It’s a common New Year’s resolution: “I’m going to quit drinking.” It is actually the 4th most common resolution, coming in after “lose weight”, “quit smoking” and “start a savings account.” Why do so many people make it a resolution? And what is so hard about stopping drinking?
First, it is hard because alcohol is a socially acceptable drug. It is even, to an extent, acceptable to abuse alcohol. Visit any college campus and you will see ample proof. Since it is a legal drug, it can take years for alcohol abuse to be recognized. The coworker who buys a 12-pack every night on his way home from work seems just fine during the day. Uncle Arnie who always gets plastered at family get togethers seems like a harmless enough guy. He takes a cab home, so everything is fine, right? The addictive behavior
Here’s the truth: alcohol is one of the hardest drugs to kick. Alcohol detox is one of the most dangerous treatments in the drug treatment world. The risk of seizure and death is severe. Why is that?
Your brain is an amazing organ with millions of receptors just waiting to be bathed in the warmth of alcohol. Once you give the brain alcohol on a regular basis, it starts expecting it. In the later stages of alcoholism, people wake up from a dead sleep craving alcohol. What the brain wants, the brain gets, one way or another.
As I said, alcohol detox is serious stuff. People sometimes want to detox on their own. With so many wonderful alcohol detox centers to choose from, it is silly to think of doing it on your own. It is also dangerous. A few alcohol detox symptoms include: insomnia, diarrhea, anxiety, high blood pressure and seizures. As you can see, they go from bad to worse. The seizures are caused by the brain convulsing when it does not get its way — when it is deprived of alcohol.
Luckily alcohol does leave the body fairly quickly, so a full detox can be accomplished in (usually) 48 hours. Once you check into an alcohol detox clinic, you will be given a battery of tests. Then they set you up on an IV. Usually a mild sedative is administered. Stronger sedatives are sometimes given because they help keep anxiety down. Severe cases of alcoholism may result in paranoia during detox, so total sedation might be the only option for someone in that stage of alcoholism.
One last thing of note: it gets harder each time you try to quit drinking and fail. Your brain learns what worked to send you back to the bottle and it will use all means necessary to achieve the chemical high. So do yourself a favor, quit drinking the first time.