Meth Mites

A Personal Story of How Meth Abuse Took Over My Life

Meth addiction not only destroyed my body, but it nearly made me lose my sanity as well. Chronic meth abuse causes physical and psychological damage that a lot of other drugs don’t. For me personally, I would stay awake for days on end and neglect all aspects of my health. Terrible skin sores, often caused by my belief that meth mites were crawling under my skin, were an accessory I wore nearly every day.

My methamphetamine abuse lasted almost a decade, but I finally got it under control with the help of Icarus in New Mexico. When meth addiction entered my life, I was already at a very low point. I was homeless, unemployed, and had lost all interest in trying to fix my life. I was an alcoholic and had dabbled with other drugs, but when I first tried meth I was hooked immediately.

Whether or not meth has had a chance to bring you as low as it did me, or not, please keep reading my story if you or someone you loved is using meth and wants a chance at living life clean and sober.

The Far-Reaching Effects Of Meth

Meth causes a tremendous amount of harm to every part of your body. Meth users deal with issues such as severe tooth decay, intense itching, and skin infections. These issues usually occur because meth users suffer from poor hygiene. Long-term meth users develop a sickly look as a result of methamphetamine use disorder.

When you suffer from meth addiction, getting a handle on your mental health is much more difficult. It’s impossible to make any positive decisions. Nothing matters other than getting more meth and avoiding all other responsibilities. You can overcome a meth addiction, but it will take every bit of energy that you’ve got. Read more to figure out how you can finally get rid of meth in your life.

The Deep Damage Done by My Meth Abuse

There were a lot of negative consequences as a result of my meth addiction, but the one that really messed with my head was meth mites. Meth mites, also known as meth bugs, are imaginary bugs that you believe are crawling all over your skin. This is usually caused by meth-induced psychosis. Methamphetamine users often suffer from hallucinations as a result of meth-induced psychosis.

Meth psychosis along with the intense itching that comes from meth addiction often leads to meth mites. It’s hard to believe that you can get to this point. If you told me years before my meth abuse that I would think I had imaginary bugs crawling all over me, I’d have laughed. But once you get deep enough into your addiction, you will overlook things like this.

Meth Sores and Hallucinations Like You Wouldn’t Believe

Because there is so much skin picking associated with meth use, methamphetamine users often develop sores all over their body. These open sores can often get infected, and further compromise a meth user’s personal hygiene. It isn’t hard to spot a meth user when they are covered in sores from head to toe. Meth sores are brutal, and they aren’t even the worst of the health problems associated with meth use.

Another couple of scary side effects of meth abuse are hallucinations. I suffered from auditory hallucinations that caused a lot of fear and paranoia. I would think people were talking about me behind my back, and would often develop a lot of conflict with other meth users because of this. When you don’t sleep for days on end, you begin to hear and see things that aren’t there.

I also remember running and hiding often, always thinking friends (or at least fellow drug users) were always out to get me. Sleeping outside in a tent and not having any sense of security as an addict living on the streets did not help. Besides the damage done by meth, the constant fear and paranoia can be even more damaging to a person’s health.

Creepy Crawlies: When the Meth Mites Come to Play

When it comes to seeing things, the worst was what I later learned is a hallucination specifically called formication, the belief that ‘crank bugs’ and insects are crawling underneath a person’s skin. I can’t even think of how many hours I spent investigating my pores, prying them open, and causing skin sores to erupt everywhere on my body.

Now it makes me shudder to even think about it, but during those times, way up high on a crystal cloud, I really thought I was cleaning myself out and looking good while doing it. Talk about insanity.

Meth Mouth and Getting My Smile Back

Chronic meth abuse can cause tooth grinding, which results in cracked and damaged teeth. This is known as meth mouth, and it’s another telltale sign of meth addiction. We’ve all seen the before and after photos of what drugs like meth do to you. It’s shocking to see the physical decline that meth users go through.

When you are living this way, you eventually stop noticing it. Cold sores, canker sores, and meth sores of all kinds just became a fact of life, whether I wanted them to or not.

When I finally got clean, I had to have a lot of reconstructive work done to my mouth. It took over a year of dentist appointments to get my mouth somewhat back to normal. When you’ve done so much damage to your body, it can be extremely difficult to fix it following a period of sobriety. My overall health was so diminished that by the time I got to rehab, my brain functions were compromised.

Overlooking The Consequences Of Drug Abuse

When you suffer from drug abuse, nothing matters except the drugs. Even when my condition was obvious to everyone around me, I thought I had people fooled. My crystal meth addiction made me develop blinders. If someone questioned my appearance or behavior, I would always have an excuse. I would explain away the side effects of meth as some other kind of physical disorder. Nobody was fooled by my lies.

When you are this deep into a drug addiction, medical treatment goes out the window. It’s not like I was going to the doctor or dentist regularly. I went years without any kind of medical treatment, despite all of the health risks that my meth addiction had caused.

With meth sores all over my body, teeth falling out of my mouth, and my skin looking like I was a zombie, there was nothing anyone could tell me that would make me get help.

Overcoming Stimulant Abuse Is Not Easy

It took a major event for me to finally seek help. The sleep deprivation I suffered from led me to stay awake for over a week. Completely out of my mind and hallucinating, I walked out into traffic and got hit by a car. I ended up in the hospital for several days and went through a horrible withdrawal.

Everyone in the hospital knew I was a meth addict, and pleaded with me to seek help. I was told if I continued my meth use, I would probably be dead within a year.

Despite going through meth withdrawal at the time, I was finally able to think somewhat clearly because I was away from the drugs. I finally began thinking about my mortality and the dangerous road that I was going down. I looked in the mirror and finally started to notice all the damage meth had done to me. The skin infections, weight loss, and meth mouth finally became obvious to me.

The Moment Of Clarity That Kept Me Alive

Most addicts find themselves giving recovery a chance following a moment of clarity. When you are actively engaging in substance abuse, you will avoid every opportunity to get help until things get extremely drastic. Having multiple doctors telling me how bad my addiction was finally struck a nerve. My crystal meth abuse had ravaged my body and left me a shell of myself.

I was finally sick and tired of being sick and tired. I knew that it would be hard to not go back to my substance abuse, but I was willing to give sobriety a chance. I hadn’t been sober for so many years that I didn’t know how to go through one day without being under the influence.

Leaving Drug Abuse Behind at Last

I was finally able to overcome my addiction to meth with a lot of hard work and the right treatment plan in place. When I got to Icarus in New Mexico, the first few days were very uncomfortable. It took every bit of energy in me to stay put and suffer through overwhelming physical and mental withdrawal. After a few weeks, the meth sores began to go away, and I finally had a little bit of life back in my face.

I began attending support groups and continued to attend them after my stay at Icarus. Developing healthy habits was key to keeping me on the right track. I had suffered from severe malnutrition during my meth addiction but began to get better once I started eating healthy and exercising. I still felt the urge to use it fairly often, but within a month or two I was finally able to get rid of meth from my body.

Reach Out for Support at Icarus and Let Them Help Today

A person’s body can only handle so much as a result of methamphetamine abuse. Many meth addicts never reach the point where they give recovery a chance. Luckily for me, I had my moment of clarity and realized that this was not the life I wanted to live.

It was a moment that changed my life for the better. If I could get clean after a life-threatening addiction such as mine, it’s possible for even the worst addict.

If you are reading my story and abusing meth, let this be your call to action. Reach out and give the folks at Icarus a chance, they helped me more than I can put into words and will give you support for recovery too.

Pick up the phone now: your life is worth saving!