When in the alcohol recovery stages does an alcoholic experience clammy skin, tremors, sweating, and irritability?
Stopping alcohol consumption is not easy, especially for people with alcohol use disorder or early stage alcoholism. After binge-drinking, when a person attempts alcohol detox at home by quitting cold turkey, they will often experience alcohol withdrawal symptoms.
As a result of alcohol cravings and compulsions, combined with fear of the alcohol withdrawal syndrome, a person with chronic alcoholism will continue drinking daily. When they do try to quit again, they get the shakes and clammy hands, triggering them to return to drinking.
The first stage of alcohol recovery is precontemplation, when the alcoholic is in denial of their drinking problem. Yet, when tragedy strikes, they will be propelled into the next stage, contemplation, where they start to consider the possibility that alcohol is the source of their problems.
In some cases, an alcohol-related tragedy may be more of a near-miss, where something terrible almost happened. For example, a child is left alone in a hot car, waiting in the parking lot for their parent to have a few drinks at the bar.
Alternatively, the tragic event may be a true tragedy, such as an alcohol-related death. For instance, a friend may die of alcohol toxicity, or the alcoholic may cause someone to die in a car crash while driving drunk.
A former St. Lucie County Sheriff’s office deputy will likely make the decision to stop drinking after his daughter was wounded by a gunshot to her hip.
In recent news, a sheriff’s deputy in Port Saint Lucie, Florida who worked for the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s office was teaching his son to clean an assault rifle. The gun fell and accidentally fired, hitting his daughter in the hip.
Fortunately, she survived and will recover from her injury. When police interviewed the man’s son, it was revealed that he drank alcohol on a daily basis, before work and after work.
Of course, working as a police officer is a stressful profession. Law enforcement officers are often anxious and depressed due to work-related stress, leading to alcohol addiction and drug addiction.
While we cannot be certain if this particular deputy was in the pre-alcoholic stage, we can assume that he was not concerned about quitting alcohol up until the accident occurred. After the accident, he suffered serious consequences, including losing his job, attracting negative media attention, and feeling the responsibility for injuring his daughter.
Yet, at the same time, he is incredibly fortunate because his daughter survived and will fully recover. It is likely that the man is no longer in the precontemplation stage.
Either he is contemplating giving up alcohol use, or he has already entered alcohol rehab to help with alcohol withdrawal in Port St. Lucie, or he has attempted a home alcohol detox. If he stopped engaging in alcohol abuse at home, he may have experienced the clammy hands and shakes of withdrawal.
In order to avoid the clammy hand withdrawal symptom, and other more ominous symptoms, such as dangerous seizures, he may want to consider attending an alcohol addiction treatment program. There are alcohol recovery programs that do alcohol detox at home, and there are programs that help drinkers to safely taper off of alcohol, using the process of pharmacological extinction.
How can I quit alcohol without getting the shakes or clammy skin?
If you are at the stage where you are ready to do something about overcoming alcohol dependence, you will want to know what your options are. Addiction treatment programs use medication-assisted treatment for alcohol detox because quitting cold turkey without medical care is dangerous.
To review, stage one of the stages of alcohol recovery is precontemplation, where you are not ready to quit. Stage two is the contemplation stage, where you are seriously considering the possibility that you should quit drinking.
Stage three is where you are ready to do something about your alcohol consumption. When you reach this stage, it is important to get professional help. Quitting alcohol can be dangerous.
Some people compare alcohol addiction treatment to opioid addiction treatment, because opioids also cause physical dependence, and they have a severe withdrawal syndrome. However, opioid withdrawal is usually not physically dangerous, but alcohol withdrawal can cause seizures, coma, and death, or permanent neurological damage.
One substance abuse treatment program that you may want to consider is the Sinclair Method, or TSM. TSM is a program that helps you to taper off of alcohol gradually. A TSM doctor prescribes naltrexone, an opioid blocker, to help reduce alcohol compulsions and cravings.
A Sinclair Method patient tends to drink less and less. Eventually, they reach the extinction phase, where they no longer have any interest in drinking.
Is it possible to quit alcohol cold turkey safely?
Traditional alcohol detox programs do have their clients quit cold turkey. Yet, they keep the patient safe, with minimal withdrawal suffering, by administering medications to reduce withdrawal symptoms.
By providing medical treatment and medical supervision, the alcohol client is able to get through alcohol withdrawal symptoms safely. As soon as the client is sober, they then move into the fourth stage of alcohol recovery, which is maintenance of their sobriety.
Maintaining sobriety can be difficult, especially after a cold turkey detox. Going to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings may help by providing support. Getting support from peers can make a big difference, helping people to get through difficult times in sobriety.
Major rehab and detox programs, such as American Addiction Centers, facilitate their clients who are in addiction recovery to attend AA meetings. They encourage clients to engage in 12-step activities that come from Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous.
Recovery meetings encourage members to share phone numbers and to keep in touch with each other. 12-step members learn to maintain their sobriety through ongoing peer support.
Relapse prevention is the fifth and final stage of alcohol recovery.
There is a saying in the rooms of recovery that quitting drinking and quitting drugs is easy. The hard part is staying quit.
Of course, quitting substance use is not at all easy, it is true that relapse is a major obstacle to long-term recovery. Many people with alcohol use disorder are able to quit drinking and stay sober for several months.
Unfortunately, at some point, cravings return, and without proper preparation, one sip of an alcoholic beverage can trigger a full alcohol relapse. One benefit of The Sinclair Method is that the protocol of pharmacological extinction and gradual alcohol consumption reduction helps prevent something called the alcohol deprivation syndrome.
When a person quits alcohol cold turkey and gets medically detoxed, they often experience severe cravings after several months of sobriety. Experts believe that the alcohol deprivation syndrome is a physiological response to quitting alcohol too quickly, without a tapering period.
However, even people who quit cold turkey and experience alcohol cravings after a few months are able to avoid relapse with proper support. Cravings do not have to lead to relapse.
Therapy, such as cognitive behavioral therapy, can help a recovering alcoholic avoid external triggers, and deal with internal triggers that can lead them back to drinking again. And, it is possible for a person recovering from active alcohol addiction to learn to get through cravings without acting on them.
Can a VIP rehab program help a person with alcohol use disorder to achieve long-term sobriety?
A person who has experienced alcohol withdrawal will never want to feel that shaky, clammy hand feeling ever again. Yet, the brain tends to play tricks on us, filtering out the bad memories, and only bringing back the positive memories of having fun drinking.
Can a VIP rehab center provide better treatment and support to help an alcoholic to stay sober for life? Interestingly, in most cases, VIP residential rehabs only offer the same outcome results as ordinary rehab programs.
Though a concierge alcohol treatment program where patients are treated in their own homes, the results can be far superior to going away to rehab. Clients are able to continue work and spending time with family, while a concierge addiction doctor, nurses, and a psychologist provide around-the-clock access, and premium medical addiction care.
Concierge addiction doctors often specialize in both opiate addiction treatment and alcohol addiction treatment. For both opioid use disorder and alcohol use disorder, there are effective medication-assisted treatment protocols that the doctor may implement in a customized manner for each patient.
For people interested in either alcohol addiction treatment or drug addiction treatment, a concierge program is often the best option. Navigating the stages of alcohol recovery is not easy. From the first realization that alcohol may be a problem, to the sweaty, clammy skin, to getting professional, private medical care, to long-term sobriety, a concierge alcohol detox doctor can guide their patients through the stages with minimal discomfort and optimal results.
