Alcohol Withdrawal Timeline: What to Expect When Quitting Drinking

Overcoming Alcohol Addiction

Anyone who has decided to quit drinking deserves a great deal of respect and support. Choosing to end your dependence on alcohol won’t be without its challenges.  However, your successful recovery will safeguard your physical and mental health as well as other essential areas of your life, like your family, career, and overall well-being.

It is not uncommon for a person suffering from alcohol addiction to experience withdrawal symptoms when they stop drinking.  These withdrawal symptoms can range from mild to severe and often occcur in somewhat predictable stages.  These stages can be thought of as an alcohol withdrawal timeline. When you rely on an alcohol treatment program like at JC’s Recovery Center in South Florida, you can rest assured that your experience of overcoming alcohol addiction will be as safe and comfortable as possible.  Our medially assisted detox provides round the clock monitoring, medications to reduce the severity of withdrawal symptoms, and addiction specialists to care for you along the road to recovery.

What to Expect When You Begin Treatment

When you enter JC’s Recovery Center to start a clinically supervised detox, addiction specialists will sit down an talk with you about your alcohol use. They may want to know how long you’ve been abusing alcohol, how much you’ve been drinking and what current physical and mental health symptoms you may be experiencing.

This information will allow our team to provide you with treatments and therapies that are ideal for you. For instance, if you’re experiencing depression, you may need to begin therapy with an antidepressant and other dual diagnosis treatments. This evaluation helps us understand what you’re experiencing. Our team can also answer questions about the detoxification and rehabilitation process and help you understand what to expect during each phase of your recovery journey.

The Phases of Alcohol Withdrawal

Phase One

The initial period of withdrawal may begin with mild symptoms. Mild symptoms of alcohol withdrawal may include:

• Irritability
• Headache
• Fatigue
• Insomnia
• Cravings

Some people may experience an escalation in discomfort. Typically, withdrawal symptoms begin to feel more intense once an individual has gone eight hours without a drink. These symptoms can progress in severity and include:

• Anxiety/depression
• Shakiness
• Sweating
• Dilated pupils
• Nausea and vomiting
• Appetite loss
• Increased blood pressure
• Increased body temperature

Phase Two

As the detoxification progresses, more severe symptoms are possible, which is precisely why people should always undergo this process under the care of addiction specialists and medical practitioners. Healthcare providers can offer treatments to reduce the severity of these symptoms. More severe alcohol withdrawal symptoms can include:

• Fever
• Hallucinations
• Agitation
• Seizures
• Paranoia
• Increasing depression/suicidal thoughts
• Intense cravings

Some of these symptoms can trigger life-threatening emergencies. Delirium tremens, for example, is a medical emergency associated with alcohol withdrawal. For this reason, it’s never a good idea to attempt to detox on your own without the professional support of an addiction treatment program.

Phase Three

Not everyone will experience severe symptoms, particularly when undergoing treatment at a rehab like JC’s Recovery because medications and skilled care help to provide comfort and reduce the intensity of symptoms.

The intense portion of detox doesn’t necessarily have a set period. Some people begin to feel better after a few days.  For others, it may take a full week or longer to feel better. The timeline for alcohol withdrawal depends on a person’s chemistry and the length of time they’ve been addicted to alcohol.  It is important to remember that withdrawal symptoms will diminish.

The last phase of detox may involve some mild symptoms like headaches or fatigue, but each day brings improvement. During this part of recovery, it’s essential to rest, get some healthy nourishment, and gear up for the next part of your treatment journey.

Post-Detox Treatment

It’s important to keep in mind that detox only targets the physical dependency involved in alcohol addiction. It does not address the powerful emotional and behavioral dependencies that most often lead to relapse.

For this reason, detox alone does not promote lasting recovery. Further treatment, including one-on-one counseling, 12-step programs, group counseling, and holistic therapies, can help to ensure effective addiction management. If your alcohol addiction consumes your life and you are ready to make a change, a medically assisted detox program can provide the key to long term sobriety.

JC’s Recovery Center features a team of caring, empathetic addiction specialists who are experts at what they do. They will do everything they can to make your detox experience as comfortable as possible. Their faith-based guidance and evidence-based treatments can help you lead the healthy, fulfilling, sober life you crave. Call 844-524-6873 to begin your recovery journey today.

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