Psychotherapy
Contingency management — which rewards drug-free progress — has the strongest evidence, alongside cognitive behavioural therapy, motivational interviewing and relapse prevention.
Condition
Stimulant Use Disorder
The highs may feel like energy, but the crashes don’t have to be a way of life.
Stimulants include cocaine, methamphetamine, amphetamines and MDMA. Stimulant use disorder is when use becomes hard to control, with intense cravings and harm to mental health, relationships or physical health.
Stimulants cause a powerful surge of energy and pleasure, followed by a crash of exhaustion and low mood that can drive further use. Heavy use can lead to paranoia, psychosis and strain on the heart.
Psychological treatments — especially approaches that reward progress — are effective, and many people regain stability with consistent support.
Understand the person. Understand the problem. Find the right path forward.
How it may show up
What Stimulant Use Disorder can look like
Everyone’s experience is different. You may recognise some of these, and not others.
Thoughts
- Intense, sudden cravings
- Racing thoughts while using
- Suspicious or paranoid thinking
Emotions
- Euphoria followed by deep lows
- Irritability or agitation
- Anxiety and restlessness
Body
- Racing heart or chest pain
- Little sleep, then exhaustion
- Weight loss and poor appetite
- Teeth grinding or jaw clenching
Behaviour
- Binges over several days
- Risky or impulsive decisions
- Spending large sums of money
- Neglecting work and family
Understanding the condition
The stimulant cycle
Stimulants flood the brain’s reward system, creating a strong high. The crash that follows — low mood, exhaustion, craving — makes using again feel like the only way to feel normal, and the cycle tightens over time.
- Trigger
- Craving
- Use
- High
- Crash
- Repetition
…and the cycle repeats.
Assessment at Psymate
The right treatment begins with the right understanding.
- Presenting symptoms
- Severity
- Duration and course
- Functional impact
- Associated psychiatric symptoms
- Physical and neurological factors
- Sleep
- Substance use
- Previous treatment
- Family history where relevant
- Risk and safety
- Type, route, quantity and pattern of stimulant use
- Screening for psychotic, mood and anxiety symptoms
- Heart health review, including ECG where appropriate
- Use of alcohol, sedatives or other substances to come down
Start with a conversation
A clinician will take a careful history with you — and, where it helps, with people who know you well — to understand what is happening.
Psychiatry — the clinical core
Psychiatry means more than medication.
Your psychiatrist brings together diagnosis, clinical formulation, treatment selection, coordination of care, measurement and review.
PsychotherapyPharmacotherapyNeuromodulationLifestyle & Sleep InterventionsFamily CareRehabilitation
One person. One clinical plan. Multiple therapeutic modalities.
Treatment
How Stimulant Use Disorder is treated
Treatment is planned around you. These are the core approaches your care may draw on.
Explore Psymate Therapy
Pharmacotherapy
There is currently no medication approved specifically for stimulant use disorder. Medication may help with sleep, the low mood after stopping, or psychotic symptoms, and is closely monitored and reviewed.
Emerging evidence
Neuromodulation
TMS is being actively researched for reducing stimulant craving and early results are promising, but it is not yet a standard treatment.
Additional care
Care shaped around this condition
Crash & Withdrawal Support
Monitoring and support through the low mood, exhaustion and sleep changes that follow stopping, when the risk of relapse and of suicidal thoughts can be higher.
Integrated care pathway
One connected path, from first conversation to lasting change.
- ASSESSA full picture of what you are experiencing
- UNDERSTANDA clear formulation, shared with you
- PERSONALISEA plan built around your goals
- TREATContingency management + CBT + Relapse prevention
- MEASUREProgress tracked, not assumed
- REFINECare adjusted as you change
What recovery can look like
Recovery is more than fewer symptoms.
Stable sleep and energy
Calmer mood without the crashes
Improved heart and physical health
Financial stability
Stronger relationships and routine
Cravings tend to ease with time away from stimulants, and steady support helps people get through the hardest early weeks.
When to seek help
Consider an assessment when:
- You binge for days at a time
- You feel very low or exhausted after using
- You have noticed paranoia or unusual experiences
- Symptoms are persistent or keep coming back
- They are causing you significant distress
- They are affecting relationships, work or education
- They are interfering with daily functioning
- They are becoming difficult to control
Urgent help
- Chest pain, very high temperature, seizures or collapse after using — call emergency services
- Severe paranoia, hallucinations or suicidal thoughts during use or the crash
- Immediate risk of suicide
- Serious risk of self-harm
- Severe behavioural disturbance
- Being unable to keep yourself or others safe
- An acute medical or psychiatric emergency
The Psymate promise
What you can expect from us
- You will be heard.
- Your symptoms will be understood in context.
- Your treatment will be planned, not simply prescribed.
- Your progress will be measured.
- Your care will evolve with you.
You are a person before you are a diagnosis.
Begin Care
You don’t need to know what treatment you need before seeking help.
That is what assessment is for.
PSYMATE
Passion for healing meets the power of technology.
Science-led. Human-centred. Connected across the journey.