Links to other information: Admission FAQ, Detox, Vaping and Addiction
The first and most important point to make when we talk about alcohol withdrawal treatment is the importance of involving a physician in your choice to stop drinking alcohol. Many people with substance use disorder, or addiction, have caused so much harm in their own lives and the lives of people around them that one major inclination when they want to stop can be to “go it alone” or do it by themselves. This is not a safe option when it comes to quitting drinking and dealing with alcohol withdrawal. Other drugs, such as opioids, have a terrible sickness associated with stopping use suddenly, but stopping the use of alcohol suddenly without medical supervision is much more dangerous and often deadly, even more dangerous than suddenly stopping the use of other drugs. You must not try to quit alcohol alone, the people in your life will appreciate your decision and your eventual sobriety much more than a dangerous attempt to stop drinking alcohol by yourself. Alcohol, and some other drugs that act on the human brain in a similar manner, builds a dependency over time. This physical dependency, upon stopping the use of alcohol, can manifest in seizures and death if a person tries to go through alcohol withdrawal alone, without the care of medical professionals. I am not a medical professional myself, but doctors will likely use medications to counteract the dangerous side effects of alcohol withdrawal, and that is, in the most basic terms, the process of alcohol withdrawal medical treatment.
Medical Aspects of Alcohol Withdrawal Treatment
There are various components to the medical side of dealing with alcohol withdrawal, which is why medical attention is considered mandatory for every day and heavy drinkers who want to seek treatment, seek recovery, stop drinking, whatever we want to call that process. I most often call it treatment, as addiction, or substance use disorder, is a disease and is treated as such by people in the medical community. Your drinking, or your loved one’s drinking, is not a moral failing, but a complicated metabolic disease that takes hard work on the part of the patient to recover from. Vitamins and liquids are used to rejuvenate the body as drinking can cause both dehydration and dangerous vitamin deficiencies in many cases. Medications, such as benzodiazepines, are often used to stave off the dangerous seizures that can cause death in some patients. These medications are only used during a temporary portion of time that is most dangerous for the patient who has stopped using alcohol, and sometimes people call this portion of time the detox phase of recovery. Here is some information about the process of detox that is used by medical substance use disorder treatment facilities like Florida Springs Wellness and Recovery Center.
This blog is brought to the world by one medical detox and recovery facility, but facilities that employ doctors and nurses, like ours at Florida Springs, will all take a similar approach to the process of alcohol withdrawal treatment and the longer process of long-term sobriety and recovery from alcohol or drug addiction or dependency. Along with medications and vitamins and plenty of liquids, the current standard of care for both alcohol and drug withdrawal and addiction, or substance use disorder, is individual and group therapy and support. Research has shown that people who have a good support structure at home, and seek therapy with professional therapists or other like-minded people who want to stop drinking and using drugs, have the best chance of success. Oftentimes a person has sought treatment because the support structure within the home has been badly harmed by the alcoholism or drug addiction of one or more members of the household. This is one of the reasons that inpatient treatment is often useful. While in medical treatment for withdrawal and the side effects of addiction, a person is able to work with individuals who specialize in helping people with substance use disorder repair the damage at home. This is also one of the reasons group therapy is considered very useful. Other people who are going through or have gone through the same processes that you are facing when you stop drinking or using drugs are able to act as one leg of a new and stable support structure that an individual begins to build during the early and middle phases of substance use disorder treatment. You can recover and thrive after facing the scary situation that alcohol withdrawal presents an individual, but learning about the disease you are facing is important and you will need help from medical professionals. If you need alcohol addiction treatment in Florida, please call us today at the number on the top of our website.
By T.A. Cannon (Contact me at TACannonWriting@gmail.com)
