Alcohol withdrawal and detox

If you decide to undergo alcohol detox, it is very likely that you will experience some level of alcohol withdrawal symptoms. These may be mild or severe depending on the extent of your alcohol dependency and your general health condition, but the important thing is that you seek guidance from a medical professional before you begin your detox. This will ensure you get all the help you need to complete the detox phase of your recovery process as safely as possible.

Home alcohol detoxification can be relatively safe for people who are not dependent on alcohol and want to stop drinking. For example, there are many people who decide to do ‘Dry January’ or ‘Sober October’, and as long as you don’t have a chronic drinking problem, detoxing at home can be a good option.

For anyone with a serious addiction, however, it is never advisable to attempt a home detox because the potential consequences can be so dangerous. The best option for alcoholics is always to go through detox at a professional alcohol detox centre. This will ensure you have all the medical guidance and assistance you need to complete detox in safety and comfort before moving on to comprehensive treatment.

The reaction to alcohol detox varies from person to person but you will usually start to experience withdrawal symptoms around six hours after you had your last drink. They may begin as mild symptoms such as nausea, sweating and general malaise, but hopefully do not progress into anything more serious. Many people also experience factors such as:

• Experiencing restlessness
• An increased blood pressure and heart rate
• Becoming increasingly irritable

For most people, the three-day mark signals the start of better things to come. After three days, your hydration and blood sugar levels will have returned to normal and you should start to feel stronger and more like yourself again. The hangover-like symptoms should have all abated, and you may find yourself feeling more energised. At this point, acute alcohol cravings should also have mostly subsided because there will no longer be a chemical imbalance.

Essentially, the only way to rid your system of alcohol is to stop drinking and give your body the time it needs to recover. While it may seem like an insurmountable task at first, as long as you take it day by day and follow the advice of the medical professionals who are looking after you, it won’t be long before you start to see real progress.

Our bodies have incredible powers of recovery and after a month you should see some serious positive changes. The liver is the organ most affected by alcohol but after only one month, it will have lost around 20% of the fatty deposits caused by drinking. You should also see significant improvements in your energy, skin and cognitive clarity, and you will most likely be sleeping a whole lot better.

Our brains also take some serious damage from drinking, and it takes some time before that damage can be repaired. However, after about two weeks of undergoing alcohol detox, your brain will have replaced a large amount of the volume it lost due to alcohol. If you have been a heavy drinker for a long time, you may find that certain symptoms such as memory issues, and problems with attention span and reaction times still remain, at least in the short term. If you stay dedicated to sobriety and receive the right treatment, however, you can start to make real progress.