Suffering from alcohol addiction or know a loved one who is? Here we go into detail about alcohol detox, various treatments available for you and how you can benefit from going to treatment for your addiction.
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What Is A Alcohol Detox?
Alcohol Detox is the first step when it comes to treating alcoholism. A detox helps flush alcohol from your system over a certain amount of time depending on the severity of your alcohol consumption over time. Typically withdrawal symptoms will become less intense approx 7 to 14 days after starting alcohol detox but as we spoke before sometimes detoxing can take longer depending on the patient.
The reason why this is the first step in alcohol addiction rehab once the alcohol has been detoxed from your system, you can start to focus more on the other parts of recovery such as physical activities in the rehabilitation centre to help improve your health, therapy sessions and group counselling where you can share your thoughts with other people struggling with addiction to help support each other.
Alcohol is a depressant or also known as a ‘downer’ that your body will start to depend on it if you have been drinking regularly over time. Your brain will in due course stop producing certain chemicals that it gets from consuming alcohol eventually you will become dependent on alcohol.
That is why when you start to quit drinking alcohol, it’s going to take a certain amount of time for your body to adjust. This is when you’ll begin to start feeling alcohol withdrawal symptoms such as pounding headaches, strong fever, an irregular heartbeat pattern and hallucinations.
A lot of people are hesitant to quit drinking because of the withdrawal symptoms that you experience when doing an alcohol detox. Some will experience only mild effects due to alcoholism but people who have been abusing alcohol for years can face extreme pain when stopping so it’s important to seek out medical advice.
One of the big dangers of alcohol withdrawals is you can’t pinpoint what alcohol withdrawal symptoms you are going to get and at what time so it’s key to get care from medical professionals. Experienced medical professionals will be able to manage your pain based on your situation and prescribe medication that may be needed to help you in your recovery to get better.
Symptoms Of Alcohol Withdrawal
Going through an alcohol detox phase can involve different types of withdrawal symptoms that can vary from mild intensity to potentially life-threatening. The longevity you’ve been consuming alcohol and the severity that you’ve drunk play into it. An example a heavier drink who’ve been abusing alcohol for years is more prone to having seizures when detoxing.
These are some of the mild symptoms of alcohol withdrawal that people can experience –
- Feeling Anxiety
- Heavily Sweating Or Mild Sweating
- Feeling Of Sickness (Nausea)
- Being Tired But Can’t Sleep (Insomina)
- Headaches
Some of the most serious symptoms are –
- Uncontrollable Shaking
- Seizures
- Beginning To Hallucinate
- Aren’t Aware Of Their Surroundings
Alcohol detox should always be undertaken in a rehabilitation centre that is monitored by trained medical staff. Your rehab treatment specialist will be able to track everything from your current heart rate and your blood pressure so your condition doesn’t get worse. Rehab treatment specialists are always there to talk as well if you are beginning to feel the symptoms or experiencing a high amount of pain. Giving them this information can make your detox experience easier as they can determine what the next moves are to treat your alcoholism.
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Alcohol Detox Time
There is no exact timeline for alcohol detox or what withdrawal you’ll feel at a certain time but we’ve created a general outline of what is most common. Some symptoms can start to come to the surface as little as a couple of hours after your last alcoholic drink. Most painful withdrawal symptoms from alcohol abuse will stop being extreme in the first week or two but some mild ones can last a few weeks and in some cases a year.
Here is what you can expect from an alcohol detox:
6 - 12 Hours In
These symptoms are mild but can get worse over the hours which include headaches, and tremors, you can start becoming irritable as your body is craving a drink and in some cases, you can become overtaken by a strong feeling of nausea.
1 Day In
As you finish the 24 hours of your alcohol detox, your symptoms can start picking up in a more severe manner. You may start continuing to have the mild symptoms that you experienced for 12 hours but you may start feeling other symptoms such as starting to lose perception of your surroundings and seizures.
2 Days In
Like the first day, the most severe symptoms will continue to happen well into the second day. As the body is trying to remove the alcohol from your system you may start experiencing hallucinations and your anxiety may start becoming more extreme turning into panic attacks.
Days 3-7
A week in these withdrawal symptoms will come and go. The first week is when you are most likely to experience life-threatening symptoms such as delirium tremens, if you have any extreme pain you can always speak to the specialists in your rehab centre who can offer you support.
After The First Week
When completed the first week of alcohol detox, the withdrawal symptoms will begin to calm down. You can feel the symptoms for weeks but most are minor and if needed can be treated with prescribed medicated doses by medical treatment staff.
Some people will experience PAWS or as it’s known is Post-Acute Withdrawal Symptoms these are prolonged symptoms of alcohol detoxing. Some of these PAWS are having low amounts of energy, being uncomfortable when sleeping and can be overcome by anxiety at certain times.
Getting rehab for alcohol detox is the best and most effective way to prevent any serious from happening to yourself or a loved one as they can keep track of patients to guide them successfully through their rehab.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Have questions about alcohol detox treatment programs? Get the answers and learn more about rehab with these frequently asked questions.
Rehabilitation centres are equipped with the resources necessary to detoxify your body from alcohol. If you want to go through a process of rehabilitation and sobriety, then this is something that needs to be done before any other steps can be taken. There are many types of rehab and alcohol detoxes that have been proven effective. It’s important to find one that will best suit your individual needs.
Rehab is a place where you can go to get help for your addiction. It’s the perfect place to go if you’re looking for support and guidance in getting sober. It’s important that you make the decision to get sober and work on your recovery, but it’s also important that you have someone there to guide you through this process. A rehab will be able to provide this type of support and give you the tools needed to get of alcohol .