The Hunger Games: How Stimulants & Other Drugs Kill Your Appetite

You might have noticed your loved one isn’t eating much lately. Maybe they skip meals or push food around their plate, claiming they’re not hungry. They might be losing weight fast, their mood might seem off, and somewhere deep down, you can’t shake the feeling that something’s wrong. You've heard that illicit drugs kill your appetite, but is that what's going on here?

It’s hard to imagine that drugs could be behind something as basic as appetite loss. But for many people using stimulants or other substances, this is one of the first visible warning signs. Appetite suppression, weight loss, and malnutrition often reveal what words don’t, that your loved one’s body and mind are under intense strain.

Let’s talk about why this happens, what it looks like, and how you can approach it with care and understanding.

Why Drugs Can Destroy the Desire to Eat

Your body is built to maintain balance. Hunger signals, hormones, and metabolism all work together to ensure you eat when you need fuel. But certain drugs hijack that system.

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Stimulants, like cocaine, methamphetamine, and some drugs used to treat ADHD, increase dopamine and norepinephrine in the brain. These chemicals boost alertness, focus, and energy. But they also shut down hunger cues. That’s why people using stimulants and other drugs that suppress appetite can often go for hours or even days without eating.

Substances like psychedelics and some prescription medications can alter appetite as well. They change how the brain interprets hunger and fullness, and can even trigger nausea or vomiting after small meals. Over time, it becomes a dangerous cycle that affects every system in the body.

How do Stimulants Cause Weight Loss?

Stimulants speed everything up, from the heart rate to blood pressure to metabolism and how quickly your body burns through nutrients. They also interfere with the brain’s hunger signals and slow down the gastrointestinal system, which makes food seem less appealing. When that happens, your loved one may go hours or even days without eating, often without realizing it.

When someone uses illicit drugs like cocaine or methamphetamine, their body goes into overdrive. These drugs flood the brain with dopamine, the chemical responsible for pleasure and reward. That rush of energy and euphoria suppresses appetite, increases calorie burn, and disrupts normal digestion.

The body starts consuming stored fat and muscle tissue to keep up with the constant energy demand. That’s why cocaine and weight loss are often linked, and why methamphetamine abuse can lead to severe malnutrition and weakness.

Even ADHD medications such as Adderall or Ritalin, which are designed to help people with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), can cause appetite loss when taken as prescribed. But when misused, they act like street stimulants. The brain becomes overstimulated, food feels unnecessary, and the risk of Adderall addiction increases.

Psychedelics and Appetite Loss

Psychedelics, such as LSD, psilocybin (magic mushrooms), and MDMA, affect the brain in a very different way from stimulants, but they can also lead to appetite loss. These drugs alter how the brain processes perception, mood, and sensory input. In that state, basic needs like hunger, thirst, or even sleep can feel distant or unimportant.

When your loved one uses psychedelics, the brain’s serotonin system is overstimulated. Serotonin influences mood, digestion, and how full or hungry a person feels. A sudden surge of serotonin can suppress appetite, slow down the gastrointestinal system, and sometimes cause nausea and vomiting.

During the experience, food may seem unappealing or irrelevant, leading to long periods without eating or drinking. This decrease in appetite can become a life threatening medical condition in certain situations.

While some people think psychedelics are harmless because they are not as physically addictive as stimulants, repeated use can still have severe consequences. Prolonged appetite suppression can lead to nutrient deficiencies and unintentional weight loss. In some cases, psychedelics can also worsen underlying mental health issues like depression and anxiety once the effects wear off.

How to Tell if Someone is on Drugs and Not Eating

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It’s not always easy to tell if someone is struggling with drug use, especially when appetite loss is the main clue. Sometimes that could be due to an eating disorder or other underlying conditions. But there are some tell-tale signs to watch out for:

Sudden or extreme weight loss without a clear reason
Skipping meals or saying “I already ate” when they haven’t
Using excessive amounts of caffeine or energy drinks to stay awake
Changes in sleep patterns or staying up for long periods
Noticeable changes in mood like irritability, anxiety, or emotional distance
A racing heart rate or visible jitteriness
Complaints of nausea and vomiting
Frequently avoiding social meals or family dinners
Signs of poor hygiene or exhaustion
Unexplained financial struggles or secrecy about money

You might also see classic signs of drug use, like dilated pupils, dry mouth, excessive talking, or bursts of high energy followed by long crashes. They may also show signs of withdrawal, like fatigue, irritability, intense hunger, or depression when the drugs wear off.

The Physical Dangers of Appetite Suppression

When your loved one stops eating because of drug use, the body doesn’t just lose weight. It begins to shut down vital functions. Here’s what long-term appetite loss and stimulant use can do:

Malnutrition: Without enough protein, vitamins, and minerals, the immune system weakens. Wounds heal slowly, and infections become harder to fight. The body loses strength, making it harder to recover from illness.
Digestive distress: Stimulants and other drugs slow the gastrointestinal system, leading to constipation, stomach pain, and chronic nausea and vomiting. Even when food is eaten, nutrients aren’t absorbed properly.
Organ damage: The liver and kidneys strain to filter toxins without the energy or hydration they need. Over time, this can lead to permanent damage and severe dehydration.
Heart problems: Irregular heart rate and high blood pressure put extreme pressure on the cardiovascular system. In some cases, it can lead to arrhythmias, heart failure, or stroke.
Mental health decline: Malnutrition and drug use are deeply connected. When the brain is deprived of nutrients, depression and anxiety worsen. That emotional distress can push a person to use more drugs, creating a dangerous cycle.
Severe weight loss: As the body runs out of energy, it begins breaking down its tissues for fuel. Fat and muscle waste away, leaving the person frail.

What to Do if a Loved One Loses Weight from Drugs

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If you suspect drug use, it’s natural to feel scared or unsure of what to say. You might worry about pushing them away or saying the wrong thing. The truth is, your concern matters more than you realize. That’s because it might be the one thing that breaks the silence.

When someone is using drugs and losing weight, they often don’t see the danger, or they convince themselves they have it under control. Hearing genuine concern from someone they trust can be the first step toward recognizing a problem.

Your compassion reminds them they’re not alone. Addiction thrives in secrecy, and when you speak up with care, you interrupt that isolation. You’re showing that you see them and still believe in their ability to improve.

Even if your loved one isn’t ready to talk, knowing that you’re watching out for them plants a seed. It tells them help is available, and recovery is possible. That concern can truly be the lifeline that leads them toward getting the treatment they need.

Finding the Right Support

With the proper care, your loved one can regain control of their life. Recovery is not just about quitting drugs; it is about healing the mind, restoring the body, and rebuilding a sense of purpose. The sooner they get help, the better their chances of reversing the effects of appetite loss, malnutrition, and emotional distress.

At More Than Rehab, we provide comprehensive treatment for individuals struggling with drug use and its physical and mental health effects. Our programs combine medical support, nutritional therapy, and counseling to help your loved one recover safely and fully. Whether it is stimulant misuse, Adderall addiction, or the side effects of street drugs, our team is here to guide them every step of the way.

If you have noticed your loved one losing weight, skipping meals, or showing other signs of drug use, do not wait. Reach out to MTR today and help them take the first step toward a healthier, more stable future.

888-249-2191

Crystal Meth is Making a Worrisome Comeback in Texas

While the news headlines are dominated by the opioid epidemic ravaging the United States, crystal meth is making a relatively silent, but deadly return. According to the Centers for Disease Control, the rate of overdose deaths for methamphetamine more than tripled from 2011 to 2016 and that number keeps growing to this day. This is partly due to the increase of cheap, highly potent methamphetamine coming over the US/Mexico border. With the national attention and focus on opioids by public health officials, politicians and government agencies, meth has quietly made a comeback in the US. This likely will not change course, without the proper resources and greater public awareness of the nation’s problems associated with crystal meth.

When drug overdoses began to take more American lives each year than gun violence or car accidents, the attention (and funding) from federal, state and local governments was largely focused on prescription and illicit opioids. The good news is that these efforts may actually be working.

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New provisional CDC data shows that drug overdose deaths fell significantly in 2018. This is the first decrease in decades. From the data, it appears that government efforts to prevent doctors from over-prescribing, while making it easier for first-responders to carry naloxone (a life-saving opioid-antagonist) undoubtedly have helped make a real difference in the fight to curb drug overdose deaths.

With prescription painkiller abuse on the decline, drug overdose deaths from crystal meth and fentanyl are the new problem in the United States.

Unlike illicit and prescription opiates, methamphetamine addiction does not have any FDA-approved medications to assist in treatment and rehabilitation efforts. Drugs like buprenorphine, or Suboxone are available to help ease the symptoms of opioid withdrawal. These evidence-based, medication-assisted treatments (MAT) can also help reduce the likelihood for relapse later in recovery. By blocking opioid receptors in the brain, MATs are valuable tools for addiction treatment programs. These medications have shown a verifiable success rate in patients who are struggling with an addiction to opiates.

Meth on the other hand, can cause equally painful and severe withdrawal symptoms. Currently there are no medications available to ease the withdrawal symptoms associated with a physical or psychological chemical dependency to methamphetamine. Detox and treatment for an addiction to methamphetamine can therefore be quite difficult for most patients.

Another problem with the relative lack of effective treatment options for people who become addicted to meth, the ease of access to meth is currently at an all time high. In the 1990’s and early 2000’s we witnessed a major crackdown on illegal meth labs operating within the United States. Meth labs were quite prevalent in Texas, especially in the Houston and San Antonio areas. These ranged from very small operations in an RV in the desert or in someone’s garage, to giant meth super labs in warehouses. Once the Federal Government began imposing stricter regulations on the sale and availability of pseudoephedrine (Sudafed), meth manufacturing labs pretty much became extinct in the US.

These days, the major Mexican drug cartels supply most of the crystal meth that is found in American cities and rural areas. This meth is much cheaper and more potent than ever before. The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) reports that the current price of meth is the lowest they’ve seen in years. The Mexican drug cartels, with new manufacturing techniques are also producing meth that’s more than 90 percent pure. This highly-potent crystal meth is creating an entirely new generation of addicts across the nation, at a level of epidemic proportions.

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For comparison, in 2017, 813 people died from an overdose on crystal meth, while 591 died from a heroin overdose in Texas.

One of the major complications with a substance use disorder is that the patient can be using multiple substances at any given time. Emergency responders have a difficult time with drug overdoses, because while the patient may be unconscious they have no idea how to treat the overdose. Many people who use crystal meth, are also using other substances as well. Some end up using methamphetamine in the morning and opioids at night, while trying to balance a ‘normal’ lifestyle through the use of various different drugs.

Many of the fatal overdose deaths involving methamphetamine can also be partially blamed on opioids. The extremely dangerous synthetic opiate, fentanyl has been frequently found in different batches of methamphetamine all over the country. This contamination may be intentional, or it may be the result of drug labs that produce and package different substances, where cross-contamination of different drugs may be entirely by accident.

What are the different drug rehab options for someone who is addicted to crystal meth?

The addiction treatment specialists at More Than Rehab have helped people all types of people, many of whom are struggling with an addiction to multiple substances. Our comprehensive drug rehabilitation program can help people with any type of addiction, while we can even address the underlying causes of substance abuse. We see the addiction is often just a symptom of another deeply-rooted mental health issue. This is called a dual-diagnosis and our staff is well-equipped to help people who exhibit both a substance use disorder, along with an underlying mental health issue.

Our approach to meth addiction treatment focuses on making the whole person healthy, mentally, physically and spiritually. Often an addiction is merely a symptom of unresolved trauma that has led the patient to self-medicate, while they attempt to drown-out their sorrows. Since no medication assisted treatment exists specifically to treat a meth addiction, our facility uses a robust combination of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), group therapy, contingency management and relapse prevention. A variety of other treatment techniques could be used in conjunction with these, depending on the patient’s own unique, individual needs.

If you, a family member, friend or loved one are struggling with any type of drug addiction, please give us a call as soon as possible. The longer you wait to get substance abuse treatment, the harder it can be to quit. Most people who die as a result of complications from meth abuse are from a brain hemorrhage, seizure, or a heart attack. This is especially true for older addicts, as their bodies are no longer equipped to handle a long-term episode of substance abuse.

It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been using, or how much you have used in the past. More Than Rehab can help addiction at any level of severity. If this has been a wake-up call for either yourself, or your family, or friends, please talk to someone about the problem as soon as possible. Addiction won’t go away by itself. When you’re ready to change your life for the better, give us a call. We are available 24/7 to help you when you need it.