Definition
The alcohol withdrawal symptom is a symptom in which a person stops drinking alcohol abruptly after drinking alcohol daily. There are some physical and mental changes in people with alcohol withdrawal symptoms. These people become addicted to drinking alcohol. When they do not drink alcohol, they will be tormented and cannot do anything actively.
Cause
People have alcohol withdrawal symptoms because of heavy drinking for a long time. Moreover, these people have some kinds of health problems. After they drink so much alcohol, something changes in their brains. Brain induced these people to have more need to drink alcohol after drinking each time. When they do not drink alcohol, they will be exhausted. Alcohol withdrawal symptoms appear in these people.
Observation in people with alcohol withdrawal symptom
- There is some chemical change in the body.
- You have a more significant amount of alcohol in one time of drinking and a more considerable amount of alcohol in the next time of drinking.
- It can be observed that a drinker must drink alcohol before he does anything. If he does not drink alcohol, he will not be active in doing anything.
- Some changes in nerve cells in the brain appeared.
Factors that cause alcohol withdrawal symptoms
- People are older than 30 years old.
- People drink alcohol for more than five years.
- In the past, people used to have alcohol withdrawal symptoms.
- Impulse is higher than 100 times in a minute.
Symptoms
There are predictions of symptoms that occur after drinking alcohol. It will change depending on the number of hours you stop drinking alcohol. The symptoms include:
6-8 hours after drinking: People with alcohol withdrawal symptoms get anxious, moody, and restless. They have high blood pressure, high temperature on their face, nausea, and fever.
8-12 hours after drinking: People are hallucinated. People whose symptoms are not severe have only minor changes in their perception of brightness while looking at something. However, people whose symptoms are severe have misperceptions of seeing, hearing, and touching. They will know the mirage as some animal. They hear some unreal sounds. They feel that some insects are crawling on their body.
12-24 hours after drinking: People will have seizures.
72-96 hours after drinking: There are some abnormalities in sleeping, muscle movements, and autonomic nervous system. People see unreal pictures. They need clarification about time and place. They perceive that the place they live is another place. For example, they stay in a hospital but perceive that they live at home.
The impacts of alcohol withdrawal symptoms on yourselves
Life
It is certain that if you stop drinking alcohol, you will be tortured by symptoms, as mentioned above. Therefore, you do not stop drinking alcohol and drink more than previously time. That causes many troubles in your life.
- You lose too much money because you spend so much money on alcohol.
- You need money to support expenses that your family must spend. This is because you spend your costs on alcohol instead of some essential expenses.
- You quarrel with people around you so many times.
- You lose your work. When you get drunk, you cannot go to work. You will be fired when you are absent from work so many times.
Health
Drinking so much alcohol causes many negative impacts on your body. It causes many diseases. Sometimes, you may die because of it. This is an example of the effect of alcohol.
- Alcohol erodes your stomach. Sometimes, it may cause gastrointestinal perforation, a hole in your stomach.
- Alcohol disrupts your immune system. It causes you to get infected easily.
- It reduces the effectiveness of functions in the brain. Your responses are slower.
How to stop drinking and live without alcohol withdrawal symptoms
If you have alcohol withdrawal symptoms and you want to live without them, you should meet the physician and ask him for a way to stop drinking. The physician will give you some advice and medicine to cure these symptoms. You must follow his instructions and take the treatment that you get from him.
After you initially stop drinking alcohol, you will be tormented by the symptoms of this disease. However, you must endure it. This is because, as mentioned above, alcohol withdrawal symptoms not only have an impact not only on yourself but also on the people around you. If you do not stop drinking, people around you will have trouble. Therefore, you must stop drinking alcohol now.
Process of treatment
These are the ways to treat people with alcohol withdrawal symptoms.
- At first, these people are screened and diagnosed using many tools.
- After these people are detected to have alcohol withdrawal symptoms, officials will prepare them for treatment. Officials will take the history of these people as well as assess the problem and sponsor of these people. Officials will inform these people and their relatives about symptoms and ways to treat them.
- The official will assess the severity of symptoms and find ways to cure them.
Methods to cure people with alcohol withdrawal symptoms
1. Sedation
Sedation means giving drugs that restrain the occurrence of alcohol withdrawal symptoms. Physicians will consider and deliver medicines that are appropriate for the condition of these people. The factors for consideration include the severity of the signs and the health of these people.
There are many kinds of methods for this type of treatment. Each method has a different process, time, and kind of drug for patients. One thing you must remember is that you cannot give medications to people who have health problems like this, including chronic liver disease, heart disease, head injury, and disease-related respiratory system problems in the chronic stage.
2. Symptomatic Relief
This method is the treatment to relieve symptoms according to features of symptoms in people. For example, physicians could consider giving patients analgesics when they have a headache.
3. Supplement
This method involves giving supplements to patients. This method aims to make some organs healthier, such as the liver and heart. Moreover, the purpose of this method is to add some nutrients and some chemicals that are advantageous to the body, such as folic acid, magnesium, vitamin B, minerals, and potassium.
4. A supportive environment
This method is to make the atmosphere bright and silent. The air around the patients must be serene. There should not be disruption and stimulus around the patients because these things make the patients’ symptoms severe.
You have alcohol withdrawal because you drink so much alcohol every day. Drinking alcohol every day makes our bodies depend on alcohol. If you do not drink alcohol, you will suffer. That causes you to drink alcohol again and again. Therefore, you should not drink alcohol so much. If you know that you become addicted to alcohol, you should stop drinking.
