Alcohol Withdrawal Explained

Today’s educational video will discuss Alcohol Withdrawal. Alcohol withdrawal is what occurs to the mind and body when someone has developed a tolerance to alcohol and decides to stop drinking or cut back on their drinking.

The range of withdrawal signs and symptoms can range from very mild to much more serious withdrawal symptoms and syndromes such as alcoholic hallucinosis, alcohol withdrawal seizures, and alcohol withdrawal delirum aka delirum tremens (DT’s). And unfortunately, death can be an outcome of severe, untreated alcohol withdrawal.

Often times people don’t associate coming off of a legal substance like alcohol with serious consequences. Hopefully this video helps educate and provide useful facts about alcohol withdrawal.

Please watch the video to learn about the common mild to moderate symptoms of withdrawal to the more serious withdrawal syndromes and the common timelines of when these tend to happen.

Thank you for your support and encouragement as always.

~Dr. Andrew Kim MD
Board Certified Psychiatrist

Remember this video is for educational, informational, and entertainment purposes and should NOT be taken as personal medical advice. I am NOT your doctor.

Please submit other educational topics and questions you would like to hear me discuss in upcoming videos, video podcasts, and my "Ask Dr. Kim" series. Please submit general topic requests or questions. Please do not submit specific, personal medical questions, as I will not respond to those, as I am not your doctor.

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**Disclosures: At the time of creating this video, Dr. Andrew Kim M.D. was an independent contractor on the Janssen Speakers Bureau and works as a Principal Investigator on FDA clinical trials for pharmaceutical sponsors. **

[Nataleigh]

Hello Dr. Kim-Thank you for making a point to address just how sudden and complicated alcohol withdrawal can be when consumption stops suddenly. I’m a healthcare professional in a corrections setting. Many of our pts. with a hx of alcohol abuse are at significant risk of experiencing the alcohol withdrawal symptoms you’ve mentioned here. Managing these pt.s can be tricky because they must be monitored and medicated frequently. Everything you mentioned here reinforces my personal opinion that one must be vigilant and empathetic when assessing and treating pts who may withdrawal from alcohol. Symptom onset is individual & absolutely varies- key point!

[taylorpresley]

I have a story to share. Each morning I would stop by McDonalds for coffee. One morning a crowd of homeless kids were picking on this homeless man that was sitting on the concrete in front of McDonald's. i approached them and threatened to call the cops and they scattered like cockroaches. I spoke to this man and I could tell he was clearly suffering from alcoholism. His legs were red and swollen and he told me he lived in the field next to McDonald's and he could walk to the door to McDonald's but he couldn't walk any further. Every so often I would stop and see John and I told him that when he was ready to quit drinking I would take him to the Aloha House (rehab center). He would share a little about his life. My heart broke for this man. One day he told me he was ready for rehab, I took him to the hospital get a clearance to get accepted into rehab.On our way to rehab upcountry, John told me he was scared and I tried to comfort him the best I could. I went into the rehab center with him and wished him well. When I called the rehab center in 4 days to check on him I found out he had died. Please, please always be kind to the homeless and the hurting. No one ever said they wanted to grow up and become a drunk. Pass on love and hope.

[nathangardner]

The silver lining of the pandemic. When the bars and restaurants were shut down, I said, “I’m taking advantage of this”
Heavy heavy drinker for 20 years prior, never missed a day. My last drink was 4-28-20. Today is 4-11-23. 😊 sleep is there, focus is there. I can’t think of a reason to ever drink again.

[mikerehder]

I suddenly withdrew from alcohol without medical intervention in 2010. Was drinking a full handle of vodka everyday for close to a year and abruptly stopped. Hallucinations started right around that 12 hour mark and last 4 days. Had a seizure on day 3. I ended up strapped to hospital bed at UCLA medical center. Remained sober for a year and half and still ended up drinking again - that’s how powerful this disease is! I now have 10.5 years clean and sober!

[SuperJohnMontana]

I would like to offer my experience.

When I was 24 I was hired as a police officer. We were all young single professionals who liked to party. I noticed early on I could outdrink my peers easily. I never drank before or during work. The only time I did not drink at all was on nightshifts. I would go home and go to sleep and head back to work. At age 24 I was no longer living with my parents as I had to move for my career. I would have never drank at home, but now I was free to do so.
At Age 27 I walked into a bedroom of a dead alcoholic. This man was 27 as well and surrounded by bottles. He lived at home with his mother and brother. I was scared straight, so I thought. I quit drinking for maybe 3 weeks. I hated life, I was agitated constantly and very unpleasant to be around. Miserable as I was, I went back to drinking. The fear of the what if long subsided.

As the years progressed so did my alcoholism. Occasionally I would be dispatched to death calls where the clear cause was alcohol. The worst of which was a person who looked like a yellow wax monster, one of the most hideous I had seen. At this point I was long gone. I had accepted the fact that my demise would be similar to the men and women who dies alone surrounded by giant bottles of alcohol. As time pressed on I began to decline mentally and this began to manifest as anxiety and panic attacks after time without drinking. I can say that my job was hard to do in that state but any job would have seen me in decline. I was inured on duty and went for back surgery. I could not accept that I could never go out of patrol again. I was placed in a cubicle doing data entry for years after. The perfect way for my alcoholism to thrive while remaining undetected. I was an absolute recluse by this point. I eliminated my social circle by never attending any events or cancelling at the last minute. I could not drink the way I wanted to drink in those social settings. My daily routine of grabbing a full glass of vodka with ice was much faster than the slow grind of social drinking. That was how my mind worked. I then got the green light for a second surgery on my spine. To access the area they needed to cut through my original scar tissue. This surgery was unsuccessful and left me with horrible nerve damage in my feet. My anxiety was punishing. I would go shopping and then have a panic attack and run out of the store leaving a full cart of groceries. I could barely enter my pin number, often failing thew 1st time which only caused my uncontrollable shaking worse. Many times I had to just walkaway without my item. That or I had to call my ex to compete my transactions. At 44 I looked nothing like my former self. I was a bloated red faced man who shaved his head because I could no longer sit in a barbers chair. I returned to work and I couldn't even type anymore.

My new supervisor took me aside one day. He told me his story and it was essentially the same as mine. Inured drinker, addicted to prescribed pain killers. He asked me if I would be willing to anything and I said yes.

It was a blur after that. Doctors, psychologist and HR. A month later I walked into a 6 week rehab facility and I never drank again, well, so far haha. 3.5 years sober.

What does this have to do with the video?

I have seen people in withdrawal and its terrible. A man who quit alcohol pointing to a closet and saying that lady there keeps running around my house with bugs, as I look at an empty closet.
I have seen death and seizures too. My doctor gave me tip once as he told me of liver issues and that was to not quit abruptly. I knew that to be true cause I had seen it all.

The 1st week in the facility I was medically detoxed and under constant necessary scrutiny. Due to the severity of my abuse, the others started the program without me. I was also coming off the pain killers. By day 3 I was much better and by day 4 I joined the group.

When I got out I Joined AA. AA has worked for me. For some it doesn't, there are many options.

Do not fool yourself or allow yourself to quit cold turkey. A seizure may cause death, or more so brain trauma. Leaving you without control of your own faculties. If you still have anyone left that loves you, you will burden them. Don't let the alcohol fool you into thinking death is the only option. I truly believed that. I was completely stunned to find out just 3 months later my liver enzymes had returned from normal from the staggering number I had initially been given, 11 x more than normal.

I got a lot back from quitting. My appearance was one thing I 1st noticed. I remember one day looking in the mirror and said to myself, I never thought I would see you again, old friend.

[vanessajjjjj]

Crying floods of tears watching this. My Dad died from withdrawing from alcohol. Everyone at the time had the attitude of ‘just stop drinking’. Easy. He lost his parents in the holocaust and never talked of the horrors he saw as a child. Medicating his trauma my poor Dear Dad 😢

[zachordway]

Alcohol withdrawl is true spiritual torture. A prisoner in your own body and mind. I felt a truely dark and malevolent presence inside of me through my alcoholism. 15 months sober now. 🎉

[starrystarrynight]

Three weeks sober. Almost died from alcoholism and i was mixing it with Suboxone. Deadly combination. Never again. Watching this to help remind myself why I am staying sober. Reading the comments for motivation.

[robertpalmer]

I found that watching one youtube video a day on the dangers of alcohol and one video on how great people felt after quitting reprogrammed me to be able to stop. Do it every day. It may help you, too. Good luck to you all.

[dking]

My grandma died of alcohol withdrawal. My mom had extreme withdrawal. I was a heavy drinker for 10 years. After hitting rock bottom I quit cold turkey. Luckily, I only had a nasty hang over for 2 days and cravings for a week. I’m beyond lucky. I’m 8 months sober and I can’t look back

[pradhanmohan]

By the grace of our loving GOD...survived DTs....grateful to be sober

[FarmerPheonix]

Yeah Brother!! I’m 25 days alcohol free & still counting! 😊💪🏽🙌🏽🕺🏻

[BLOBJOB]

I've detoxed a couple times from alcohol. It is no joke. Absolutely brutal. The audible hallucinations and having a seizure were 2 of the scarier moments in my life. All I wanted to do was sleep and hydrate but pure discomfort and constant vomiting and panic attacks made it impossible until about 72 hours after my last drink. It took me 2 whole days to pee I was so dehydrated. Take this as a precautionary tale please.

[ThisWouldBeACoolBandName]

No hospital ever understood this. When I was an alcoholic, they dismissed me from A & E despite tremors, hallucinations, and sweats. They said "You can't be in withdrawal" because I'd still had a drink that day. They used to calculate your withdrawal based on time. They couldn't understand how I could be in withdrawal within a few hours or with alcohol still in my BAC. I was a liquor-drinker and a severe alcoholic. I also had kindling due to previous withdrawals. By the end, I couldn't even keep enough alcohol down to stop the withdrawal. Thank you for spreading awareness. I had to do dangerous cold turkey a number of times because hospitals told me to go home. I had seizures and DTs as a result and all alone, too ill to call an ambulance when it got horrific. All care providers need to understand this, and also stop seeing alcoholics as a bother or waste of resources. 10 years sober but I nearly died to achieve that. It needn't have been the case.

[bartram]

I am a heavy drinker, booze every day. I can stop for 3 days when I think I’ve had too much, with no perceptible withdrawal symptoms. 9 days ago I stopped after a day of vodka and white wine. I woke up at 1.30 am feeling very unwell, clammy with a pulse of 122. I tried to settle myself down but nothing helped. I always dreaded the day that I would wake my wife up and ask her to call an ambulance, but I did. Fortunately our daughter-in-law is a nurse and lived opposite us and my wife called her. When she saw me she took my blood pressure and took me to A&E without waiting for an ambulance.
After tests over the cause of the night I was allowed to go home. With no signs of a heart attack I felt pretty lucky.

Day 8 without any alcohol and no withdrawal symptoms. I’m convinced that night was the warning that a lot of people don’t get, and I’m grateful.

I now know for certain that my ( heavy ) drinking days are over after that fright and as I said, I’m grateful that I came out of it with no damage. Good luck to anyone who wants to quit, do it now before it’s too late. Best wishes.

[dompdompdomp]

Weed helped me quit. Then I quit weed. It was not ideal, but quitting weed, which is basically not sleeping for a week, is much more tolerable than the effects of quitting alcohol. Great vid and thanks

[texasstrokes]

After 15yrs of alcohol abuse. My heart rate has 198 bpm for 2 weeks. Insomnia, psychosis. Thought I was going to have a heart attack. Didn't eat I lost about 26lbs. But I had made up my mind I was quitting regardless of price. And im 2.5yrs sober at the moment.

[bludwurm]

I went through the DT's. I was in the hospital for over a week. I was mad. I broke straps, thought there was a flood coming in the room, and saw dead people everywhere. They were even lying in the bed with me. It was horrible and I'm lucky to have lived. I quit for a few months then ended up in the hospital again, then again, and four more times. It was bad. I had to want to stop living that way. To do that i had to get away from my family and friends that are all drunks. By God's grace i did. Five years later i have a new home, a thriving business, and a wife. She was my girlfriend while i fought that demon. I never thought it could get better. It did. I've never been happier in my life.

[vv]

Congrats to all the sober people on here and family of those sober or trying to get there. I was a severe alcoholic for 6 years. I drank from 4-5am, until I blacked out around midnight and then started over. It was absolute torture. In 2017, I got a DUI and crashed into 2 parked cars in a total blackout. Worst of all, I had my 10 year old, his best friend and my 1 year old in the car.

It was my rock bottom. I have been sober since that night, 9/29/2017 and I’m grateful every time I go to bed at night, after another day sober. It’s taken years for my kids and husband to trust me, but I did that. I worked my ass off for the last 5.5 years to earn that trust back and I will do anything, to never go back there again. Unfortunately, I am still a convicted felon, I can’t be around children, I can’t even volunteer in my now 1st graders classroom supervised…. But, those are the consequences for my actions and thank god it wasn’t worse than what it actually was. Prayers for those in and out of this horrific disease.

[Tyler-T]

As a current struggling alcoholic, thank you. I've been drinking myself to sleep, to calm my mind, for over a decade. I've been through shakes, insomnia, and last September I actually was hallucinating and hearing things/seeing people in my room after being sick for 3 days. December 2020 I was diagnosed with pancreatitis. 2021 I went to treatment for 3 months, was sober for 10 months, but went back to drinking beer. Went back to treatment for a month in 2022, and 3 months in 2023. Still drinking.... I'm down to 4 beers a day, but I'm still struggling.
Withdrawals are a serious thing.