How Meth Affects Your Mind and Body

Crystal methamphetamine (meth) is a stimulant drug with a long-lasting high and a severe comedown.

Because meth can cause feelings of pleasure and an increased sex drive, the drug is often used in wired play or chemsex.

Wired play describes the intersection of sex, drugs, and alcohol, while chemsex specifically describes sex under the influence of meth or G. Both are common among gay, bi+, and men who have sex with men.

How long does meth stay in your system?

You can feel the effects of meth for several hours, but the drug can stay in your system for much longer. Only half of the meth you’ve used will leave your body after 12 hours.

How does meth change your mood?

Meth often makes people feel happy, confident, and energetic because it significantly increases the amount of dopamine in the brain.

Dopamine is responsible for good feelings, like pleasure or satisfaction. For example, when you have sex, your brain naturally releases dopamine, which makes you feel good.

Everyone enjoys feeling good. However, using meth releases much more dopamine than natural sources, like having sex when sober. This massive flood of dopamine can make you feel euphoric.

Over time, your brain adjusts to these high dopamine levels and becomes numb to natural sources of pleasure. The dopamine released from sober activities, even sex, no longer feels as good.

Because of this, many meth users feel compelled to take higher doses of the drug to chase the euphoric feeling from their first use.

But when drugs disrupt the brain's natural dopamine systems, good moods are harder to come by.

It can be challenging for meth users to feel excitement, happiness, or pleasure from anything other than meth. Frequent meth use can lead to periods of feeling depressed, apathetic, and hopeless when not using the drug.

How does meth affect your mental health?

In addition to feeling down or depressed between meth use, frequent users may also experience mental health issues like anxiety, paranoia, or psychosis.

Anxiety typically involves feelings of self-doubt and excessive worry, while paranoia can make individuals feel like they can't trust others or that everyone is out to get them. It can be very challenging for people experiencing paranoia to overcome their fear of others.

Paranoia is also a common symptom of psychosis.

About a third of frequent meth users in Australia will experience psychosis throughout their lifetime. Psychosis can cause symptoms such as paranoia, hallucinations, and unusual or agitated behaviour.

Researchers are still exploring the science behind why some meth users' brains react to the drug with these mental health issues while others do not. However, it is important to be aware of these potential side effects to ensure you can seek help if necessary.

How can you change your relationship with meth?

If you’ve noticed changes in how you think, feel or behave, you might be considering changing your relationship with meth. Whether you want to just explore or decrease your meth use, we can help.

Our team provides alcohol and other drug support for LGBTIQA+ people looking to evolve their relationships with substances through counselling and peer support groups like ReWired.

ReWired is a free, eight-week program for men who have sex with men aimed at helping you learn skills and strategies to change your meth use and better manage your mental health. ReWired can be delivered online and offers the option of anonymity for those who might be curious but are not yet ready to connect with others openly.

You can also access one of our other services like counselling, brief intervention, and recovery support by filling out our referral form here.