My daughter had to leave our home she was getting way bad and I could not stand to see her in that state of mind. The psychosis got really bad see was seeing so many evil things and the voices were very mean to her.

    Well this is what I did. I got a no contact order on her , by the way my daughter was 30 years old at the time. My daughter would either call or come over so every time I would put her in jail so she could clean up, I had already talked to the DA about her and why I kept putting her in jail. the Judge worked with me . Great lakes Mental Health went to the jail to give her an evaluation they decided to put her in a program when she was released. The last time I put my daughter in jail she done 4 months she was so bad that they kept her on the mental health ward at the jail and was locked down 23 hrs a day. ok so she is still in that program but the psychosis has not gone away and she has been clean 2 years. She is also in collage and has a 4.0 GPA. the voices keep her up all night sometimes and she still sees things that are not there… I pray one day that they will go away but Meth as damaged her brain and is wired different now, I hope this helps a little… I HATE DRUGS!!!

    Maria

  • Art

    5 years ago

    Reply

    I have been clean and sober for 2yrs after injecting the drug. And i have been have the sensation of crawling on my skin and facial hair ever since i became clean. It seem to reach it highest peak at night and then i have a constant feeling od aomething crawling and popping out of my ear. I am at a breaking point will this ever stop

  • Kolintzas George

    4 years ago

    Reply

    Has anyone ever seen the fuckn demons when tweeking? Has anyone ever been to the point were u font know anymore if u can belueve you been clean a few days or a week because your still kinda fucked from taking wzy to much xhit at one time? Has anyone ever shot a quarter ounce of meth in a q6 hour period n still alive id like to gear from you i have really been struggling to stay clean and i swear simtimes the shit just feels like it starts again but when u use 4 real u have sone points were u feel good are happy n enjoy the high but when those whatecer the fuck yhdy are got u tripping n u think someone’s got ur house sired with explosives and you swear you saw Hitler having a conversation with Saddam in your closet i mean using the drug has had some really fun moments but trying to stop is fuckn weird as fuck n how long does it take for the zhit to go awY theres days i fwel nothing n thsn theres days thst if i see waking behind me illk cross the street zig zip n out of traffic on foot walk as fast as a motherfuckdr running and I’ve noticed a huge huge problem when I don’t have my Adderall or run out the zhit just gets very intense for hours and won’t stop.So what do u do if you fucked n took way to much adderall n ur out n cant fet any for 10 more days do u use a little to try to balance the shit that makes no fuckn sense out or what i dont know what to do and what the fuck do u give someone who is overdosing on meth ive never bothered to look it up n its not the same as heroin that shit doesn’t do a fuckn thing it doesn’t even calm u down its Hey im the real fuckn deal with addiction and ill get it done no matter were I am so I don’t think im better than anyone or won’t think the shit uce heard n saw being fucked is crazy bcuz ive seen shit that would scare the devil himself n swore it was n happening even had a conversation with the devil as to why i was going to have to burn for so long and than came to the rationalizeyion that oh fuck this eternity so I only got 448 years with u thats duckn nuthn its eternity 428 years thats a fuckn drop n the bucket its pnot so bad n I even told the devil he was ok for only giving 428 years n we even came up with a formula to deterime how long u go to hell 4 when u die so u take your regular sins n .ultioky them by 2 years than u take the fuckn big line if u killed soneobe or sumthn along those lines n multiply how ever many of those u git by 50 than u taje the two add them up and than a a month for the little sins u remember throught out your life so 4w8 years i was feeling like i was winning even in fuckn hell the devil had a casino n we were shooting dice together in sum fuckn alley in a place ive never been and hwhojust the fuck knows how long this went on if anyone else is out there who injected a qurter ounce in a 17 hour period thats why i need to talk sith u because i don’t have the years of experience under my belt line i did with heroin it has been just over 2 years in the meth game i coukdnt get hi off heroin so i needed sumthn n there it was i didnt let it get to the pont of shooting a aurter ounce n it happened more than aboyt 10 to 12 times n there were 2 or 3 times i had that recurring being in hell shit because i was convinced i overdosed n killed myself so what do u do why rake another shit u silly fuckers what kinda auestion is that u keep shooting n shooting until its all fuckn gone BY THE TICKET RAKE THE RIDE MOTHERFUCKER and im not goibg to waste good hard earned money n let that shit go to waste no one talks about that form of drug abuse ever rite but ive had sum fuckn times on that shit n I sish i could just do a little bit but u cant its ok in small increments not the shit we buy on the street but the one produced by real scientifi this is what they would give u if u were fuckn lazy or u needed a energy boost or u were fuckn stupid n school ir one of the special kids who would just getting up n wzlk around n sharpen his or her pencil 50 times during class n im just needing a solution bcuz im fucked fir a little over a week yet can’t go to my family n tell them hey took 2 month supply of Dderall in 3 weeks n i got no more now that i neex it so if u see me looking in my room like im at the gates of hell just dont sorry about its all good uts just my friend tge devil stopping buy for one if our interesteing conversations.. Does taking it in like if i sere to crush it up n put it in my ibuprofen caps obviously im not shooting it so i know the effect wont neatly be as potent but how much do u use and to give u a baseline of umm my level of whatt i need to have a good tine i usually get 3 shots out of a grahm do i do them bug duckers
    n I can’t be leaving marks on my arms were i get tracks n shit again so ive rationalized the orobem ill just pyt a whole bunch in when i dk it n it will work out n when u do that much well not do much these days but ive actually kinda bedn sleeping n not normal by any means but I need some help with this immediate problem bcuz i had an episode withing the last ri hours n its bad if you dibt even bekueve u didn’t use anything and i looked all over when i git up n j know my room was searched i live with a detcrive well he thinks he is anyone n im constantly being fuckn searched n prodded lije sum kinda farm animal n I had nothing to my own surprise n I kniw i didnt fuck off the 20 i had bcuz i bought McDonald’s n offered to let my .om hold the change i just need to make sure i asked my mom n didnt jyst fuckn imagine that i said thst to herits not tge first tine its happened n msybe doing half gram shots is not goung to have good long term effects ive dtarted to come to that conclusion and its fuckn weird when i have the adderall im ok but i forget if i take it or not n someday ill take 4 or 5 n than forget next couple days n take nothing and i kniw its one of the sife effects but it fuckn sux n they should tell u all the effecrs before u start het later on ur probably going to need a seeing eye midget for a while just to help u get organized n keep ur medicine straight for first 2 to 3 months yeah i also thought of the seeing eye midgets when i was on one. for heroin and has anyone had success with the maltroxine shot bcuz i was on vivitrol first time i tried meth and that shit didn’t block non of the stimulant it was a miracle for my heroin addiction but has just really done nothing for the stimulants n mostly meth but I had to get creative in another country and made my own special brand of low grade old school biker peanut butter crank.

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