Medical detox for alcohol withdrawal
Alcohol withdrawal can be dangerous. During detox, our medical team watches you and treats your symptoms so you get through it safely. Call the center when you are ready.
Understanding medically assisted alcohol detox
You may wake with a pounding headache, sweating, and nausea. That is a hangover, and it passes.
Alcohol pushes your brain and the rest of your body out of balance. Drink heavily for long enough and your body changes how it works to keep up with the alcohol. You notice it because you can drink more and more without the hangover. That is tolerance. When you stop, your body does not just snap back. Your brain and body need time to readjust to life without alcohol, and that gap is where the unpleasant, sometimes dangerous symptoms come from.
Alcohol withdrawal symptoms
- Restlessness
- Anxiety
- Lack of appetite
- Nausea and vomiting
- Tremors (shakiness)
- Increased blood pressure
- Increased sensitivity to sound, light, and touch
- Hallucinations (auditory, visual, or tactile)
- Seizures
- Fever
- Delirium with disorientation
Review more withdrawal symptoms
These symptoms are unpleasant and dangerous, and they cause real mental distress. They are also the reason people give up partway through. Our detox center offers a medically assisted alcohol detox program to manage them so you can finish.
Medications used in alcohol detox
Different medications are used at different points in withdrawal, because each addresses a different side effect. They include sedatives, muscle relaxers, and anti-anxiety medications. The classes used in alcohol detox:
- benzodiazepines & benzodiazepine anticonvulsants
- gamma-aminobutyric acid analogs
- skeletal muscle relaxants
- beta-blockers
- centrally acting antiadrenergic agents
- cardioselective beta-blockers
Other medical interventions in alcohol detox
Medication is not the only intervention a detox facility uses. Someone in withdrawal often struggles to eat regularly. Nutrition helps the body get through it, so we give vitamins to supplement what the client can manage.
Withdrawal also dehydrates you. An IV keeps your fluids up and is another way to get vitamins in.
Other parts of alcohol detox
Medical detox centers do not rely on medication alone. Medical detoxification means medication together with therapy and other treatment for detox and recovery. After detox, we plan the next step with you: residential , or inpatient care, then aftercare planning with a team that stays with you through each step.
Medical detox at Pines Recovery Life
Pines Recovery Life is a Drug & Alcohol Detox Center that specializes in medically assisted detox. The program is built to keep you comfortable while your body does the work. Call when you are ready.
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