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Excessive how to taper off alcohol has numerous impacts on your body and mind, ranging from mild to severe. Learn which signs to look out for, and how to care for your well-being. However, certain food groups also have benefits when it comes to helping with the discomfort of withdrawal symptoms and detoxification.
For example, if you https://ecosoberhouse.com/ to suffer from alcohol withdrawal symptoms despite an attempt to taper, your symptoms may worsen before you have the chance to seek medical attention. For this reason, even at-home tapers should be done under a doctor’s care. Tapering off alcohol at home versus under medical supervision can also lengthen the process, for the sake of safety. Unlike a home environment, medical detox services have the professional support and resources necessary to treat severe withdrawal symptoms.
What Happens to Your Body When You Stop Drinking Alcohol?
If you choose to drink water make sure that you get enough salt for electrolyte balance so that you avoid water intoxication. It depends on your individual metabolism and withdrawal symptoms. The purpose of alcohol tapering is to avoid some of the more dangerous symptoms of detox.
- Deirdre graduated in 2012 from Pace University and completed her bachelor’s at Columbia University in New York and has her Master of Science in Family Nurse Practitioner.
- As your body adapts to alcohol, it will change its natural chemical balance to include alcohol.
- Because everyone’s body reacts differently, there’s not a lot of research that proves tapering can decrease the effects of alcohol withdrawal.
- Seizures can also occur within the first 24 to 48 hours, although these are less likely to occur in people with less severe alcohol dependency.
You’ll likely face the urge to drink more than you’ve planned each day, but there are some good tricks to help you delay that next serving and keep yourself honest. Stopping alcohol use is the first step of the recovery journey, but staying sober for longer and longer periods is the goal. Getting professional treatment and long-term support are two of the most valuable strategies for avoiding relapse.
Alcohol Withdrawal: Symptoms and Timeline
This can set you up for a safe and effective detox and put you in a good position to continue your recovery in rehab. The only safe way to overcome alcohol use disorder or other forms of problem drinking is to work with medical professionals who understand alcohol abuse and addiction. Symptom management and recovery support are important parts of both detox and rehabilitation.
- “Alcohol and Cancer Risk Fact Sheet.” National Cancer Institute, /about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/alcohol/alcohol-fact-sheet.
- Alcohol is a part of many cultures worldwide, playing a part in many people’s social and personal lives.
- Detoxing from alcohol safely takes time, energy and patience on the individual’s part–as well as the commitment to enter to a rehab program that also targets the root cause of the addiction.
- If a person has a substantial risk of developing AWS or delirium tremens, their overseeing physician may work with them to taper symptoms of alcohol withdrawal using a benzodiazepine prescription.
- This is what causes many of the positive and negative effects of drinking, and it causes the effects of prescription depressants.