Help For Alcohol Addiction

Do you need Help For Alcohol Addiction? Our experienced addictions clinicians have decades of experience (sometimes decades each!) in helping people overcome alcohol addiction.

Recovery starts with detox for those who need it. For those with severe alcohol addiction, a safe medicated assisted detox can be life saving.

Alcohol withdrawal, left untreated can be fatal. The medical intervention is a tried and tested, evidence based approach that has been in use for decades. Our clinicians can advise you on what a treatment plan for you would look like, where you can access treatment and how much it will cost.

Addiction is not a choice: It is a serious illness and a symptom of an underlying cause. Recovery is possible.

Why Is Alcohol Addictive?

Alcohol makes you feel relaxed. It can calm your nerves and take the edge of the stresses and strains you encounter in your everyday life.

Just like prescription medication, drugs and caffeine, alcohol affects receptors in your brain and these changes lead to altering chemical messaging which is why you feel relaxed and less stressed. Tolerance is a phenomenon where, after a time, your brain will become used to the presence of alcohol.

Binge drinking on a Friday night after work you may well wake up the next day with a hangover. You may enjoy a bottle of wine after dinner: Not good but won’t cause too many issues in the short term. if you drink from morning till night, even if the amounts , in total, are not too excessive, you will develop tolerance and if you carry on drinking you will not experience withdrawals.

Your liver is going to suffer and you can end up in hospital (or worse).

Long Term Effects Of Alcohol

The long term effects of alcohol are multiple. There are over 20 common conditions connected with long term alcohol consumption:

• High blood pressure
• Cardiomyopathy (change in shape of heart chambers)
• Heart disease/stroke
• Liver disease
• High risk of pneumonia
• Kidney damage
• Gastrointestinal damage
• Pancreatitis
• Diarrhea
• Increased risk of stomach cancer
• Memory loss
• Nerve damage
• Headaches
• Risk of head injury
• Tremor
• Sleep disorders
• Diabetes
• Low bone density
• High cholesterol

Why Do Some People Need a Detox?

Drinking alcohol affects receptors in your brain and this this, in turn, alters chemical messaging. The brain can not cope with an immediate change and the wrong chemical messaging occurs which is what leads to withdrawals.

Science dictates withdrawal. It has nothing to do with “flushing toxins” out of your system.

Without expert medical intervention you will experience withdrawals which can be fatal. Locking yourself away with a roll of kitchen towel, some water and a sick bucket is incredibly dangerous: Don’t do it. Help for alcohol addiction requires specialist input.

Alcohol Withdrawal Symptoms

A few hours after you stop drinking some of the symptoms will start, others after a few days. Below is a list of all possible symptoms:

• Uncontrollable tremors
• Heavy sweating
• Fast pulse over 100
• Chronic nausea
• Persistent vomiting
• Severe headaches
• Loss of appetite
• Rapid onset depression
• Uncontrollable anxiety
• Extreme irritability
• Inability to sleep
• Seizures
• Delirium tremens
• Coma
• Death

When a person stops drinking, some of the symptoms are known as “self limiting”. This means they might go away by themselves. This is an extremely risky strategy and should never be attempted.

How Does Alcohol Detox Work?

Medication works on the same receptors and has the same effects as alcohol is given. This will ensure that you do not experience significant withdrawals. That is not to say that it won’t be a rough ride.

Vitamin B will be offered. For some, it will be necessary to give this in injection form.

A lack of vitamin B can lead to brain damage. Large quantities of beer, cider , etc contain a lot of glucose which will impede the way your body absorbs Vitamin B which is essential for your brain.

Caught early enough, this can be easily treated. If it isn’t the damage can be permanent.

Is Detox The Answer To Alcohol Addiction Recovery?

Alongside detox, there are other essential elements for recovery:

• Therapy
• Relapse prevention skills
• Aftercare

Alcohol addiction it is a symptom of a much deeper problem. While the answer to your problems is never at the bottom of a bottle, at the time, it will make your problems go away: Only they don’t.

Alcohol will push difficult thoughts and emotions to the back of your mind. Stopping will bring them back.

In therapy, you will learn how to regulate your emotions, to be able to process difficult memories in a more positive way.
Unresolved trauma from childhood, underlying issues with anxiety and low mood: Therapy will help you to deal with these.

Family issues, work stress, relationship breakdowns. These are some of the common themes brought out in therapy groups and individual sessions. Help for alcohol addiction is not just about detox.

Why Is Group Therapy Used In Rehab?

Group therapy works: Fact. Getting help for alcohol addiction means getting to the core of why you started drinking.

Every centre, the world over, uses a group therapy approach. This can be a 12 STEP, SMART or eclectic model. It really doesn’t matter which. Getting hung up on which model is used is an unnecessary bar to getting help.

One hour a week of individual therapy is sufficient. Anymore and it would be very exhausting.

Being in rehab doesn’t mean completing all your therapy. Recovery is a long term commitment. You can continue the work at local support groups. These are free.

Relapse Prevention

Rehab can be described a nice, warm, safe bubble. There are staff on hand 24/7. Restaurant style meals cooked by a chef. Housekeepers to keep the place spotless. Admin staff, nurses, clinicians, therapists, etc.

At home, you will not have this support on site. Through relapse prevention workshops (and in individual therapy) you will learn how to deal with difficult situations that would be problematic without your new found skills.

Alcohol is everywhere: Petrol stations, corner shops, supermarkets.

Even if you don’t go out, there are adverts on television, radio, the internet, newspapers. It is often said that an alcoholic could find an off-licence on the moon. In other words, you can’t avoid seeing alcohol but you can learn not to succumb.

You can not avoid alcohol in society but you can learn how not to succumb to it.

Relapse happens. It doesn’t happen to everyone but neither does it have to be catastrophic if it happens to you. Learning how to get back on track is essential.

Aftercare

Aftercare is as important as rehab.

All centres offer a minimum of a years aftercare which is usually a weekly support group. In person or on ZOOM, it matters not how you attend.

Should you be struggling, you will have a number to call where you will be able to speak to someone, in confidence, for advice and support.

How Can Find Me a Rehab Help?

Our clinicians know the sector: They work in it. We know what you need, as well as what you don’t.

There are high end centres available but you really don’t need to have your shakra realigned while doing yoga with goats before sipping an organic green tea smoothie.

The clinician you speak to may work in a different part of the country, they have instant access to a spreadsheet with all the information on centres in your area.

What About Confidentiality And Safety?

We are registered with the Information Commissioners Office.

For us to be able to discuss your enquiry with anyone else we would have to have very clear written permission.

All centres have to be registered with the Care Quality Commission to be open. We only signpost to those registered with the CQC.

Help for alcohol addiction is available. Call and speak to an experienced addictions clinician for free, independent and confidential advice.

Recent Posts