Alcohol Detox Symptoms
Getting to Know Alcohol Detox Symptoms
Alcohol addiction can destroy a person’s life. It takes away everything that is meaningful in life: your family, your friends, your job, your future. Despite this fact, though, more and more people find themselves addicted to alcohol year after year. It is only when the truth hits them that alcoholics scramble to get back what was taken away from them. This is when they finally decide to undergo rehabilitation and rebuild their lives.
A person who has gotten used to injecting alcohol into his system will experience a variety of painful side effects known as alcohol detox symptoms. These symptoms include depression, fatigue, vomiting, hallucinations, nausea, headaches and tremor of the hands among others. These symptoms normally take place in a matter of eight to at least 12 hours after the last alcohol consumption. They normally intensify in the days that follow.
Alcohol detox or alcohol withdrawal symptoms are the result of the body and brain’s response or reaction to the lack of alcohol in the system. These symptoms can be mild, moderate or serious, depending on the level of alcohol dependency.
The following are the mild alcohol detox symptoms:
- sleeping problems
- shakes
- wild mood swings
- alcohol cravings
These symptoms normally manifest themselves a few hours after the last alcohol consumption and can last for as long as two weeks.
Moderate alcohol detox symptoms include the following:
- insomnia
- sweating (in the palms, most especially)
- clammy hands
- shaking
- dilated pupils
- vomiting
- headaches
All these are accompanied, as usual, by severe alcohol craving.
The alcohol detox symptoms for severe cases are as follows:
- depression
- black outs
- seizures
- convulsions
- muscle tremors
- extreme changes in emotions
- hallucinations
- anxiety
- decreased clarity of thinking
- delirium tremens or DTs
- fever
- irritability
- autonomic nervous system overactivity
All these symptoms are accompanied by alcohol craving. The symptoms can begin a few hours after the last consumption of alcohol and may last for days or weeks.
Proper alcohol detoxification will have to be done in order to assure positive changes in the rehabilitating patient’s condition. This is only possible if the right medical facilities and medical/health professionals are employed. Although it is only the initial step on the treatment of alcohol addiction, it does a lot to help a recovering alcoholic claim back what he once had.
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