Withdrawal can be a deadly part of recovery

Alcoholism is an addiction that can be difficult to recover from. From the start, kicking the habit carries the risk of being fatal. However, others experience relatively mild symptoms.

“Everything gears up when people quit drinking,” Barb Meek, a certified nurse practitioner at Fountain Center, said. “People can have heart attacks or strokes just because of withdrawal.”

Sudden reduction or quitting long-term alcohol use can produce a defined cluster of symptoms called acute alcohol withdrawal.

Symptoms of acute withdrawal can begin as early as six hours after declining from drinking. Initial symptoms include tremor, anxiety, insomnia, restlessness and nausea.

In mildly alcohol-dependent persons, these symptoms may subside without treatment after a few days. More serious cases can have withdrawal symptoms including fever, rapid breathing, tremor and profuse sweating which occurs in about 10 percent of patients.

Seizures can occur in more than 5 percent of untreated patients.

Another severe complication associated with withdrawal is delirium tremens. DTs is characterized by hallucinations, mental confusion and disorientation. The mortality rate among patients with DTs is 5 to 25 percent.

After acute withdrawal has subsided, a further protracted withdrawal may follow with persistent alterations in physiology, mood and behavior that may motivate a patient to relapse to heavy drinking.

The type of treatment patients receive depends on the severity of alcoholism and the resources that are available in the community. Treatment may include detoxification, taking doctor-prescribed medications to help prevent a return to drinking once drinking has stopped and individual or group counseling.

Because the support of family members is important to the recovery process, many programs also offer brief marital counseling and family therapy as part of the treatment process. Programs may also link individuals with vital community resources, such as legal assistance, job training, childcare, and parenting classes.

Although there is an extensive array of professional alcohol treatment services, peer-led, voluntary fellowship groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous continue to be the most widely accessed resource for people with alcohol problems.

AA revolves around the 12-step method of recovery.

There are multiple other forms of intervention including cognitive-behavioral therapy and motivational enhancement therapy. Some heavy drinkers choose to quit drinking on their own, however it is not recommended due to serious complications associated with withdrawal.

The Albert Lea Tribune