Catha Edulis - Effects on the Body

Effects on the Body

Like all stimulants, khat increases the users' heart rate and blood pressure, makes them feel more alert, and decreases their appetite. Chewing khat produces a "highDrug-induced feelings ranging from excitement and joy to extreme grogginess." soon after it is ingested. These effects typically lessen after one and a half to three hours, but they can last for an entire day. Users report feeling energized, content, and confident, which often leads them to talk excessively. They also claim that the drug increases their powers of concentration.

Highs and Lows

Khat has amphetamine-like effects on the body. The nerve cells activated by amphetamines are numerous in the pleasure center of the brain. When the effects of khat—or any other amphetamine-like substance—wear off, users want more.

High doses or prolonged use of khat may make users appear very anxious and slightly over the edge emotionally. After the high begins to wear off, khat chewers often report feelings of drowsiness and depression. "In some cases," according to the DrugScope Web site, "it may make people feel more irritable and angry and possibly violent. psychological dependenceThe belief that a person needs to take a certain substance in order to function, whether that person really does or not. can result from regular use so that users feel depressed and low unless they keep taking it."

Long-term khat use can also bring on extreme thirst, sleeplessness, hyperactivity, hallucinationsVisions or other perceptions of things that are not really present., and nightmares. It can even lead to paranoia, or abnormal feelings of suspicion and fear. Khat has also been known to impair intellectual abilities in those who use it.

The khat addict, according to a Gulf News reporter, "passes through different psychological moods" over a five-hour time span. The best of these moods occurs at the beginning of the khat-chewing cycle, and the worst come at the end. "Joy at the beginning, silence [in] the middle, depression and worry at the end … not to mention the sleeplessness." This inability to sleep sometimes leads users to seek counteracting agents such as tranquilizers and alcohol—substances that are particularly hazardous in combination with khat.