Alcohol Withdrawal and Detox Timeline
About 95,000 Americans die each year from alcohol-related causes. Excessive or irresponsible use of alcohol is the third-highest preventable cause of death in the United States. Alcohol use threatens users’ physical and mental health, fractures families, has adverse legal and financial ramifications and triggers violence.
“Alcohol plays a role in at least half of all serious trauma injuries and deaths from burns, drownings, and homicides…[and is] involved in four out of 10 fatal falls and traffic crashes, as well as suicides,” according to WebMD sources.
You don’t have to be a chronic alcohol abuser to experience severe consequences; just one episode of binge drinking can result in your death or your responsibility for the death of another.
Although alcohol use disorder (AUD) is a chronic disease, it is highly treatable. Seeking treatment is the most valuable gift you can give yourself and your loved ones. Don’t let fear of detox or withdrawal symptoms stop you from reaching out for help. Medical and addiction specialists can help you detox safely, help you manage withdrawal symptoms, and guide you on the path to recovery.
What Causes Alcohol Withdrawal Symptoms?
Your body’s central nervous system (CNS) consists of your brain and spinal column and coordinates your actions, reflexes, and sensations. Alcohol depresses the CNS, slowing respiration, heart rate, blood pressure, motor function, and cognitive functions like understanding, reasoning, and speech. Excessive alcohol use may lower body temperature to a life-threatening level.
Besides interfering with normal brain function, alcohol signals the pleasure and reward center of the brain to release unnaturally high levels of “feel good” neurotransmitters like dopamine. While the body naturally releases dopamine and other chemicals in response to an enjoyable event, alcohol triggers the release of abnormally high levels, powerfully reinforcing the urge to repeat the behavior.
As you continue drinking large amounts of alcohol, the brain adapts and demands increasingly larger quantities of the addictive substance to deliver the desired effect. Once you start increasing the amount of alcohol you need to feel good, you have reached a state of tolerance. If you stop drinking once your brain has rewired to accommodate for the presence of alcohol, you will experience physical and mental withdrawal symptoms.
Symptoms of alcohol withdrawal usually begin six to forty-eight hours after your last drink. Withdrawal can cause severe side effects, and some can be life-threatening. Consult with your physician or an addiction professional before stopping alcohol use. If you are a heavy drinker, do not stop drinking “cold turkey.”
Alcohol Detox and Withdrawal Symptoms Timeline
The first step in alcohol recovery is detoxification (detox), to rid the body of waste products and toxins caused by excessive alcohol use. Detox reactions vary, depending on factors like your health and age, amount of alcohol typically consumed, how long you have been drinking, and whether you regularly mix alcohol with other addictive substances.
Once detox begins, alcohol withdrawal usually lasts about 5-14 days, depending on how long and how much you have been drinking. To ensure you are safe and as comfortable as possible throughout detox, experts recommend medical supervision throughout the process. Medical care during detox for heavy, long-term alcohol users is critical, as side effects can be life-threatening.
While the detox timeline may vary for each person, the following is typical.
6-8 hours after the last drink
Mood and behavioral changes may include depression, anxiety, and mood swings.
Physical symptoms may include shaky hands, insomnia, sweating, nausea, vomiting, headache, and loss of appetite.
12-48 hours after the last drink
Mood and behavioral changes may include confusion and irritability.
Physical symptoms may include elevated blood pressure and breathing, rapid heart rate, and fever.
In more severe cases of alcohol abuse, hallucinations or seizures may occur during this timeframe.
48-72 hours after the last drink
For some, symptoms may peak and decline during this timeframe. Withdrawal side effects may include minor shaking, headache, and stomachache.
However, about five percent of those going through alcohol detoxification experience delirium tremens (DTs), the most severe form of withdrawal. Symptoms may include vivid hallucinations and delusions, confusion, intense anxiety, seizures, shaking, dangerously fast heart rate, elevated blood pressure, and heavy sweating.
The DTs can be fatal. If you are a heavy alcohol user, you must be under constant medical supervision throughout the detoxification process.
Standard detox programs last one to two weeks to ensure toxins have entirely cleared your body before beginning your recovery program.
Medical professionals perform rapid detoxification using anesthesia and IV medications to clear the toxins quickly. While rapid detox may reduce uncomfortable withdrawal symptoms, it must be performed under constant medical supervision and is unsafe for those with certain health conditions.
5-14 days after the last drink
If you have been a heavy, long-term alcohol user, you may continue to have troubling withdrawal side effects. Post-acute withdrawal symptoms (PAWS) can last for several months and may include the following:
- Confusion
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Mood swings
- Lack of energy
- Sexual dysfunction
- Nightmares
- Sleep disorder
- Tremors
What You Can Do to Help Yourself During Recovery
You can take steps to help your brain and body recover more quickly.
- Stay well-hydrated with fresh water.
- Eat a diet rich in lean protein, fresh vegetables, and complex carbohydrates. Avoid processed foods and refined sugar.
- Put your recovery goals in writing and review your plan frequently.
- Adopt mind-body practices like yoga, meditation, mindfulness, massage therapy, and acupuncture. Exercise regularly.
- Avoid negative people, news, and entertainment. Read or listen to inspirational people, start a gratitude journal, and find ways to express your creative side.
The level of discomfort and duration of side effects from alcohol withdrawal differs for each person. The crucial point to understand is that treatment for alcohol abuse can literally save your life and possibly the lives of others. To achieve the quality of life you deserve, reach out for help. Contact your doctor or an addiction professional for guidance.
At Midwest Recovery Centers, our compassionate staff specializes in treating prescription or illegal drug dependence, alcohol dependence, co-occurring disorders, and other addictive behaviors while also providing education through a monthly support meeting for the families of those struggling.
Reviewed and Assessed by
Taylor Brown, B.A.Com., MAADC II
Tim Coleman, M. of Ed.
Start Your Recovery Now!
Have A Midwest Recovery Centers' Team Member Call You Today.
Recent Posts
The Role of Self-Care in Sustaining Recovery
Self-care is a cornerstone of successful long-term recovery from substance abuse. It involves adopting practices that promote physical, emotional, and mental well-being, helping individuals manage stress and maintain sobriety.
Overcoming Stigma in Seeking Treatment for Substance Abuse
The stigma surrounding substance abuse is a significant barrier to seeking treatment. Many individuals delay getting help because of fear, shame, or judgment.
The Role of Nutrition in Substance Abuse Recovery
Substance abuse takes a significant toll on the body, often leading to poor nutrition and weakened health. At Midwest Recovery Centers, we emphasize the importance of proper nutrition as part of a holistic recovery plan.
Staffed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Medical
Midwest Recovery Centers believes strongly in a client-centered approach. Substance Use Disorder is not what it was 5 or even 2 years ago. The substances on the street are constantly changing and so are the number of contraindications and fatal threats that substance use imposes on the person suffering. Our Medical team continues to stay up to speed with new advances of evidence-based approaches in treating those with both substance use disorder as well as their co-occurring mental health diagnosis. There are many varying pieces to each client’s situation when it comes to tackling the puzzle of a medical detox, and each step in the treatment planning is carefully selected, reviewed, and communicated for the best possible outcome of each client. We understand that consideration of the medical history, family history, past trauma, past and current substance use are all key indicators to most effectively give each client the best chance at developing a recovery process. Each client may present with a different scope of medical needs whether it’s their blood work or the most effective medications for them. Midwest Recovery Centers is proud to have the finest medical team to meet these individual and specific needs of each client that walks through our doors.
Clinical
When it comes to the therapeutic treatment of patients with substance use disorder, Midwest Recovery Centers believes in a client-centered approach guided by evidence-based practices. Substance use disorder has been identified by the American Medical Association as a disease, but because addiction is a disease that impacts behavior, treatment of this disease is often heavily focused on modifying behaviors and thoughts as well as establishing a new way of life. We place a strong emphasis on educating patients about this chronic illness and empowering them to practice treating it as such. Our clinical team is composed of leading experts in the field. We believe in having a staff as diverse as the clients we serve; from Licensed Professional Counselors to Licensed Clinical Social Workers, our staff is highly trained and educated in not only addiction but the mental health issues and life circumstances that often accompany it. Many of our clinicians have their own personal experience in long term recovery which lends them to an even better understanding of what our patients are experiencing. Our staff is highly skilled in choosing the most effective therapeutic modality for each client’s needs, to give them the best chance of securing the recovery process that will change their lives. Our clinical team understands that this is a family disease. This is why clinicians will offer weekly updates to families as well as concrete tools for families to utilize as they journey through this illness with their loved one. Those tools will be offered by the patient’s individual clinician as well as at our free Family Night on the first Wednesday of each month, offered to anyone in the community.
Our Origin Story
I began Midwest Recovery in honor of my mother, Betty Lou Wallace, who taught me responsibility in life and sobriety.
Mom was born, raised, and lived most of her life in Missouri, a state I'm still proud to call home. She had five children. The youngest were my older brother Don and me.
We knew that the disease of addiction ran in the family, but it wasn't until Don and I grew older that we realized we were falling into addictive patterns. Through it all, Mom was supportive of her children but firm about one principle: whether the disease was inherited or developed through your environment, you were responsible for your recovery from addiction.
"I will be supportive of your recovery but I will not enable your addiction," she was fond of saying.
Ultimately, I stayed sober from 1990 to 1997, when I relapsed. With Mom's support, I was able to get sober again in 2002. Tragically, Don was not so lucky. He passed away in 2005 from complications of an injury and continued addiction.
Mom wanted no parent to suffer from the sorrow and anguish of losing a child, so in 2002, she helped me establish my first treatment center business.
As Mom grew older, she shared with me some lessons she had learned through her affiliation with Al-Anon, a support group for family members of loved ones struggling with addiction. She asked me to stay clean and sober one day at a time and to use the lessons I learned in my own recovery to help others who were suffering.
In 2008, Mom passed away from throat cancer, one day after my six year sober anniversary. I still remember that one of the last times we spoke, she told me she was proud of my recovery.
Mom would be so happy to know that myself, our partners, and our team are carrying on her legacy in her home state. I don't know if my own recovery process would be intact without her and the lessons she shared. So much of what we share with our clients at Midwest began with Betty Lou.
Above all, Mom imparted several teachings that I carry with me every day: that people are inherently good, and if they fall into addiction, this makes them sick, not bad. She taught me to be patient, tolerant, loving, and kind to myself and to others.
Most of all, she taught me that recovery works if we are able to be honest with ourselves about our own behavior. That’s what she helped me accomplish and that’s what we strive to accomplish with every Midwest client.
On behalf of Betty Lou, I thank you for your interest in Midwest Recovery.
Jeff Howard
Start Your Recovery Now!
Have A Midwest Recovery Centers' Team Member Call You Today.
Recent Posts
The Role of Self-Care in Sustaining Recovery
Self-care is a cornerstone of successful long-term recovery from substance abuse. It involves adopting practices that promote physical, emotional, and mental well-being, helping individuals manage stress and maintain sobriety.
Overcoming Stigma in Seeking Treatment for Substance Abuse
The stigma surrounding substance abuse is a significant barrier to seeking treatment. Many individuals delay getting help because of fear, shame, or judgment.
The Role of Nutrition in Substance Abuse Recovery
Substance abuse takes a significant toll on the body, often leading to poor nutrition and weakened health. At Midwest Recovery Centers, we emphasize the importance of proper nutrition as part of a holistic recovery plan.
