Cold Turkey and Binge Drinking – Does This Make It A Safer Treatment Option?

We always talk about how alcoholics should not go cold turkey. When people talk about alcoholics, they often refer to those who drink on a daily basis. Alcoholics may be people who only drink at the weekends. If you are a binge drinker and you want to stop, you may assume that going cold turkey is fine for you. Often, this is because binge drinkers do not see themselves as full-fledged alcoholics.

With the help of alcoholrehabs.org.uk, we are going to tell you why cold turkey is no safer for a binge drinker than it is for someone who drinks 365 days per year.

The Withdrawal Symptoms

The chief risk of going cold turkey is the potential for serious withdrawal symptoms. This can start at constant shaking to hallucinations. On from this you have regular feelings of delirium and alcoholic seizures. Many of these withdrawal symptoms can contribute to serious health conditions, and eventually death. Again, there is the myth that they only apply to alcoholics who drink on a daily basis.

This simply is not the case. If you expose your brain to alcohol in large doses on a semi-regular basis, you are still at risk of experiencing withdrawal symptoms. Scientists have shown repeatedly that you don’t need to drink every day to suffer from alcohol withdrawal symptoms.

An Increased Risk

To make things even worse, people who only drink heavily at the weekends are actually more likely to suffer from serious withdrawal symptoms. Alcohol rehab clinics regularly take in students and young adults who find it difficult to stop drinking, even if they only drink during the weekends. They have discovered that detoxing through the week and drinking at the weekends has a profound effect on the brain.

These effects actually increase the chances of experiencing serious withdrawal symptoms. In other words, you are considered a higher medical risk if you are a semi-regular binge drinker.

Cold Turkey out – What Next?

After reading through the above information, you should now see that going cold turkey is absolutely the wrong option in an unsupervised environment. Contact an alcohol rehab centres close to you and speak to them about your situation and what they can potentially do for you.

When you enter this clinical environment, you will see that going cold turkey is quite a regular occurrence. However, the difference is you are doing it in a safe place. The first month or so is where you’re most at risk. Remember, you are trying to convince your body to let go of something that it demand and expects on a daily basis.

If something does go wrong, you’re surrounded by medical professionals capable of stepping in at any time. Someone on the outside does not have this luxury. Should they experience an alcoholic seizure, help may well arrive too late.

In conclusion, do not change your habits until you enter a certified rehab centre. You need the help of professionals. Doing so is putting yourself at an enormous risk, despite the fact you may only drink at weekends.