re: I stopped drinking last week...when do the shakes stop?

No one likes a quitter.
Seriously, pray and take care of yourself.

Delirium tremens. Any of these symptoms and you need to go to the ER.

This is day 34 for me.

Didn't really have the shakes.

Gastro issues were a mother for a few weeks, though. Those have mostly cleared up.

Good luck.

It gets easier. Fight the good fight, and in a week, in a month, in 2-5 months, you'll adjust and realize you don't need the crutch as much as you thought you did. You're all the help you need, but meetings help. They're everywhere. You can be around people with the same feelings as you.

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Why pickup a drink ten get a medical detox as opposed to just getting the medical detox?

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When the shaking gets uncontrollable, sleep won't come, heart is pounding and won't slow down, DT's set in - it's time to get a drink in you to calm it enough to get to a facility that can handle a medical detox so that you don't die from the withdrawal.

Over time, someone who drinks consistently and regularly develops a tolerance for the alcohol and it takes more and more of it to get the same effect. The reason for this is that your brain has started creating and releasing a chemical to overcome the depressant (alcohol) that you have introduced to your body. It's the brain's way of dealing with this threat.

When you suddenly quit drinking, the brain doesn't suddenly slow down the production of these chemicals. It took time for it to ramp up production to combat the alcohol and it takes time for it to slow the production of these chemicals down.

In the meantime, while these chemicals are released from your brain into your body to fight the alcohol that isn't there anymore, the body reacts to those chemicals with fidgeting, restlessness, unease, rapid pulse, fast breathing, etc. (These are just the mild symptoms.)

Taking a drink will ease the symptoms for a brief while when the alcohol is in your system. So, if you're trying to quit cold turkey (or quit Wild Turkey, as it were), if there is an inkling of a thought that you're about to suffer DTs, then it's a good idea to get a drink in yourself to calm it down and make the call for help.

I was fortunate to not have to go that far when I finally laid the bottle down, but I was less than a hair's breadth from being there.

Over the long term, for the rest of your life your brain will remember alcohol and what it needs to do to combat it. Even one drink can trigger the brain into opening up its chemical plant into overdrive again. And that's why alcoholics can't have just that one drink again. It's not about a lack of control. It's about turning on the chemical plant in your brain again which will out you right back where you started in a hurry.

Sorry for the large tome here, but the physical addiction to alcohol needs to be something everyone is aware of. I'm not trying to preach to anyone that you shouldn't drink, or that if you drink you're going to hell. It's just something you should know about in order to keep a wary eye out for it.

When 90s Elisabeth Shue shows up.

If a break up ain't worth drinking over what is??

Prolly should see a med doc for safe measure. I enjoyed drinking since i was like 15yrs old- hard core at times (College days+).
Finally walked away from it and I feel soo much better all around. Though not gonna lie, I miss it- had some really fun times.. anyway, good for you but i’d check that shakes chit out man.

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10 drinks per week for years

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depends on size of drink. 10 big gulps of vodka on ice per week ain’t the same as a measured pour at Fred’s, And yes, alcohol induced seizures, hallucinations and DTs are not to be taken lightly as those are the final 3 stages of chronic alcoholism and one needs to go to hospital .