Alcohol Withdrawal Symptoms: When You Stop Drinking

When someone finally decides to kick his or her addiction to alcohol to the curb, he or she may often find it hard to do so. Although for those who have finally decided in making a good albeit dramatic change in the way they live, tougher times could be in store. However, not all who quits alcohol go through alcohol withdrawal. The people who are most likely to experience the various alcohol Benzo Withdrawal Symptoms are those who have been on the bottle for a considerable amount of time. Those who drink on regular basis and/or those who drink heavily are the ones who are prone. When they immediately stop their drinking, their bodies undergo a change that’s related to alcohol withdrawal.

Alcohol withdrawal symptoms come in mild or extreme forms. These could also be psychological as well as physical in nature. However, the severity of such symptoms depends from case to case. Some of the usual minor to moderate psychological symptoms includes:

– A feeling of anxiety

– Wild mood swings

– Feeling fatigue

– Getting depressed

Sadly, these types of symptoms can sometimes get so difficult to deal with that certain persons go back to drinking and thus, can start a vicious cycle that can be very hard to break away from although some, tragically, never break away at all. How long these withdrawal symptoms last is usually individual-specific. For a few, their symptoms only last for several days while others might experience such symptoms for some weeks. For those whose cases are severe, these symptoms might last months.

Even with medical help, such symptoms should be seriously treated. Pharmacotherapy utilizes medication as treatment. The usual medicines that are commonly used against withdrawal include benzodiazepine, propranolol, carbamazepine, atenolol and diazepam. It is vital to know that such medicines are utilized to fight minor to moderate withdrawal symptoms. In some occasions though, such medicines become less effective and this results in an increased dosage for a patient as well as a patient developing a dependence on such medicines. Treatment for severe symptoms such as hallucinating is usually done at the hospital under medical supervision.