Falling out of Alcoholism: Alcohol Withdrawal

Alcoholism, or the medical condition of being physically dependent on alcohol, occurs in specific stages. The first stage of alcoholism begins innocently enough. The individual may see alcohol as a sort of reward after a hard day’s work or some other personal accomplishment. Since alcoholism can take up to ten years to develop, the first stage occurs within 1-2 years of regular alcohol intake. This leads to the second stage. During stage 2 alcoholism, the alcoholic is actually drinking because of dependence on alcohol rather than for any specific reasons related to his personal life. He is slowly becoming “one with the bottle,” so to speak. During the third stage, the chronic alcohol abuse becomes apparent to everyone around the alcoholic. Some permanent damage to internal organs as well to the mental faculties of the individual may become apparent.
When an individual finally decides to quit becoming an alcoholic, he faces the problem of dealing with alcohol withdrawal symptoms. The symptoms can range from mild to severe depending on the individual’s amount of exposure to alcohol. Typically, the alcohol withdrawal timeline is about 3-5 days. Alcohol withdrawal actually lasts for a shorter time period for stage 2 and stage 3 alcoholics compared to stage 1 alcoholics. There are some cases where the alcohol withdrawal duration has been as short as 24 hours for hardcore alcoholics. The downside is that the alcoholic individual can expect to experience more severe withdrawal symptoms.
The classic symptoms of alcohol withdrawal include the shakes, sweats, hypertension, rapid heartbeat and hallucinations which could lead to delirium trumens. Symptoms that may lead to delirium trumens should be treated with drugs immediately as there is no known effective treatment for the DT’s. It must be stated that delirium trumens has been known to cause death due to cardiovascular failure including stroke and cardiac arrest. In some cases, the individual may also lapse into a coma and never awaken.