Understanding Why Bath Salts Are So Dangerous

Are you wondering why bath salts are so dangerous? Learn the facts from White Sands Treatment Center

What are bath salts and are they dangerous? Yes, this stimulant designer drug is dangerous and is a popular drug among adolescents, young adults and college students. The drug contains multiple synthetic chemicals related to cathinones, which is a naturally occurring stimulant compound in the Khat plant of East Africa and Arabia. If you are using bath salts to get high, it is important for you to know about this drug. Understanding why bath salts are so dangerous can save your life or someone you know.

What are bath salts?

The chemical nature of cathinones is similar to methamphetamines, cocaine, and MDMA, and the synthetic version of these chemicals is much more potent than the naturally occurring variety, which makes them extremely dangerous. Bath salts are marketed as a variety of products such as jewelry cleaners and plant food, with labeling that reads “not for human consumption”. It is sold in head shops, on the street, and over the internet as a brown or white crystallized powder. It can be snorted, swallowed, inhaled or injected. Bath salts are also being sold as MDMA to unsuspecting buyers.

Effects of Bath Salts

The use of bath salts increases the level of dopamine in the brain creating feelings of joy and well-being, while the stimulant effect of the drug creates an increase in activity. Bath salts side effects may include:

• Increased socialization
• Edginess, paranoia, hallucinations, panic attacks, delusions, psychosis, euphoria, depression, mood swings
• Increased sex drive, increased energy, wakefulness
• Cardiac arrest, pulmonary problems, increased heart rate and blood pressure, seizures,
• Gastrointestinal problems, nausea, vomiting
• Violent or bizarre behavior, suicidal tendencies, neurological impairment, lowered inhibitions
• Toxic poisoning, death

It is frightening to realize what bath salts do to you mentally and physically, plus the fact that it can poison and kill you too. Bath Salts are being marketed as legal merchandise to avoid detection by law enforcement agencies and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency has classified bath salts as a Schedule I controlled narcotic that is illegal to possess or sell and has a high rate of abuse potential. The drug is popular and cheap and is used by young people at clubs or raves for increased energy and wakefulness. Many young people have experienced adverse psychological symptoms, including self-harm, from bath salts that warranted visits to hospital emergency rooms and calls to poison control centers. Understanding why bath salts are so dangerous could save the lives of unsuspecting young people who think the drug is safe.

Treatment

If you are using bath salts and want to stop, you should contact a drug treatment center that is experienced in handling bath salts recovery. If you have been using bath salts for a while, you may need to enroll as an inpatient at the rehab facility and receive a minimum of 90 days of treatment, or more. Your mind and body will need time to heal and prepare you for a sober lifestyle. You should be medically assessed by the medical staff and a program unique to your challenges should be devised. The first stage of treatment should be a medically supervised detox process to get the bath salts out of your body. Some of the bath salts withdrawal symptoms that the patient may experience are:

• Depression, irritability, anxiety, mild to acute psychosis, hallucinations
• Fatigue
• Amnesia
• Concentration impairment
• Intense cravings

A drug treatment center is the safest place for you to be to receive detox from bath salts. The medical staff can administer medications to alleviate many withdrawal symptoms including the extreme psychosis. The patient will be monitored throughout the detox process and kept stable and as comfortable as possible. Withdrawal symptoms can last for 2 days to a week. After detox, the patient will begin a series of individual and group counseling sessions, behavioral therapy, relapse prevention techniques, and perhaps other treatments depending on the medical history of the patient. Regardless of what bath salts can do to you, you can recover. In time, the patient will be on the road to good mental and physical health and a sober lifestyle.

If you or a loved one needs help with abuse and/or treatment, please call the WhiteSands Treatment at (877) 855-3470. Our addiction specialists can assess your recovery needs and help you get the addiction treatment that provides the best chance for your long-term recovery.