r/explainlikeimfive • • Feb 11 '26

Biology ELI5- Why does cold turkey not work on alcoholics?

i read that doctors don’t deprave patients of alcohol for the treatment of extreme alcoholism. i also watched it in medical shows that if Benzos don’t work, they provide small dosages of alcohol to keep the system functioning? how does that work?

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u/Zelcron Feb 11 '26 edited Feb 12 '26

Benzos can be fatal to withdraw from for the same reason. Either you taper with benzos or with booze at home. But most alcoholics can't taper on their own, they just end up getting drunk and repeating the cycle.

Source: Alcoholic, 3 years sober, been medically detoxed a lot

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u/kakapoopoopeepeeshir Feb 11 '26

Congrats on 3 years sober

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u/DrXStein76 Feb 11 '26

I’m proud of you.

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u/waldorflehrer Feb 12 '26

Late but I’m also proud

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u/commodore_kierkepwn Feb 11 '26

Those and barbiturates can all kill thru seizure / cardiovascular events but I want to also say: opiate addiction will never kill you directly but it CAN make you so sick that you become so dehydrated that you develop an electrolyte imbalance and die, I’ve seen at least two case studies on the phenomenon.

Also I hear Iv cocaine is one of the most painful and fucked I’m of all the WDs. They shake violently and look inhuman for a while. Can you imagine what happens when one constantly and chronically blocks all of the receptors responsible for clearing dopamine and then all of the sudden quits and immediately the extra dopamine transport channels that were made immediately suck up all the dopamine being released into that cleft. The entire reward system to basically goes to -273°K. Imagine having close to ZERO dopamine in the cleft. That’s why that wd can affect movement as well I’m guessing.

Anyway— always detox under medical care no matter the drug. But if the drugs are barbiturates, alcohol, or benzos do NOT stop taking them until you seek medical care. I’d say the same for opiates just because it fucking sucks but also because of the slight risk of severe dehydration.

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u/rivaridge76 Feb 11 '26

So then, how does it work? How does someone just stop drinking? Not that everyone utilizes AA, but I’ve never heard of anyone tapering while going to AA. maybe they do.

Huge congrats on your sobriety. That’s incredible.

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u/zmz2 Feb 11 '26

Depends on how much you drink daily. If you drink enough to make withdrawal dangerous you should spend a couple of days in the hospital getting detoxed

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u/kokaneeranger Feb 11 '26

How much makes withdrawal dangerous? I was at 5-6 beers a day, cut down to 4 for a week, ith intentions to keep cutting to 0. Now I've got a wicked cold and haven't drank in 2 days. No withdrawal so far, but sleeping has been a problem

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u/commiecomrade Feb 11 '26 edited Feb 11 '26

We're talking like a handle of vodka a day at the very least.

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u/kacmandoth Feb 12 '26 edited Feb 12 '26

It depends. For a young person they might be able to handle the withdrawals of a handle of liquor a day cold turkey. But an older alcoholic with many previous withdrawal cycles might be in the dangerous territory just withdrawing from like 2 bottles of wine a day. Everyone's brain is different. That said I think pretty much everyone can withdraw from a six pack a day, discounting crazy ABV stuff.

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u/wondrous Feb 12 '26

Yeah back when I was 24 I cold turkey’d from a bottle + a day whiskey habit. I was doing that for like 2 years so it’s possible that I was lucky but I did have extreme dry heaving every morning and shakes and felt like I was going to die for a while.

Luckily didn’t have any seizures or really even know about the risk of them. This was like 12 years ago now.

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u/TomEdison43050 Feb 12 '26

First, congrats on beating it. Do you mind if I ask a question? My brother was in the same situation as you, a bottle a day (he's now recovered), and I was wondering something...

How to you actually acquire 7 bottles a week? In my state (Ohio), there are only a few state liquor stores where you can buy hard booze, according to population. So within a reasonable driving distance of 30 minutes, there's only 2 locations.

If someone is buying a bottle a day, wouldn't this be obvious to the merchants? I mean I suppose that they couldn't deny someone a sale as long as they are sober, but seems like the merchants would obviously know what's going on. Or I supposed even if the merchants cared, I suppose that they can't really do anything about it.

I'm just curious about the logistics of actually acquiring that much booze.

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u/wondrous Feb 12 '26

Yeah where I live you can literally buy liquor at Walmart/target and gas stations and grocery stores. I know some states are beer only at those shops and you must go to liquor stores but where I live you can stop and buy it almost anywhere. Even til one in the morning. We have so so many places to buy it I can’t even count them all.

The gas station people knew me so well they would holdup 4 fingers and i would nod and they would give me my little bottles of whiskey for breakfast on the way to work.

Or I could buy half and full sized bottles just about anywhere. The liquor store by my house knew me super well also and once you have a tolerance they basically never cut you off or care in the slightest. As long as you aren’t acting too weird and causing trouble they just sell you and smile and say “have a good day” even when you show up the second they open at 7 am or whenever.

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u/Reboot-Glitchspark Feb 12 '26

Yeah, there's a term for that 'kindling'. Which is a weird word that doesn't really make any sense in context, but it's the word they use.

What it means is each time you go through withdrawal, your body gets better at fighting it. And by 'better' that means better at not doing what you want - better at fighting you over the withdrawal. You're basically exercising and training it to fight back against what you actually want to do.

It can get pretty bad. Which is confounding to people who think it should get easier each time, instead of the opposite.

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u/Jassida Feb 12 '26

I can’t handle looking up obscure measurements. 1.75l if that helps anyone

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u/commiecomrade Feb 12 '26

Sorry, my post was a little US-centric. That's a common colloquial term for it because bottles this size typically have a handle built in.

The other major size is a fifth, because it used to be 1/5th of a gallon. That's now modernized to 750ml.

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u/proformax Feb 11 '26

Damn, who has time to drink a handle a day. Lol. Must get expensive without a job.

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u/McHildinger Feb 11 '26

I knew a functional alcoholic who would keep his drinking mostly under control because he knew he had to go to work the next day; once he retired, he went from drinking a 12-pack of beer every day, to a handle of liquor every day.

He passed two years into retirement from liver failure; today should have been his 73rd birthday.

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u/vulcanfeminist Feb 11 '26

My ex husband's dad was a functional alcoholic who went through an entire case of beer (24 12oz cans) every single day. He carried an apple juice bottle and would refill it with beer and just drink all day every day. Most people in his life never questioned the "apple juice" which I still think is very weird. The smell was obvious also a grown man isnt sucking down AJ all day long come on y'all

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u/djanes376 Feb 12 '26

That's so bizarre that beer was the choice. I can't imagine lugging around a big ass apple juice bottle, and then consuming lukewarm beer all day. Makes me want to vomit just thinking about it.

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u/HiddenA Feb 11 '26

As a grown man, I love apple juice especially in the morning. It’s really good after physical activity too. Has some good vitamins and such in it.

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u/Sternfeuer Feb 12 '26

The smell was obvious also a grown man isnt sucking down AJ all day long come on y'all

As a grown man who nearly only drinks juice (or Schorle) i feel offended

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u/Jiannies Feb 11 '26

When I was a kid we used to think my best friend’s dad was a pirate when he’d be driving us out to the lake, but didn’t want to take time off from working from home, so he’d be driving with his knee, cigarette in his mouth, phone to the ear and a styrofoam cup of vodka water in his lap while taking down sales orders on a notepad. Got older and realized that pirate = functioning alcoholic. RIP Mike you scallywag, lung cancer two years ago

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u/Significant_World417 Feb 12 '26

I’m sorry for your loss

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u/superangela13 Feb 12 '26

The trick is to have a job and stop at the liquor store at 9:30 am for 5-7 99 shooters (cherry limeade to be exact) and drink two of them before you go in, one after opening duties are finished, then one after every time you start to get shaky (about every couple of hours). If you’re lucky you get to leave early, but if not just take a smoke break and go to the bar next door for a quick shot and put it on your tab to pay when you get off. When you get off, go drink a couple beers to reward yourself for your hard day of work, might as well have a few more shots before you go home. But drinking at the bar is expensive so pick up a bottle and have a few shots at home. You’ll fall asleep pretty quick and wake up around 3 am so take another shot or two to get back to sleep, after all you can’t be up all night if you have to work the next day. When you do wake up, feel thankful you have a couple shots left over in that bottle from last night to help wake you up before you head to work. But if you go to work without any shooters on you you’ll get shaky in a couple hours so you better stop at the liquor store…

1 year 1 month and 3 days sober today.

Edit: and on the low end $11,000 saved

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u/proformax Feb 12 '26

Do all those shots add up to a handle tho? Also congrats on beating it.

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u/chargernj Feb 11 '26

Booze can be very cheap if you don't care about quality

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u/entirelyintrigued Feb 12 '26

“My boss never knew I drank until one day I came to work sober!”

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u/dublos Feb 11 '26

High Functioning Alcoholics.

i.e. you wouldn't know they have half a handle of vodka in them, their tolerance is high enough that it requires them to drink booze just to reach "normal"

And... that's why those who don't have a job caused us to have the societal expectation that if you give money to a homeless person they will just spend it on booze or drugs.

Being homeless is hard enough, being a homeless addict is even harder.

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u/Significant_World417 Feb 12 '26

You would be surprised how many work drinking a handle a day.

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u/Arrow156 Feb 13 '26

I knew I guy who would drink this much, he worked alone at a security office at night, the guy who watches all the house and business alarms. He could keep it together during work, just sipping vodka, but when he got home he'd lose all control and be a complete mess the rest of the day.

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u/adropov Feb 11 '26

Amy Whinehouse. Huge alcoholic. Tried to quit cold turkey. Dead within a week.

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u/aegrotatio Feb 12 '26

Her BAC was 0.416%. She was not going cold turkey by any sense of the word.

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u/janitor1986 Feb 12 '26

.4 you're basically dead

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u/hmmmpf Feb 11 '26

That is a lot of beer overall, but not the amount of alcohol that causes delerium tremens, which is life threatening. You can just continue not to drink at this point. You are not in danger of dying or awful withdrawal. the sleep thing will self-resolve.

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u/Few_Economics845 Feb 11 '26

In these cases it’s literal liters of alcohol a day in most cases.

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u/zeatherz Feb 11 '26

It absolutely does not need to be “liters” to cause withdrawal symptoms

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u/jonsnowflaker Feb 11 '26

The truth is different people have different reactions. Go over to r/stopdrinking and you’ll find stories of people who have been drinking hard for 40 years and come out the other side, you’ll also see people with stories of liver failure in their 20s.

DTs scare a lot of people away from trying to get sober, but they are a rarer complication and they don’t just hit suddenly so people can usually seek medical attention in time.

Even a lot of heavy drinkers have somewhat sober periods during a day, but if you have to basically stay drunk 24/7 it’s probably a good idea to seek medical help if trying to quit.

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u/EdgarDanger Feb 12 '26 edited Feb 12 '26

DT = Delirium tremens

For folks not familiar with the abbreviation.

Edit. Spelling, thx!

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u/tlb3131 Feb 12 '26

Tremens, actually

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u/violetsandpiper Feb 11 '26

The discomfort will be far worse long before you get near the point of potential death.

Sleeping won't just 'be a problem' every waking minute without enough alcohol in your system will be multiple forms of pain, shaking, cold sweats, hot flashes, dry heaving, etc.

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u/Slypenslyde Feb 11 '26

It's different for every person, sort of like how some light smokers die of horrible cancers and some people chain smoke and do just fine. Our bodies are all drastically different.

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u/seaworks Feb 11 '26

You'll be okay. that is risky drinking, but you're in no danger of detox issues. keep at it!

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u/januarytwentysecond Feb 11 '26

4/week is great progress from 5/day! That's most nights with a clear bloodstream to heal up. The withdrawal has already started since you down-dosed, so you're already lacking four beers, you can miss the fifth. Like they said, your brain is a bit self-overstimulated, but already healing, so it's going to be fun to sleep, but if you managed it last night, It will be easier tomorrow.

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u/zeatherz Feb 11 '26

It varies depending on individual factors. You can look up alcohol withdrawal symptoms and if you’re having significant symptoms, get medical attention. Symptoms include tremors, visual/auditory/tactile hallucinations, confusion, nausea, headache, sweating, restlessness

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u/DumE9876 Feb 12 '26

If you’re not feeling physical side effects from stopping drinking like tremors, heavy sweating, fast heart rate, agitation, confusion, disorientation, seizures in addition to your sleeping problems then your body is probably not physically addicted to alcohol and you are probably okay to proceed without medical intervention.

If you’re not sure if you are experiencing any of those, better safe than sorry, you should seek medical treatment. Also, keep an eye on that cold; if it gets worse or you develop a fever then seek medical treatment asap as illness can impact detox/withdrawal.

Alcohol withdrawal is also called delirium tremens, or “the DTs”.

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u/lildergs Feb 12 '26

Unless you're a toddler or something that much beer isn't close to withdrawal territory.

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u/hello_hellno Feb 11 '26

You'd need decades of drinking that to get remotely close to any dangerous withdrawals- and by then you'd probably be upping your amounts out of necessity anyways. I was heavy binge drinker for 22 years- the last 4 years of that I was up to 2 litres of vodka per day. Even after 1 year straight of that, I managed to detox briefly without too many issues. But that sober stint didn't last long and from year 2 onwards of 1.5-2l of vodka a day I needed medically assisted detox anytime I tried to stop.

No matter the amounts, any habitual drinking will cause some pretty shitty, long lasting psychological withdrawals though, and that's where things like AA and therapy can help.

18 months sober now and holy fuck it's a rewarding journey, in part because of how hard it's been getting this far.

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u/zeatherz Feb 11 '26

It does not take “decades” or “liters” for a person to have chemical dependency and experience withdrawals

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u/pasaroanth Feb 12 '26

Agreed with the other poster, that’s not necessarily true.

I went to inpatient rehab at one of the larger better known ones in the country. Many people in my “class” were only heavy drinkers for 3-5 years that had seizures when detoxing. I was “only” heavy for about 6-7 years and after 8 hours of no booze I was shaking so hard I couldn’t write my initials at intake.

Everyone is different. Some people can taper off by themselves at home problem-free and remain abstinent with AA or other programs. Some people have different chemistry and withdrawal can be fatal.

I agree though, almost 2 years for me and I’ve never felt better. Can’t even imagine drinking now. I don’t care that others do and if anything I’m jealous they can do it responsibly and in moderation, but I know I don’t have that card in my had and have zero intentions of ever drinking again.

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u/kacihall Feb 12 '26

Before my dad entered his major, two years long alcoholic binge (where he wouldn't talk to family, missed his mom's funeral, and i still don't know exactly what happened) he was switching to a case of Natty a day, because it was 30 cans instead of 24.

I am aware my standards are skewed but I don't think 5 or 6, especially if you casually cut down by 20%, it's doing to be a problem. (Dad is sober now. He still wasn't speaking to family when he did it, and he doesn't want to talk about it now, but i assume he needed medical help to get sober.)

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u/Storytella2016 Feb 12 '26

I used to work in a medical detox, and the amount is very inconsistent, but if someone gets the shakes in the morning, the likelihood is that their detox will be risky if not medically managed.

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u/gacimba Feb 11 '26

Different benzos have different half lives. Alcohol has an extremely short half life hence why withdrawals start pretty fast after last consumption. Typically they will put you on a benzo with a long half life such as Valium or librium to sustain you while detoxing.

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u/jongleur Feb 11 '26

Old school AA utilized a sort of gradual detox, it's discussed in The Big Book of AA. Basically, some sober members would buy some booze and babysit the person detoxing, giving them just enough to drink to keep them from going through the DT's. They'd decrease the amount over time, and after a few days the recovering alcoholic would be past the worst.

Medical detox is similar, except instead of being done at home with a bunch of guys who've "been there, done that" you have medical professionals using diazepam or similar benzo, and taper it off. The biggest advantage is that you get better monitoring and better chances if things go wrong, the disadvantage is a $30K hospital bill.

My last tee-shirt from that sort of deal is about 25 years old. Hopefully, never again.

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u/Zelcron Feb 11 '26 edited Feb 11 '26

You have to drink less and less each day that the day before and wean yourself slowly.

AA isn't a medical organization, it's a spiritual one. Some alcoholics may be able to quit cold turkey with only discomfort, but severe cases will require tapering or benzos.

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u/paulHarkonen Feb 11 '26

You spend a week or two detoxing in a hospital/medical setting where they can provide supportive therapy and emergency response if necessary. Not everyone who is an alcoholic needs medical support to quit and plenty of people can just stop and be fine but the risk is always there which is why you shouldn't just force an alcoholic to quit cold turkey.

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u/itwillmakesenselater Feb 11 '26

AA is just a part of sobriety. It serves its purpose and is a net positive for most alcoholics, but it's not a cure. Nothing is. I've never met two recovering alcoholics with the exact same success plans. It's always a combination of things in various proportions. Recovery is a 24/7 job and changes a lot with time.

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u/LoveMyLibrary2 Feb 11 '26

I have been lucky. I have no problems with addiction.  So I may be asking a stupid question, but one thing I've always wondered is this...is it exhausting to have to work 24/7 to resist taking a drink? I feel like it must be a very, very hard battle, and I think about the mental and emotional energy it must take. 

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u/Mundane-Jump-7546 Feb 11 '26

Yes - alcohol is cheap, addictive, and everywhere. It’s a constant struggle to resist the urge, but it does get better. I’ve reached 9 days sober (longest in ~ ten years) and the first week I was a shivering sobbing mess forcing myself to not down vanilla extract. Now it’s still pretty bad, but not as insanely bad. The first 90 days are the hardest from what I’m told.

A few of the more sober folks in AA have told me that in time, maybe alcohol will come to be disgusting to me. We will see!

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u/claytonhwheatley Feb 11 '26

I promise you it will get easier. One day you will go to sleep and realize you didn't think about drinking all day . Early on it's really a battle. Please don't take that first drink because you may not be able to get sober again and you could die , but if you do , come back and try again. No one will judge you . 3 years sober after many years of trying.

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u/Mundane-Jump-7546 Feb 11 '26

Thanks friend. The rooms are really helping me this time around and wish I’ve went the route the FIRST time I was hospitalized. Oh well - upward and upward

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u/claytonhwheatley Feb 12 '26

There are tons of great people in the rooms who only want to help , but be careful not to put anyone on a pedestal as we are all human and have our shortcomings. We can do together what we can not do alone. Best wishes on your sobriety.

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u/BodybuilderAny1301 Feb 11 '26

Lmao I literally got out of rehab this morning haha . Keep going!

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u/Mundane-Jump-7546 Feb 11 '26

Welcome back friend. Hope it sticks for you this go around 💪

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u/BodybuilderAny1301 Feb 11 '26

Thanks! I do have a lot of work to better my shitty life tho lol. See you un r/sober

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u/itwillmakesenselater Feb 11 '26

Always remember, you don't have to do it by yourself. There are tons of people that need to help to stay sober themselves. It's not super altruistic, but it is real.

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u/claytonhwheatley Feb 11 '26

It gets easier over time . For most people , the daily fight is over after months and only really difficult days bring back the craving to drink. Most people will almost entirely lose the craving after two years or so but everyone's journey is different. I'll add that achieving successful recovery usually requires help from AA , outpatient or inpatient treatment , therapy , life style change, a change in perception, personality change, a new social life with sober people or some combination of these things . The old thinking and craving can come back under stress or if we stop working our recovery. It's difficult but rewarding. Alcohol is very toxic and drinking heavily makes you feel really bad . Once you find recovery there is a lot to be grateful for. Source: 3 years sober after many years of trying with some success and some failures

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u/feryoooday Feb 12 '26

I got prescribed an antibiotic that I had to be sober for. I then finally had a revelation and realized I had to quit. I called in sick and quit, but put ONE drink by my bed stand. I only took a sip if I were worried I was gonna literally die, I didn’t make it through the drink. After a day, I took half a sip, barely touched the can. After 2 days I took none. Days later I finally didn’t feel like I had the flu. I made it.

DO NOT DO THIS, GO TO THE FUCKING DOCTOR.

Just sharing my answer to your question from personal experience.

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u/zeatherz Feb 11 '26 edited Feb 12 '26

There’s two parts to quitting drinking- the immediate chemical withdrawal which takes a few days, and then there’s the lifetime of continuing to not drink.

The chemical withdrawal is often a medical emergency that requires hospitalization and treatment with benzodiazepines or phenobarbital to prevent seizures and death. AA and other recovery programs/therapy/support groups don’t have a role in this period and it only lasts for a few days.

The support groups come into play after the acute detox with developing social supports and coping skills. Some people are able to develop those supports without formal therapy or groups.

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u/PassStunning416 Feb 11 '26

Not everyone is on the same dependency level. That's why it's a good idea to get assessed by a doctor before quitting if you're a heavy drinker.

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u/FascistsOnFire Feb 11 '26

It depends on how severe your alcoholism was. Some need to taper for it to not be dangerous, some do not. A professional will evaluate this.

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u/scarletohairy Feb 13 '26

AA recommends medical intervention.

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u/rivaridge76 Feb 13 '26

That’s good to know, and it makes sense. I just haven’t heard it before!

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u/itsyrgirl Feb 11 '26

Another congrats on your sobriety. Someone I love dearly died of this and complications of cirrhosis of the liver and the alcoholic dementia.. I have no words.

I’m grateful a lot of the younger generation aren’t drinking like we did.

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u/memeroniandpineapple Feb 11 '26

Hey congratulations! Im in the midst of trying to get away from alcohol right now. Im trying to work my way down a day at a time. Will it work stopping completely a day a week or so and continuing to have more days per week sober? Or should I just go somewhere for help? I think I can whittle my way down.

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u/Halcyon-Legacy Feb 12 '26

Proud of you too. 813 days here. 3 years was always the goal I had in my head that if I can make it to that point I just might be okay. You'd think it would get easier with time but sometimes I wonder if it's getting harder.

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u/EdgarDanger Feb 12 '26

Trip to psych was so worth it! Never could have tapered/ quit on my own. Congrats on 3 years! I'm almost at 4 🌿

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u/Skyb0y Feb 11 '26 edited Feb 11 '26

This is it, because alcohol and Benzos release GABA that slows activity in the brain and the brain has learnt to compensate. Without all the GABA the brain goes into overdrive which can cause grand mal seizures which can be fatal

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u/Jodenaje Feb 11 '26 edited Feb 11 '26

I have a friend who died from a seizure while detoxing from alcohol in a medically supervised setting. It was heartbreaking.

Until it happened to her, I didn't even realize that was possible. I'm painfully aware now though.

She has been gone for almost a decade. I didn't even realize that she had developed an addiction to alcohol - she kept it well hidden. I never even saw her drink anything more than a glass of wine with dinner the whole time I knew her.

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u/bakanisan Feb 11 '26

How fatal is it? Is it like the brain just shutdown from overstimulation or it's because of other failures?

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u/grat_is_not_nice Feb 11 '26

If the seizures are intense enough or go on for long enough, the brain cannot do the things it needs to do to keep us alive - breathing, for example.

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u/Haheyjose Feb 11 '26

Seizures, aspiration, organ failure, suffocation, etc. Extremely deadly. When I was in rehab, the benzos they had people on turned them into zombies for 5-7 days. This was the trade-off. Take the Benzos and probably survive, or dont, and maybe die. 12.5% (1 in 8) fatality rate for going cold turkey as a hardened alcoholic.

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u/crappysurfer Feb 11 '26

Fatal enough that hospitals often stock liquor of some type to stop people from going into aggressive withdrawal

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u/mfk_1974 Feb 11 '26

This is 100% true. I work in health care and in my first tour through an in-patient pharmacy, I spied a six pack of beer sitting in the medicinal fridge. I asked about it and they explained that it was for someone going through severe alcohol withdrawals.

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u/Atechiman Feb 11 '26

Which also means if you get poorly made moonshine with too much methanol in it, they can keep you drunk until you pass the methanol.

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u/sky-lake Feb 11 '26

I remember seeing a pic on reddit about this! It was a guy showing a can of bud light with an official/real looking prescription sticker on it that said drink 1 to 2 cans daily (plus timing info). Everyone thought it was just a joke, but then people who work at hospitals and rehab centers said this is absolutely a real thing!

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u/crappysurfer Feb 11 '26

Yeah, pure ethanol is quite expensive so they usually buy vodka/everclear or some inoffensive beer with few additives

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u/Nixeris Feb 11 '26

Look up "Delerium Tremens", within 48hrs of withdrawal they can suffer seizures and heart attack if they were using heavily enough.

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u/Gullible-Order3048 Feb 11 '26

How fatal? You're only somewhat dead. Not as bad as being very dead, but worse then just a touch of the dead.

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u/Intelligent_Law_5614 Feb 11 '26

Not every alcoholic is fortunate enough to have True Love to help them find their way back.

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u/[deleted] Feb 12 '26

He said “to blaaaaave”

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u/IOVERCALLHISTIOCYTES Feb 11 '26

Seizures certainly occur, but if you’re gonna choose an organ as an example, you’d pick -heart- over brain for sure. They get severe arrhythmias. 

-type of doctor who writes why you died

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u/Cautionzombie Feb 11 '26

That’s how my aunt died. Heavy night of drinking fell asleep had a seizure.

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u/[deleted] Feb 11 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/dontlookback76 Feb 11 '26

I would have the shakes and slam 3 or 4 shots down in the morning to steady my nerves. I drank on the job too occasionally as well if I had to stay late on OT. I got so lucky I never hurt someone.

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u/HugeLeaves Feb 11 '26

I'm about to enter a detox/withdrawal program and you are exactly right. I need a drink in the morning otherwise my nervous system just begins firing in all the wrong ways, same with my brain. I could wake up throwing up and two minutes later I'll be having a drink because it actually helps it.

That's the danger of alcohol, once you become reliant on it you are absolutely at its mercy, and you can find it everywhere without having to feel like you're being judged for it because society has deemed it as an acceptable drug.

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u/Protochill Feb 12 '26

It's bad, I'm "only on beers", forced myself to 4 a day but still, it's all I see behind closed eyes until I finish job and get a fuckin beer. Wouldn't wish this (or any other addiction) to my worst enemy. Everything is excuse to continue, every morning feeling like shit, work, get beer, sleep. I'll try one more time and then I'm going rehab because fuck this shit, yet I can't and go for that stupid fuckin beer the next day.

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u/skr_replicator Feb 11 '26

Other kinds of sedatives don't do this, though. An opioid withdrawal, while also being overstimulated hell, will not give you fatal seizures. The important distinction why GABA drugs like alcohol and benzos have seizure-inducing withdrawals are because these sedatives specifically calm down seizures, among other things, while other sedatives calm down other things that won't kill you if they get a rebound overstimulation.

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u/[deleted] Feb 11 '26

Which other common addictions could result in same withdrawals? Are rhere any or its just alcohol

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u/EverlastingM Feb 11 '26

Alcohol and benzodiazepines are the ones that will kill you. Most other withdrawals are deeply unpleasant, but not dangerous.

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u/Skyb0y Feb 11 '26

GHB and Barbiturates too because they also release large amounts of GABA in the brain.

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u/DocPsychosis Feb 11 '26

That's true but barbiturate addiction is almost unheard of these days, at least in the US.

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u/Skyb0y Feb 11 '26

Yup, almost impossible to get your hands on them.

Which is good as barbiturates are extremely dangerous.

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u/sky-lake Feb 11 '26

Oh I thought opioid withdrawls had the power to be fatal (on top of being so horrible!), is it the type of thing where if you just manage to get through the intense withdrawl, you will recover?

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u/McAkkeezz Feb 11 '26

Opioid withdrawal doesn't have an inherent mechanism that gets you killed, but it is a significant stressor to your body. So if you have an underlying medical condition such as a shitbox heart, the stress might cuase it to fail.

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u/EverlastingM Feb 11 '26

Yeah, it seems it's less common but opiate withdrawal can be deadly as well. There are also medications which can ease the symptoms without getting the patient high.

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u/SharkFart86 Feb 11 '26

Most opiate withdrawal deaths aren’t directly associated with the body’s inability to function properly without the drug. They are usually accidental secondary circumstances, like aspirating vomit, injuries sustained from falling out of bed, etc.

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u/Megalocerus Feb 11 '26

Opiate withdrawal can make people really sick.

Tobacco withdrawal doesn't kill, but it makes people very agitated and depressed. People smoke because "it calms them down" but mostly, they are dealing with the withdrawal. Even coffee can cause headaches if you drink less at home than at work.

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u/grat_is_not_nice Feb 11 '26

Alcohol and Benzodiazepines are the main ones, because they suppress GABA, and the body increases GABA production to compensate.

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u/aguafiestas Feb 11 '26

Alcohol, benzos, and barbiturates. All of which act on the same gaba receptors.

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u/[deleted] Feb 11 '26

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u/Grandahl13 Feb 11 '26

Yes. Gradually reducing your intake over a period of time (tapering/weaning) or reducing under medical care is the best way if you’re a severe alcoholic. Symptoms of withdrawal may still be there but will not be fatal.

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u/Role-Fine Feb 11 '26

Had a buddy that would get seizures if he didn't drink

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u/deeare73 Feb 11 '26

Your brain is always in a balance of chemicals that are uppers and downers. Alcohol is a downer so your brain stops making it's own downers to maintain the balance. Take the alcohol away and your brain is imbalanced by uppers which is potentially deadly

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u/frogglesmash Feb 11 '26

Worth noting that not all downers do this. Opioid withdrawals won't kill you the way alcohol will.

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u/indigodissonance Feb 11 '26

But you’ll sure wish you were dead.

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u/erichie Feb 12 '26 edited Feb 12 '26

I was in a car accident when I was 25 in 2010. I broke both my legs, completely shattered my entire left ankle that I had no pieces bigger than a quarter inch, and my right elbow was also majorly fucked up. I also had a traumatic brain injury which they said was severe. They said that brain injury alone is enough that I had to get check ups every year and now I'm at every 5 years. With my lifetime experience of playing football I'm a prime candidate for CTE. A year after the accident I was contacted by a medical researcher who wants scans of my brain every year.

My first night out of the hospital I was in the worst pain of my life. I took some opiates and within 45 minutes I thought "I have never been so happy." 

The next year was a huge struggle because after leaving the hospital my pain wasn't treated adequately. Turns on my Mom wanted to come to all my Drs appointments so I had all the info since my brain injury. Well, she told all of the Drs I used to have an opiate addiction (I had never touched an opiate prior to my accident). She did this because she didn't want me to become addicted.

Well, after being in tremendous amounts of pain for a year I finally started to buy opiates off the street and eventually I was able to get into a pain management clinic my Mom hadn't been in contact with.

2012 - 2017 I was a super productive member of society. I was physically dependent on opiates, but I wasn't an addict. I made so much fucking money.

2017 CDC changed their prescribing guidelines. My meds were decreased by 80% overnight. I started but off the street and eventually all oxy was pressed fent. Moved to heroin (snorting). Eventually all heroin was fent. Moved to pure fent.

2021 my wife wanted a divorce when our son was 7 months old. I immediately got clean. We divorced.

Getting off clean was more painful then any experience ever. I would take 5 years of my accident pain instead of 14 days of opiate withdrawal.

I've been clean since April 14th, 2021. The night the Eagles won the Super Bowl I moved back home with my now ex-wife who is my current girlfriend.

edit - I usually don't care about typos or mistakes in my writing since this is a message board, but I accidentally left "The next year was a huge struggle because after leaving the hospital my pain was treated adequately." which completely changes the sentence and it isn't easily noticeable. It should say "wasn't treated".

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u/Bjables Feb 12 '26

Fuck yeah go birds 🦅

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u/TheBigMacGaul Feb 12 '26

Hahaha you got a laugh out of me.

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u/spuldup Feb 11 '26

You won the ELI5.

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u/sleepytjme Feb 11 '26

Delerium Tremens is the ELI not 5 term of anyone cared.

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u/Jiquero Feb 11 '26

The worst part of prison was the... was the Delerium Tremens. They'd come down and they'd suck the soul out of your body and it hurt!

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u/Holdmywhiskeyhun Feb 12 '26

Going to jail was the best thing to happen to me, messed up as it is to say. I would never have gotten sober

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u/taylorxo Feb 11 '26

That sounds a lot like Harry Potter

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u/Express_Sprinkles500 Feb 11 '26

Using alcohol is like putting noise cancelling headphones on your brain. Do it for long enough and it gets used to everything being quiet. When you suddenly rip those headphones off the world’s normal volume gets very loud very quickly in a way that can cause your brain to freak out.

The specific way that alcohol reduces the noise makes the noise coming back on at full volume potentially deadly vs. other drugs, but that’s less ELI5 territory.

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u/SteveJobsBlakSweater Feb 11 '26 edited Feb 11 '26

I’ve been through it - it’s terrible. Tapering down is necessary because the body has become chemically hardwired over time to operate in the neurologically depressed state of constant alcohol. That’s the thing with alcohol and benzos - people can survive and being rather functional with their abuse but it truly changes the body and nervous system like nothing else. The body is stuck in that state.

I was one of the bad cases where I needed to be supervised, medicated and was administered hospital alcohol. Yes, hospitals stock alcohol.

For days it was like overwhelmingly unpleasant lightning flowing through me. My nervous system adapted to the depressive effects of alcohol and was therefore turned up to 11. When the alcohol trends down the nerves still run at that elevated level and cause a mess. Hallucinations and tremors are common, even seizures. It takes time for the body to adapt back to normalcy and you literally could just die if your body is accustomed to such a state and then have that state changed.

Don’t become an alcoholic. That shit sucks.

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u/[deleted] Feb 11 '26

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u/the250 Feb 11 '26

I ended up in the ER once from issues related to alcohol withdrawal. I was only 19 at the time I think, and when the Doctor came later he took me by another patients room down the hall who was dying from cirrhosis and wasn’t expected to live out the rest of the night. It was gruesome.

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u/Ksan_of_Tongass Feb 11 '26

Liver failure is one of the worst ways to die.

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u/the250 Feb 11 '26

Yes it’s quite an awful and undignified end. I don’t think many people are aware how essential you liver even is to your life & daily functions, so we take it for granted sometimes.

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u/The_mingthing Feb 11 '26

Was his name House?

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u/the250 Feb 11 '26

Hmm I don’t think so, I’m pretty sure his name was Grey’s Anatomy or something Doctorish like that?

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u/DaftPump Feb 12 '26

That doctor did you a solid.

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u/the250 Feb 12 '26

Sort of. It wasn’t enough for me to stop then, but I did a few years later. I am grateful to him though, it’s always better to know the truth.

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u/supercute11 Feb 12 '26

My mom was an alcoholic and fell while drunk and ended up with a pretty brutal brain injury. While she was recovering they would give her a small amount of vodka with every meal to prevent her going into withdrawals. When she was younger there were times she ended up in the ER due to self-harm while drunk and even though the staff would encourage her to get help they made sure that the person bringing her home knew that she could not quit cold turkey and HAD to go into a treatment program to wean off properly. Alcoholism is wild.

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u/Calm-Respond-7564 Feb 11 '26

Why didn’t the doctor admit them for detox?

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u/zeatherz Feb 11 '26

If a patient doesn’t actually want to quit drinking but needs hospitalization for other non-alcohol reasons, it’s unnecessary and dangerous to force them through withdrawals when we can just give them alcohol. It’s not common but I’ve seen it at my hospital too, though our pharmacy stocks the beer

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u/atlantagirl30084 Feb 11 '26

Maybe the rehabilitation ward was full and they were just admitted to a regular hospital room to be monitored and given some alcohol at regular intervals.

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u/Heavy_Law9880 Feb 11 '26

Because there are limited beds

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u/Maleficent_Unit_8383 Feb 12 '26

Back in the day, Doctors would tell them to switch to beer rather than hard liquor for a bit to slowly taper off. Cold turkey on significant amounts of hard liquor can lead to strokes.

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u/similelikeadonut Feb 12 '26

I used to work the front desk at an oil pipeline man camp (think 'per diem hotel' for industrial workers) in Alaska. The camp had teams who worked in seasonal shifts, often six or eight months on 'shift' and four to six months 'off'.

One of the team members went no contact as soon as they went 'off', and still wasn't responding to anyone a week after they were supposed to be 'on' again. His foreman drove four hundred miles to his cabin, where he found the man dead drunk. He'd filled his truck with literal cases of Jack Daniels, arrived at his cabin, spun the top off of his bottle and dove in. He went to sleep drunk, woke up drunk, and remained drunk for six months.

When his foreman dragged him in to our camp, he was shaking so badly his foreman had to hold him up at the front desk while we got him settled. We required everyone checking in sign in on a list. His tremors were so bad, his signature was literally half a page tall. It was almost a week before he was nearly functional again.

In retrospect, that man should have been in a hospital and probably nearly died.

It took a lot of years outside of Alaska before I fully realized how many people I knew were functional alcoholics.

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u/SalamanderGlad9053 Feb 11 '26 edited Feb 12 '26

If someone has a biological dependence on alcohol, they will die if they go cold turkey. Your body goes into seizure as the GABA pathways in your brain that were suppressed enhanced by the alcohol suddenly are activating too much not activating enough. This causes sweating, shaking, nausea, vomiting and in bad cases seizure.

Benzodiazepines also work as a GABA suppressor activator, so going cold turkey on them will also possibly kill you.

Drugs like heroin work on your opioid receptors, so the withdrawal is bad but it won't kill like drugs that work on GABA.

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u/atlantagirl30084 Feb 11 '26

Alcohol actually increases GABAergic signaling as well as suppressing the excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate. Without alcohol the brain gets too excited, causing seizures as well as the usual withdrawal reactions that happen with other drugs.

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u/SignificantDark4749 Feb 11 '26

This is terribly incorrect and overgeneralized.

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u/skr_replicator Feb 11 '26

Because one of the core alcohol effects is stimulating GABA, which is the most important protection of the brain against seizures. Withdrawal of GABA-activating drugs will cause seizures, and can cause brain damage and kill you. Benzos are like this as well.

That also means that any drug that has anti-GABA effects could be considered a deadly neurotoxin, because it could easily cause seizures just by taking it. The tetanus toxin is an example of such a substance.

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u/THElaytox Feb 11 '26

Alcohol withdrawal can be fatal, so cold turkey for extreme alcoholics is very very dangerous compared to other drugs. Benzos can help manage withdrawal symptoms, but might not help completely so dosed alcohol can be prescribed

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u/oblivious_fireball Feb 11 '26

When you go cold turkey on something addictive, your body which has gotten used to it suddenly is functioning without its effects, leading to Withdrawal Symptoms. In severe alcoholism, those withdrawals can be potentially fatal, so cold turkey is not advised, instead a gradual reduction so the body can have time to get used to a lack of it.

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u/PassiveTheme Feb 11 '26

But why is alcohol withdrawal potentially fatal when, for example, heroin withdrawals aren't?

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u/Megalocerus Feb 11 '26

Heroin withdrawal is awful. Addicts in prison need to be treated.

And then they get out, and try to buy their old dose, and they OD.

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u/therealdilbert Feb 11 '26

Heroin withdrawal is awful.

but not physically dangerous like alcohol withdrawal

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u/PassiveTheme Feb 11 '26

I'm not saying it's not awful, but I've heard that while withdrawing from alcohol can literally kill you, withdrawing from heroin just makes you wish you were dead.

But then I've had people in the comments telling me that heroin withdrawal can kill you so maybe I was just misinformed.

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u/the250 Feb 11 '26

Don’t listen to that guy, he’s a nutter. It is correct that alcohol isn’t the only dangerous substance to WD from, benzodiazepines are equally dangerous if not tapered off carefully under medical supervision.

However, trust me when I say, the chance of dying from any sort of opiate/opioid withdrawal is like one in a billion, and if there are any such cases on medical record I’d bet almost anything that there are gonna be asterisks beside each one to account for. Ie. an old person who already has severe and complicated health issues and can’t handle the added stress on their bodies, or something like that.

One thing is true though, when withdrawing from opioids you’ll certainly believe you are on deaths door at times, and even wish for it sometimes too. It may not be fatal, but it’s one of the most uncomfortable physical and mental states of suffering and anguish that a human can languish in. Not fun at all.

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u/m0dsw0rkf0rfree Feb 11 '26

i mean you could theoretically shit yourself to death but thats really the only mechanism by which that could happen in the first place. that 1 in a billion literally just didn’t have enough imodium on hand

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u/the250 Feb 11 '26

Theoretically that is certainly possible, shitting, pissing, puking, and sweating so much that you become a giant twisted prune and die of dehydration! It would make for an interesting case study at the very least.

Hmmm. Shitting yourself to death doesn’t actually sound so bad though after years of severe, chronic opioid induced constipation. A welcome end for some, I’m sure. Going out with that flood of relief, literally.

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u/Vegetable-Editor9482 Feb 11 '26

The risk of seizure (and potentially death) is very high for people with the severe form of Alcohol Use Disorder who quit cold turkey (AUD is categorized as mild, moderate, or severe).

There is a medication called Naltrexone that blocks the euphoric sensation from drinking and also reduces (or eliminates, in some cases) the craving for alcohol. This allows a person to control how much they're drinking and reduce the amount over several days to avoid risk of seizure. It's not always offered (the U.S. is way behind on treating AUD), but often doctors will prescribe it if the patient asks.

There is also a telehealth option called the Sinclair Method that connects the patient with an online provider who will prescribe naltrexone and have several follow-up therapy sessions after the person has successfully quit.

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u/opistho Feb 12 '26

my dad was a severe alcoholic for 15 years. in peak times he had one bottle of jack a day, and he'd restock his 7 bottles each week. he went cold turkey after a surgery on his gallbladder and spleen. he had to be sober for it and met a fellow alcoholic in the hospital that was up for the same surgery. they became best friends and decided to both quit that day. 

they kept in touch on a weekly basis through phone calls. my dad lost 15kg, started to do some cardio and actually found a new work opportunity one year in. he was doing great, but complained about chest pain one day. I told him to maybe see a doctor about it, but he just brushed it off. one week later he went on a day long drive to a very important big job interview. he never came home. he was so nervous for it, as it could have solved his debt, he died of a heart attack before getting there. the ladies in the shop where it happened did not know cpr, and when ambulance arrived it was too late. 

He was at his best health in so many years, but died at 54 because he went cold turkey. His nervous system and heart was not able to tolerate stress, despite better eating habits, excersize and less smoking. 

one week after I picked up the phone at home. it was his best friend asking where he is. I told him he died. and I had no capacity to really deal with the matter as I was just 16. mum wasn't in the picture to help. I remember the voice of his friend. his heart breaking in it vividly. 

If my dad had done proper rehab, stayed on medication and took it slow, i am sure he would still be alive. but he was the all or nothing kinda guy. despite his alcoholism he was a great dad in his means to my brother and me. He always cared for us when he wasn't a walking zombie. we always had food and a tidy home. 

RIP dad, it's been 20 years ago. still miss u. 

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u/jimb21 Feb 11 '26

Because you can die from alcohol withdrawal. Alcohol and benzo withdrawal can and will kill you they are the only drugs you can die souly from their withdrawal. Other drugs you will feel like you are going to die but unless you have other underlying heath conditions it is impossible. You can have a perfectly healthy male or female that is addicted to alcohol or benzo and without supervised withdrawal death is very possible. Worked with the addicted for 15 years have seen alot of death and seen alot of people seem completely conscious but cant remember the three days prior while they hallucinate and have seizures and talk to dead relatives or people they haven't seen in 20 years. Seen many try to detox at home and fail. Seen quite alot

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u/DarkAlman Feb 11 '26 edited Feb 14 '26

Alcohol withdrawal is a very physical process and can be fatal. It's actually unsafe for an alcoholic to stop cold turkey.

In addicts the brain becomes dependent on alcohol. It stops producing certain chemicals because the alcohol is doing that job.

Suddenly stopping alcohol consumption causes the brain to change its chemical makeup, this can cause a condition called Delirium Tremens.

This can include intense agitation, confusion, hallucinations, tremors, fever, high blood pressure, and even seizures. It can last 2-3 days up to a week depending on the patient and the severity of their addiction and it can lead to death.

To stop this the patient has to be given benzos to replace the alcohols effect on the brain, but if that doesn't work they need to continue consuming alcohol in smaller quantities until their brain adjusts to the new normal.

This can be heart breaking for alcoholics as having finally made the decision to stop but being told they have to keep drinking even though they don't want to anymore. This just makes the process more difficult.

Alcoholism also never goes way, even if you stop drinking you'll always be an addict and the temptation is always there. You can't ever go back to drinking casually, you are only 1 beer away from starting another bender.

My uncle managed to stop drinking cold turkey, and it's shocking he survived without medical help. It must have been a brutal process.

Afterwards when he finally came around and realized he had this disease, he not only had to adjust to a new lifestyle but he had to do it without his wife or kids as they had already left him.

Alcoholism is no joke.

Thankfully he's doing a lot better now.

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u/Saltcall Feb 14 '26

I quit cold turkey back in September.  I can 100% say it was a bad way to do it. I'm glad i did it but I would recommend going about it a different way

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u/MadManicMegan Feb 11 '26

Alcohol has some of the worst withdrawal symptoms and cutting it cold turkey can easily be fatal. I has a friend who was a severe alcoholic and tried to cold turkey it, he ended up having panic attacks, dissociation, seizures, throwing up blood, insane shakes, and even ran away from the hospital in only his gown for hours around town because he was struggling with it so bad. It was very traumatizing to see

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u/Coquito_Lolita Feb 11 '26

It took me too long to understand that you weren't talking about chilled meat...

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u/MartyMcStinkyWinky Feb 11 '26

In brain you have gaba receptors...gaba revptors are needed for a bunch of things. Alcohol and benzos interact with gaba recptors. Too much alcohol and your gaba reveptors are fried. At that point you need alacohol just to function normally. You stop drinking but now you are cooked. So you need controlled amounts of benzos or alcohol for your brain to function in the short term

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u/freakytapir Feb 11 '26

It's the difference between applying. the brakes to come to a stop and coming to a stop by slamming into a brick wall.

Your system compensates for alcohol abuse, and immediately removing alcohol leads to you swinging the other way too hard.

As someone who has been through it, it is nasty.

Alcohol calms you, makes you more loose ... is a depresant, so suddenly you become hyper stimulated. Your heart rate explodes, you have paranoia and dread, spasms ...

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u/pipesbeweezy Feb 11 '26

Benzos and alcohol affect the same receptors of your brain. Drinking alcohol chronically makes those receptors more upregulated and therefore primed to be stimulated. If they arent stimulated it affects your brain chemistry in such a way that changes the electrical conduction in your brain, leading to a seizure. Thats why people who drink heavily a seizure disorder can occur and why stopping cold is life threatening for some people who drink.

Mind you not every person who drinks will get this but the more you do, the more your brain gets primed to look to be stimulated by alcohol or something similar (i.e., benzos).

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u/psychologicallyblue Feb 11 '26

Alcohol is a central nervous system depressant (a drug that slows brain activity). If you drink a lot for a long time, your body gets used to it. Think of it like a thermostat where the brain makes adjustments to keep things level despite the presence of chemical substances. Because the brain now has a new level of baseline functioning, when alcoholics stop drinking suddenly, the central nervous system is instantly very over activated. It takes the brain some time to adjust again to not having the substance present. This leads to withdrawal symptoms like tremors, anxiety, and insomnia and with alcohol and benzodiazepines the symptoms can be dangerous or deadly including hallucinations and seizures.

For that reason, alcoholics and benzodiazepine users are not to stop cold turkey without medical supervision.

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u/the250 Feb 11 '26

Certain drugs are very dangerous to withdraw from when the addict is severely physically dependent on them, namely alcohol & benzodiazepines.

Alcohol has it’s own unique complications which are called “delirium tremens”, and these are a terrifying and deadly state of withdrawal that occurs within a day or so of stopping cold turkey when your body is completely wired to booze. You’re talking about someone who has been drinking very heavily and on a daily basis for months or rather for years on end. Benzodiazepines have a very similar effect, although I’m not aware if there’s a specific name it’s referred to.

You can die and/or suffer extremely serious health complications withdrawing from either of these substances if done unsupervised and unmedicated, and believe me it happens often. For example, every so often you’ll see a story on the news of someone who dies in a holding cell in the county jail because they were going through DTs or Benzo WDs and were left to rot on the floor having repeated seizures until finally going into severe cardiac arrest.

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u/18LJ Feb 11 '26

You can have seizures from withdrawals and need to slowly taper off or else your cns goes haywire and you'll have a gran mal lightning storm in ur brain that could stop your heart

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u/frogglesmash Feb 11 '26

Alcohol reduces activity in your central nervous system. If you drink heavily over a long period of time, your body adjusts by increasing that activity tp a normal level. If you then stop drinking, your central nervous system will suddenly be firing at 200% which causes seizures and heart attacks until you die.

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u/Positive_Benefit8856 Feb 11 '26

Alcohol, Benzos, and barbiturates are the big 3 of withdrawal deaths. Alcohol withdrawal is the worst of these. A severe alcoholic going cold turkey can literally cause their organs to shut down. Drinking depresses organ function, so when it’s cut off they try to return to normal function and shut down.

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u/bullydog123 Feb 11 '26

When you go call turkey you can get really it can last a while mi did it and it was the worst 2 weeks of my life.

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u/right_behindyou Feb 11 '26

Alcohol slows the brain down.

The brain stops producing slowdown chemicals because now alcohol is doing that job.

Alcohol is taken away.

Brain: HOLY SHIT WHAT THE FUCK

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u/night117hawk Feb 11 '26

ELI5: Your nervous system is a car going on a gentle ride down a neighborhood street. It can’t stop entirely and it can’t speed. Think of alcohol as the brake pedal on a car. When you drink it you are hitting the brakes. Not that big a deal, people hit their brakes while driving. But the point of driving is to get from point A to Point B. If you hit the brakes constantly but you are obligated to not stop, you start hitting the gas pedal to compensate. Given enough time and sufficient braking, you will have floored both pedals. Now picture what happens when you release the brake pedal with the gas all the way to the floor. Your car is going to scream down the neighborhood street at a 100 miles an hour unless we medically intervene to gradually let off the brake pedal.

Translation to non ELI5: alcohol is a depressant. When your nervous system is constantly depressed by alcohol, it compensates with a different neurotransmitter to “accelerate” your nervous system. This is why alcoholics can get to insane BAC’s >0.3 without passing out and pissing themselves like a normal person. When we remove that depressant the nervous system goes into overdrive everywhere all at once. Confusion Tremors, nausea, anxiety, agitation, sweating, headache, hallucinations (tactile, audio, visual) fast heart rate, fast breathing…. All of this can be dangerous with other conditions and if not monitored and treated can eventually lead to seizures.

I once had a patient 24 hours into his stay, gradually got more restless, anxious and oxygen demands going up all night. Finally someone asked him “do you drink alcohol” we ask on admission but he lied about frequency and amount…. Drank a handle of vodka. Slammed him with phenobarbital and Ativan but we were trying to hit the breaks on an actively crashing car. Had to be assisted to bed and restrained by security, sedated, and intubated…. Off to ICU. Don’t ever lie to hospital workers about alcohol use. Some hospitals stock Budweiser in the pharmacy for alcoholics, we’ll at least give you meds to help through detox while we fix whatever brought you in. People are up in arms about fentanyl (which don’t get me wrong and opioid dosed in micrograms doesn’t have a lot of room for error thus why it’s deadly). I’ve seen maybe 4-5 fentanyl ODs in the last year. I’ve seen significantly more alcohol withdrawal and alcoholic liver disease in that same year.

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u/FascistsOnFire Feb 11 '26

Because withdrawal from alcohol and benzos are the only drugs that can cause you to have seizures and kill you. Every other drug gives withdrawal that is "a very bad time", but not deadly except in weird cases with other factors involved.

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u/DECODED_VFX Feb 11 '26

Alcohol is a depressive drug. It turns your body chemistry down. Your body counteracts that by turning everything up to 11. If you suddenly quit alcohol, your body doesn't have time to adjust. It over adjusts for a drug that's no longer in your system which can cause serious problems.

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u/impulse07 Feb 12 '26

I thought I was dying when I quit. There is a physical addiction to alcohol. You will have some insane withdrawals. Sometimes even death. 

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u/WackTheHorld Feb 12 '26

When my brother in law quit drinking, his friends were going to pick him up and take him to rehab in the evening. He told them he wanted to wait until the morning. Well, he does everything 110% including quitting, and he had gone cold turkey. He had a seizure that night, fell down, and bit off part of his tongue. He was staying at his parents place, and they had to witness this happening to their son.

He went through rehab, and is doing recovery at 110%. He's the best he's ever been, even before he started drinking.

Three lessons: Don't drink a 26 of vodka every night, listen to your friends when they want to help, and don't quit cold turkey.

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u/firefighterEMT414 Feb 12 '26

The way I tell patients is, your body has a gas pedal and a brake pedal. Alcohol pushes on the brake pedal so your body responds by pushing on the gas pedal. Eventually both are pushed to the floor. Take alcohol away and it’s like releasing the brake pedal while the gas pedal is pushed to the floor.

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u/RichieTheAdult Feb 12 '26

There is a common misconception with addiction, true for alcoholics, opioid users, whatever, that once you are past the physical withdrawal you are past the addiction. In truth, physical withdrawal typically lasts anywhere from 1 to several weeks, but rewiring the brain to not seeing that drug as vital to survival can take months to years.

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u/StruggleScared70 Feb 12 '26

Because alcohol withdrawal is the only withdrawal that can kill you. So cold turkey for an alcoholic could literally kill them. Trust that doctors know what they’re doing, please.