Purple drank, also known as “lean,” is both an addictive and harmful drug cocktail. It can lead to long-term dependency, dangerous behavioral changes, and significant side effects. While purple drank is commonly consumed in social settings, it is important to understand the main purple drank effects.
Unlike other highly addictive and illegal drug habits, purple drank is made from common household items and over-the-counter medicines. This makes the cocktail easily accessible to addicts without the need for clinical vetting, such as local pharmacists vetting patients for harmful prescription usage.
If you’re a patient that is struggling with lean and purple drank side effects, like mental and physical health issues, please visit Crestview Recovery’s substance use treatment center in Portland Oregon for lean addiction rehab. But if you’re a parent, friend, or caregiver that needs to understand more about purple drank and lean dependency keep reading to understand the key side effects of purple drank, and the chemical compounds that make lean harmful for users:
What Is Purple Drank?
Purple drank is a homemade cocktail that contains opioid-based medications and juices to create a more consumable product. Purple drank is often confused with other types of drug cocktails seen in popular culture, music, and entertainment mediums like television shows.
Specifically, purple drank is a mix of prescription cough syrup with promethazine that contains a grape-flavored juice, fizzy soda beverage, and sometimes candies. The higher-grade cough syrup is easier for the drinker to consume. It allows patients to simply sip their beverage over time and feel the effects of the promethazine faster.
The sensation of the drink can create a long-term euphoria that lasts over six hours. Sometimes, more intense addicts will add other substances including alcohol to create an even stronger effect.
What Are Purple Drank Effects?
Purple drank users can experience many harmful physical symptoms due to the damaging effects of recreational opioid use/consumption. The impacts of long-term purple drank on the brain can lead to the following physical symptoms:
- Slow and slurred speech
- Slower heart rate and coronary issues
- Lower balance, coordination, and motor skill function
- Drowsiness and sleeping difficulty, and dental issues
- Vision and eye health issues such as uncontrolled eye movement
- Digestive and urinary problems
In addition, what many users don’t understand is that it is possible to overdose on purple drank. Just like other volatile opioids, purple drank and lean can lead to overdose and bodily shutdown.
What are the Symptoms?
The most common mental health impact of purple drank use is an addiction, which can manifest as soon as users begin to consume lean more than once. However, the list of mental health symptoms is quite long when individuals develop lean and purple drank dependence.
Purple drank users may experience hallucinations and even seizures if they use purple drank recreationally. Users also experience intense irritability when sober, sudden mood swings, disconnect from friends and family, and a loss of interests or hobbies.
Purple Drank Addiction Treatment Is the Answer
Purple drank addiction treatment is designed to help individuals overcome their physical and psychological dependence on this recreational drug. Treatment typically includes counseling, medications, and lifestyle changes to address the underlying issues associated with purple drank use. The goals of treatment are to help the person understand how their substance use affects them, build coping skills for managing cravings, and eventually become abstinent from purple drank. Treatment can take place in an outpatient setting or residential facility depending on the severity of the addiction. Inpatient treatment provides a supervised environment with 24/7 support to help individuals avoid relapse and remain sober long-term.
During treatment, individuals are also encouraged to participate in activities such as yoga, art therapy, and meditation to help them better cope with cravings, build positive coping skills, and improve their overall mental health. With the right support and dedication, individuals can learn to live a healthy life without purple drank.
Get Help Today
If you know someone that is struggling with lean dependency, call a local rehab facility in order to begin treatment. Only an expert team of clinical and behavioral staff can address intense mental and physical withdrawals of purple drank use, so please contact Crestview Recovery at 866.262.0531 if you have any questions about purple drank effects.
Since 2016, Dr. Merle Williamson, a graduate of Oregon Health Sciences University, has been the Medical Director at Crestview Recovery, bringing a rich background in addiction medicine from his time at Hazelden Treatment Center. He oversees outpatient drug and alcohol treatments, providing medical care, setting policies, detox protocols, and quality assurance measures. Before specializing in addiction medicine, he spent 25 years in anesthesiology, serving as Chair of Hospital Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee and Chief of Anesthesia at Kaiser Permanente. This experience gives him a unique perspective on treating prescription drug addiction.
