Do you suspect that you’re dealing with an addiction to alcohol? Do you suffer from mild alcohol withdrawal symptoms when you haven’t had a drink for eight hours? You might have a dependence problem. What would happen if you kept on going and decided to quit drinking altogether?
You’d start by checking into a detox facility for a medically supervised alcohol withdrawal. Typically, it takes between three to seven days to break the physical hold alcohol has on you. The severity of alcohol withdrawal symptoms depends on your health as well as the length of time you’ve been drinking. The amount of alcohol you usually consume also contributes to withdrawal severity.
Mild alcohol withdrawal symptoms include stomach pain, gastrointestinal upset, nausea, insomnia, and fatigue. You may encounter blood pressure changes, start sweating profusely and feel your hands shaking. Depression, anxiety, and mood swings are further aspects of withdrawing from alcohol. Because a small number of people with alcoholism also encounter delirium tremens (DTs) and other serious symptoms, going through medically supervised alcohol withdrawal is critical.
Toward the end of the seven-day period, you’re starting to feel better. The mood swings even out and you’ll notice that most of the physical symptoms of alcohol withdrawal disappear. But you’re not yet done, alcohol rehab picks up where alcohol detox leaves off.
Drug and alcohol rehab tackles the psychological addiction that creates the urges to drink even though your body no longer signals you to. Rehab facilities offer a number of treatment paths including:
The ideal program will treat you as a whole person and not merely focus on the addiction to alcohol. In so doing, the therapy succeeds in getting your buy-in on a personal level. It also helps you change your life and alter the way you feel about using once you’re ready to go home.
Another important focus is the availability of 12-step meetings. They support the formation of a peer group and help participants break out of isolation. These experiences also assist with the development of self-esteem. By training yourself to accept accountability early on in rehab, you’ll set yourself up for successful relapse prevention.
One major method used after treating alcohol withdrawal is therapy. Addiction therapy is a follow-up to detox, which heals the body from alcohol withdrawal and its symptoms. Psychotherapy instead focuses on healing the mind, tackling the roots of addictive behaviors. Therapy also handles co-occurring mental disorders through dual diagnosis treatment, which focuses on both addiction and mental health. The types of therapy used after treating alcohol withdrawal can be split into the holistic approach and evidence-based modalities.
At San Antonio Recovery Center, therapies used after treating alcohol withdrawal include:
It’s never too late to pull the plug on an alcohol addiction. You don’t have to continue living under the label of an alcohol use disorder. Don’t let fear of withdrawal symptoms keep you from reaching out for help. When you contact the friendly therapists at San Antonio Recovery Center by dialing 866.957.7885 today, we’ll get you started!
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