Help With Alcohol Addiction

Do you need help with alcohol addiction? You are not alone. The problem is far more common than you might think.

As a collective of addictions clinician’s, with many decades of experience (sometimes decades each!) who work in the sector of alcohol rehab, we are here to give you free confidential, impartial and honest advice. If you need help with alcohol addiction, or a referral to a rehab centre, we do not charge for this. We only ever charge for treatment at home.

Alcohol addiction is a serious problem. Left untreated it can be fatal. Forget phrases such as “functioning alcoholic” and “all you need is will power”: They are meaningless. Addiction is an illness just as heart disease or diabetes. As such it requires ethical, evidence based medical treatment.

We work in rehab centres, as well as NHS and local authority commissioned services , GP shared care surgeries as well as private hospitals and prisons. As such we pool our knowledge and use it to steer people in the right direction.

What is Alcohol Addiction?

Addiction is addiction: Sounds simplistic but it really doesn’t matter what it is you are addicted to as everyone will experience the same problems: Cost of maintaining your addiction, telling lies to cover up your addiction, strained family dynamics, ruining your career, poor physical health, etc.

Alcohol is a drug and like any drug and prescribed medication (even caffeine) it works on receptors in your brain. If you go out on a Friday night to drink 10 pints or 15 shots you will get drunk and wake up the next day with a raging hangover. Not good but you will recover within a few hours. This will not affect your brain chemistry in the long term.

If you drink continuously throughout the day (or for long periods of it) for a period of time you will change your brain chemistry by opening up chemical channels: This is why you feel relaxed when you drink. The problem is that, in time, your brain will become accustomed to the presence of alcohol and thus you develop tolerance to alcohol.

When you develop a tolerance to alcohol this means that if you stop drinking suddenly (or reduce very quickly) your brain simply can not cope with the immediate change. As such chemical messaging is out of synch and this is why you experience withdrawals. Getting help with alcohol addiction means you can stop this cycle.

Symptoms of Alcohol Withdrawal

Within 4-6 hours after you stop drinking you will start to experience physical withdrawal. This is because chemical signalling in your brain is out of synch so the signals sent cause physical symptoms. These include:

• Tremors
• Heavy sweating
• Very fast pulse
• Dry wretching
• Being sick
• Blinding headaches
• Rapid deterioration of mood
• Fast onset loss of appetite
• Extreme anxiety
• Chronic irritability
• Uncontrollable restlessness
• Severe insomnia
• Delirium Tremens
• Hallucinations
• Seizures
• Coma
• Death

No amount of drinking water, exercise, will power or the support of others can overcome these. While, for some, the symptoms can be self limiting (they go away by themselves) this is usually reserved for those who are on the lower end of dependency.

What is The Medical Treatment for Alcohol Addiction?

When someone is in the grips of alcohol addiction medication that works on the same receptors is used to replace the alcohol. The frequency and dosage is reduced, over a period of days (or weeks for severe dependency) until the symptoms have stopped. Medical and nursing staff monitor clients, undergoing detox, using standardised rating scales to assess withdrawal symptoms.

They do this in case your treatment plan needs to be adjusted and/or “as and when” medication is needed, in addition, which is very common. Medication can also be provided to help with nausea, insomnia, etc.

Is A Detox All That Is Needed?

NO! A detox, while absolutely imperative for the majority of those caught up in the grips of alcohol addiction, without therapy to work out why you got to that point in the first place, you will simply end up back there again.

In a rehab centre, as soon as you are physically able to do so, you will be welcomed into the therapy groups. Every rehab centre, all over the world, uses a group therapy model. Whether it is a 12 STEP/SMART or eclectic model, it really doesn’t matter. What does matter is that you get into recovery.

When you stop drinking all the thoughts you were suppressing will come back to the fore. Therapy will help you to deal with these, explore why you became addicted and help you to form a mental toolkit for situations, when you go home, that would put you at risk of relapse.

A weekly individual therapy session will also help you practice your new found skills, usually in role play, so that you are fully prepared to live a life of sobriety and abstinence. Additional therapies are also blended in such as art therapy, music therapy and gentle exercise. These are all safe and evidence based.

One of the most important elements of rehab is the aftercare provision. Having a ready expert resource available will be of invaluable help when you go home. Relapse happens. We sincerely hope that it does not happen to you. If it does your aftercare team is there to help! After you have sought help with alcohol addiction your life will be on a more stable trajectory.

What About Home Alcohol Detox?

Treatment at home is available but in limited clinical circumstances. There are some essential exclusion criteria:

• Drinking over 30 units a day
• Detox within the last 6 months
• History of non-alcohol withdrawal related seizures
• Certain prescribed medications
• Drug use
• Chronic illness
• Severe mental illness
• Lack of home support

Every case is different and a clinician can advise you. Having a detox on it’s on at home without therapy is, sadly, not going to work. Most people who do this will relapse by the end of the week, if not the next. The vast majority of companies advertising this service do so illegally. They will sell you £15 worth of pills for over £1,800. No medical oversight, no medical monitoring, no therapy, no safety measures and no fallback. Please don’t do it.

We can arrange a detox at home (if you are suitable) alongside nursing and therapeutic input but the cost will be far in excess of going to a rehab centre. There really is no point.

How Can Find Me a Rehab Help?

As experienced addictions clinicians who work in this sector we have the knowledge to give you impartial free and confidential advice. We do not charge for our advice or making a referral for you. We only charge for treatment at home and only ever take payment after you have had an assessment which we do not charge for.

Is This A Safe Service?

Unless you arrange home treatment with us all we are doing is giving advice and signposting you to an appropriate service. We are fully registered with the Information Commissioners Office and take data protection incredibly seriously. Unless we have your written permission we can not discuss your enquiry or the advice we give you with anyone: Including your GP.

We only recommend centres registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) . Registration is a legal requirement. It is always our advice to check the centres registration through the CQC website.

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