Crack Cocaine Addiction
For the last several years, crack cocaine has had a certain lower-class reputation. It has been typically associated with the poor urban population. Inner-city women with crack addictions often give birth to “crack babies”. They have also been linked with an HIV risk because of the common practice of trading sex for drugs. While many of these images still hold true today, crack cocaine has been cropping up in the middle class neighborhoods in recent years. Even music star Amy Winehouse has been caught on film allegedly smoking crack cocaine fumes. Crack addiction is still a dangerous force to be reckoned with today.
Crack Cocaine Addiction Facts
Crack is highly addictive because of its immediate and intense effect. It is also much cheaper than powder cocaine, so it is more available to a wider range of people. Many crack users have a very intense first experience. Unfortunately, later experiences are rarely as euphoric as the first, so users constantly chase an impossible high.
Crack cocaine comes in a rock hard crystal form and is smoked. It makes cracking sounds when heated to smoke the fumes, hence the name “crack” cocaine. Cocaine in general is not a new drug. Powdered cocaine has been abused for more than 100 years, and coca leaves have been used for thousands of years.
Women With Crack Addiction
Some of the most disturbing trends for crack cocaine use include the new groups of users popping up. One newer group is teens smoking crack with marijuana. Another is women in their 30’s with no previous drug use. One wonders how someone with no history of using hard drugs would turn to such a dangerous and addictive drug. Such a trend seems to make prevention a challenge.
It appears that women with crack addiction also put their families in great danger. Not only would they be spending extra resources and time to secure their crack supply, but they also put their unborn children at a huge health risk. These babies tend to be underweight, premature, and under-proportioned when they are born. In general, low birth weight babies are much more likely to die in the first month of life than normal-weight babies.
It can be very difficult for a woman to successfully quit crack cocaine on their first attempt. It’s important to emphasize overall reduction of harm to the mother and her baby. Any reduction of crack use during pregnancy will improve the health and outlook for both.
Crack Rehab for Women
Crack rehab for women is needed now more than ever before. Many drug rehab programs are designed for white males, which misidentifies or completely leaves out critical elements for a woman’s recovery process. What’s often missing is the use of relationships and community to support women’s drug addiction recovery. Creating a healthy sense of connection with other women is a foundational part of women’s mental health. It is that much more important when they are trying to recover from something as life-altering as crack cocaine addiction.
The Orchid Recovery Center is just such a place. It provides all the most important elements for a healthy recovery for women. The unique holistic addiction treatment approach combines ancient healing therapies with modern medical knowledge and 12-step philosophies. It is the complete drug rehab treatment center for women.