Alcohol Detox
Alcohol detox can kill you.
Alcohol detox is the most dangerous.
It's hard to see the risks on the horizon when enjoying a few beers with friends, but for those that drink to excess, and for those that drink so much that they change the way their brain works, stopping alcohol too suddenly can cause convulsions, hallucinations and even heart stopping seizures.
Thankfully, with medical supervision and appropriate medications, alcohol detox may proceed in complete safety and with far greater comfort; and because of the risks inherent in an alcohol detox, no one with a serious dependency to alcohol should attempt an unsupervised alcohol detox.
Why is alcohol detox so dangerous?
Alcohol is a depressant, and it depresses the activity level of the brain. The brain always strives for equilibrium, and to compensate for the continual presence of alcohol it increases its sensitivity to excitatory endogenous neurotransmitters. If you abruptly stop drinking, the brain remains sensitive to excitatory neurotransmitters, and without alcohol slowing it down the brain races forward; causing a great many unpleasant and dangerous side effects.
What are some symptoms of alcohol detox?
Alcohol detox occurs over two phases. The first and acute phase of detox and withdrawal occurs over a period of a few days, and it's during this initial period that detox can be fatal. The second and far longer phase of prolonged withdrawal can occur over months as the brain slowly regulates and returns to a normal state of functioning. Although the second phase of detox can induce some lingering symptoms, these symptoms are not dangerous.
Possible Initial detox symptoms
- Insomnia
- Nausea
- Shakiness
- Hallucinations
- Anxiety
- Delirium tremens
- Convulsions
- Seizures
- Heart failure
The severity and occurrence of symptoms varies with personal histories of abuse and individual physiology, but the risks of detox extend to all serious abusers.
Treatment
Thankfully, although an un-medicated alcohol detox can kill you, small doses of certain prescription medications can render the period of detox far safer, and much more comfortable. Most commonly, benzodiazepine like drugs are used to mimic the depressive effects of alcohol, controlling the racing of the brain, and allowing the alcoholic to transition more gently from an abrupt stoppage of drinking.
The dosage of these medications needs close monitoring, and for utmost safety and greatest comfort, continual medical observation is recommended.
Long term withdrawal symptoms will diminish in intensity gradually over the course of the initial months of abstinence. These long term symptoms of detox include insomnia, anxiety and cravings. There are some medications such as naltrexone and acamprosate that may ease these cravings, but only time and continuing sobriety can truly end long term detox.
After detox
Detox can be a tough few days, yet real recovery only begins with the end of psychical withdrawal symptoms. Detox does nothing to change the initial problems that led to alcohol abuse, does not teach any strategies to relapse avoidance, and does not offer any education about the disease of alcoholism.
With the end of detox, recovering alcoholics reemerge into the clarity of sobriety and are at last ready to really participate honestly in the therapies of long term recovery. With clarity, motivation, and an intense participation in therapeutic programming, recovering alcoholics free from physical addiction have a great opportunity to make a lasting change away from abuse, and to a life of happy sobriety.
Detox is always a beginning, but should never be an end to treatment.
