COCAINE: DEMOCRATIC ANTIDEPRESSANT

No other illegal substance has maintained such an ambiguous image over time as cocaine.

On one hand, it is a symbol of success. On the other, it is normalized by many as a "functional support" in professional and social contexts. The problem is that this representation is culturally dangerous and clinically false.

Cocaine is a psychoactive substance that acts directly and brutally on central neurotransmitters: dopamine, norepinephrine, serotonin. It produces rapid, intense and seductive effects. It improves mood, increases alertness, reduces fatigue, but it does so by progressively destabilizing the neurobiological balance until it collapses.

Anyone who thinks addiction requires daily use, or that it is simply a matter of weak willpower, holds a naive view. A few weeks are enough, even with irregular use, to induce deep neuroadaptive changes.

At that point, the brain shifts its priorities.

Cocaine becomes necessary, while everything else loses meaning. It is a restructuring of the motivational system that has nothing to do with character or morality.

The effects on the body and mind are more extensive and insidious than commonly believed: mood disorders, anxiety, panic attacks, insomnia, sexual dysfunctions, immunosuppression, hypertension, decreased libido, up to

full-blown psychotic episodes. At the same time, stress tolerance worsens, aggression increases, and behavioral control thresholds drop.

The myth of cocaine as a "high-performance drug" is, at best, a form of collective denial. There is another uncomfortable truth: not everyone carries the same risk. Some individuals are biologically more vulnerable.

Neuroscience and behavioral genetics have identified gene variants that influence reward sensitivity, dopamine regulation, and susceptibility to addiction. This does not mean that use is genetically predetermined, but that

for some individuals the neurochemical impact of cocaine is stronger, faster, and harder to interrupt. Addiction

is the tragic meeting point between a biological predisposition and an environment that facilitates its activation.

As researchers and clinicians at Helix Eventide, this is part of our work: understanding why some people

become addicted, while others do not, and how to develop personalized protocols to help people recover.

Because yes, recovery is possible, but it requires an integrated medical and psychotherapeutic intervention.

Willpower, slogans or social withdrawal are not enough. Cocaine is not a habit to break. It is a neurobiological process that must be reversed. And finally, the ethical dimension should not be forgotten. Every dose purchased directly finances global criminal systems based on exploitation, violence, murder, and agricultural slavery.

Cocaine is not just an individual issue. Quitting does not only mean saving yourself.

It means breaking a cycle that takes life away, everywhere.

- 𝐷𝑟. 𝐿𝑒𝑣𝑖𝑛𝑒 𝑆𝑝𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒𝑟

𝑆𝑝𝑒𝑐𝑖𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑠𝑡 𝑖𝑛 𝑃𝑠𝑦𝑐ℎ𝑜-𝐺𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑠