


The crack addict likely feels guilty and depressed after a crack binge. Soon the crack addict finds the only thing that makes them feel good is using crack and using crack is the only way they know to handle stress.

Each crack use further changes the chemicals in the crack addict's brain, linking pleasure only to crack usage. Each time the crack addict gets high, however, the crack addict is becoming more physically and psychologically addicted. Crack addicts can binge on crack for hours or days and then abstain for days, giving the impression they are in control of their drug use. (read: Crack Cocaine Symptoms: Signs of Crack Cocaine Use) Crack Addicts: Crack Addiction Takes HoldĪt the beginning of crack addiction, the crack addict may feel they have their addiction under control.

The crack addict then starts to use crack to deal with stress and crack quickly becomes the focus of life. Crack addiction can happen almost immediately. The addict may feel like they are just "partying" but, in fact, they are trying to cope with unhappiness.Īt some point, the user tries crack and a crack addiction takes hold. The addict begins using drugs or alcohol to escape from the stresses of their life. A crack addict typically has an unhappy home life or other stresses or problems. Crack Addicts: Crack Addiction BeginsĪ crack addict may start as a cocaine or other drug user. Crack addiction is the only thing a crack addict cares about and the rest of their life simply falls away every moment is used getting high or figuring out how, when and where to get high. Crack addicts commonly lose their family, friends and all social contacts due to their crack addiction. As an alternative, crack addicts are often working as prostitutes or committing crimes in order to pay for their crack addiction. Crack addicts typically have problems getting or staying employed and so have no legal way of financing their crack addiction. Many crack addicts have lost their homes due to crack addiction and are commonly found living on the street or in transient housing. In the late 2000s, some tabloids controversially described the singer Amy Winehouse, who was suffering from drug and alcohol addiction at the height of her career, as a crackhead.Ĭrackhead Bob (whose previous smoking of crack left him impaired) was a frequent guest on the Howard Stern radio show before he passed away in 2016.The life of a crack addict is often one filled with danger, fear, and violence. In the mid-2000s, Dave Chapelle notably parodied crackheads in his character Tyrone Biggums. Head, here is used as a combining form to indicate a preoccupation.Ĭrackhead, for a habitual user of crack, is recorded in the 1980s, including in a Time magazine article about the epidemic.īecause the behavior of people using crack cocaine can be erratic and disruptive, crackhead became slang for “stupid” and “crazy” by the 2000s. The slang crack is thought to come from the sound made when the drug is warmed in preparation for smoking. It was during this time that the slang word crack entered the mainstream lexicon. Crack is a form of cocaine that people smoke for a short but intense high.ĭuring the 1980s–90s, the United States faced a crack cocaine epidemic.
