Alcohol detox is basically when you stop drinking alcohol and your body fights to purge the alcohol. This is the ‘cold turkey’ period that everyone has heard about.
This is where the substitution of ‘cross-tolerant drugs’ can be used to lessen the withdrawal effects. These withdrawal effects can sometimes prove fatal. it is extremely important that any alcohol detox is undertaken with close supervision, preferably by someone with a medical background.
Symptoms
Mild or moderate symptoms include shakiness, anxiety, rapid emotion changes, inability to think clearly, and tiredness. Some of the more physical reactions can be headaches, nausea, loss of appetite, inability to sleep, and general twitching.
The symptoms can be much more severe in those with a longer history of alcohol misuse. These can include delirium tremens (DT’s). The main signs of this are confusion, disorientation, and intense hallucinations. Sometimes there can be convulsions and blackouts.
Treatment
Withdrawal can be treated with sedation. This is usually done with benzodiazepines.
Large doses are sometimes required to keep the patient completely sedated or to prevent death. Benzodiazepines include – diazpam, lorazepam, and oxazepam.
Alcohol detox must be treated with care and compassion. Each person is different and the treatment should be individual. Treatment must also include provision of vitamins and nutrients.
One more thing to point out is that the benzodiazepines are in themselves addictive and are often inappropriately prescribed. I understand that, in some cases, there is no alternative but to prescribe them. For many who must go through alcohol detox, there are other, more natural ways, of relieving the milder symptoms.