Alcohol addiction effects millions of people every year. While some suffer at the hands of addiction, many take a step and reach out for the help they need. When you first make the decisions to quit drinking, you will experience a very uncomfortable period in their recovery. Alcohol dependence leads one direction when you seek recovery. That is through alcohol withdrawal. Withdrawal symptoms are complicated and even life-threatening for some people. Get to know the alcohol detox timeline so you can see why supervised medical detox provides the essential help you need.
Alcohol Detox Symptoms
Withdrawal from alcohol is not fun. But this process is significant for your future. The withdrawal process is the first step on the road to recovery that most people will go through. It is important to understand how detox works and what happens throughout the process.
Do you want good news about the alcohol detox process? That news is that your worst symptoms fade within a matter of days or a week, at most. Some of the most common alcohol withdrawal symptoms include:
- Lost appetite, nausea, and vomiting
- Fast heart rate
- Excessive sweating, sleeplessness, and headache
- Tremors and disorientation
- Anxiety and irritability
- Seizure, intense mood swings and hallucinations
Your alcohol detox timeline relies on your age, how long you drank, and how much you drank. It also depends on pre-existing mental health problems and whether you have gone through detox in the past. Regardless of what stage of addiction you are in, detox can be beneficial for your overall health.
Alcohol Detox Timeline
The alcohol detox timeline starts six to 12 hours after your last drink. Mild symptoms come first, lasting for a few days or longer. Getting help in an alcohol detox center eases these early symptoms. It also makes later ones feel less uncomfortable.
About 12 to 24 hours after your last drink you go through more severe symptoms. These last about a week. Some people have seizures about one to two days after quitting drinking. Others go through sometimes fatal delirium tremens, the worst symptoms. Those start after the second or third day. It is rare that people die from life-threatening symptoms. It is mostly in the most severe of addiction cases where their lives are at risk.
Three in four people in alcohol detox also go through post-acute withdrawal syndrome, PAWS. PAWS exhibit symptoms for months or even several years. These symptoms include problems with thinking, learning, problem-solving, or memory. Other signs of PAWS are mood swings, depression, sleeplessness, cravings, and anxiety.
Help You Need for Alcohol Detox
Going through alcohol detox is difficult, at best. For your most comfortable and safest withdrawal, you need help from a licensed and accredited detox center. Being in a quality detox center also means you are kept comfortable, healthy, and safe from a potentially deadly relapse. You also gain the early therapies and support you need to start building your sober future.
Serenity House Detox & Recovery in Houston, Texas provides medically-supervised, accredited alcohol detox. At Serenity House Detox & Recovery you also worry less about being safe or comfortable and think more about what you want from your future in sobriety. The programs at Serenity House Detox & Recovery include:
- Men’s detox program
- Women’s detox program
- Residential detox program
- Individual therapy, family therapy, and group therapy
- Meditation therapy program
- Psychotherapy program
- Chiropractic care program
If you or someone you love need healthy, safe detox from alcohol or drugs, call Serenity House Detox & Recovery Houston at 866.516.8356. Serenity House Detox & Recovery provides the support, care, and therapies you need to start healthy recovery. Addiction does not have to control your life forever. You can have a better life you deserve, so call now.
