A sobering reminder from Noah Sweat

[Red James Cash]

If they don't drink,they can have seizures.It can even kill them.Im not talking alcohol poisoning.Withdrawals can kill them.

 

[Duckshot]

After it becomes a problem,they don't have a choice but to drink.Thats the kicker.Many people think they do,but they dont.

Yep. Withdrawal can kill an alcoholic. Used to be that a doctor would ween a drunk off using alcohol in progressively smaller amounts. Nowadays they use sedatives or barbiturates- keeps the afflicted from getting killed by the past actions of bending their own elbow. But, detox also keeps an alcoholic from suffering their self inflicted injury as much as might be good for them. In a sense detox can be a form of enabling. But if your gold pan is shaking while you are trying to hold it still, detoxification might be necessary.

 

[Red James Cash]

By the way Duck,my apologies for telling you to shove it.

 

[Plumbata]

Yep, I'd get the shakes and drank daily to keep them at bay, but a combination of self-directed weaning-off and benzodiazepine sedatives saw me through. I never got so bad that withdrawal would have killed me (don't think so anyway), but I definitely saw that writing on the wall. I can't speak for those who've consumed a half gallon of vodka every day for years, but my belief is that it's not so much that they can't stop but rather that they simply don't know how to navigate the process. More-so ignorance than physical inability, assuming they actually want to stop. I understood the mechanisms at play well enough to obtain what I needed and self-medicate but many don't really possess a working understanding of pharmacodynamics and neurochemistry or how to manipulate it, so they usually need some help.

 

[Duckshot]

By the way Duck,my apologies for telling you to shove it.

Its nothing you need to aplogize for, at least not to me. I forgot about it yesterday.

No blood no foul.