How To Detox Yourself from Alcohol - M.D. Soroya Bacchus

How To Detox Yourself from Alcohol (eBook)

M.D. Soroya Bacchus (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2020 | 1. Auflage
106 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
978-1-0983-4082-7 (ISBN)

If you've decided to quit drinking, that's great-but you don't want to stop cold turkey. Detoxification from alcohol has more complications from withdrawal than any other drug, and the death rate for alcohol withdrawal is between five and eight percent. In How to Detox Yourself from Alcohol, you'll learn how addiction starts in the first place, the risks of detox, and how to safely quit drinking. Soroya Bacchus, M.D., board-certified in psychiatry with subspecialization certifications in addiction medicine and psychosomatic medicine, helps you: * understand what alcohol does to your body; * recognize the effects of alcohol that can't be reversed; * determine whether you have a problem with alcohol consumption; * decide whether you are a good candidate for self-detox; and * respond to unforeseen problems as you seek to stop drinking.

CHAPTER 1

DID YOU KNOW?

You probably know drinking too much can kill you. At the very least, you know it can wreak havoc on your health and ruin your life. You know it can cause your family, friends, and loved ones more pain and anguish than they deserve. That's why you picked up this book: You know you need to stop drinking. You know you have to stop drinking. Most importantly, you want to stop drinking so much you've decided you're going to do it. You're going to quit.

Great decision—I applaud you.

Before you go cold turkey, though, do me a favor and slow your roll. Take a pause for the cause and rein in those wild horses. Because I have a very important question—one that has major implications: did you know quitting too fast can kill you?

That's right. Alcohol detox can be lethal.

It would be pretty silly to kill yourself while trying to get your life together. A tad counterproductive, to put it mildly— an extreme case of throwing out the baby with the bathwater. I'm operating under the assumption that you want to live through your detox. If I'm right, pay attention to everything I'm about to tell you.

ALCOHOL DETOX IS DANGEROUS

Of all the drugs out there, alcohol is the most lethal drug to detox from. Detoxing from heroin is nothing compared to alcohol. Sure, heroin withdrawal is miserable. You feel like you're dying, but you won't die. Alcohol withdrawal, by contrast, can actually be deadly. And if it doesn't kill you, it can cause permanent brain damage.

Unless you do it right.

That's why I've written this book. I know how to structure an alcohol self-detox that won't kill you or give you brain damage. Because second to dying, brain damage is probably the next worst thing. My other assumption is you not only want to live through your detox, but you'd also like to come out of it with your brain fully functional.

At this point, you're probably thinking something like this: Hold on. Quitting drinking can kill me? And cause irreparable brain damage? Really? That can't be right. Alcohol can't be that dangerous. They sell it at the mom-and-pop store. They sell it at the grocery store, for crying out loud. And I know plenty of people who've quit drinking. And they didn't die.

To which I answer: yes, yes, and yes. I am right. Alcohol is dangerous, no matter who sells it or where it's sold. As for the people you know who didn't die when they quit drinking, I'll say, “Good for them,” and “Welcome to the world of medical science. Anecdotal evidence does not constitute proof of anything.”

Sorry to be so blunt (not really), but I have the data to back me up. And when you have data, you can make definitive statements. Consider these two facts:

• Detoxification from alcohol has more complications than withdrawal from any other drug, including opiates, narcotics, amphetamines, or benzodiazepines (tranquilizers like valium, etc.).

• The death rate for alcohol withdrawal is between 5 and 8 percent.

Read that again: five to eight people out of one hundred die from alcohol detox.

No, that doesn't mean you should keep drinking to save your life, because the statistics there are even worse. It simply means you need to have a solid detox plan in place—so as not to die, you know. You can safely detox from alcohol if you follow the set of simple and specific guidelines I'll lay out for you in this book.

THE BIG PICTURE

Detoxing is only one piece of the puzzle. Granted, it's the first step, and nothing else can happen unless you take it. In the grand scheme of your life, though, the detox period is proportionately miniscule compared to what has come before and what will happen next. Once you detox, you have to make it stick. You have to keep yourself from drinking again, or all your energy and good intentions will have been wasted. You may very well have gone through this process already. You may have gotten yourself off alcohol, sworn you'd never drink again, and then found yourself back at it.

That can be tough—emotionally, psychologically, and physically.

Take a deep breath. There is an answer, and it's more than sobriety: it's called total health.

You've probably heard the word sobriety far too much already. It may surprise you to know that sobriety is not my sole focus. I'm interested in something bigger. Sobriety is not enough; it's not the full story. It's one piece of the whole. Total health involves more than just sobriety. I want to help you get healthy in all areas of your life—not just in your body but also in your mind and in your day-to-day social and emotional existence. People who are physically healthy, psychologically healthy, and socially healthy are not problem drinkers, and they're not at risk for alcoholism. If you get healthy on all three of these levels, then you can get off and stay off alcohol.

My goal is to help get you there.

I know. I know. Counselors, therapists, and people in sobriety support groups all over the country are furious with me. They're jumping up and down screaming, “Just sobriety? How dare you! Sobriety is everything. Sobriety comes first! Blasphemer! Heretic!”

Okay, so I'm a heretic, a blasphemer, a witch with a medical degree and decades of experience to support my assertion that while sobriety is an essential aspect of regaining health, it is not health itself. It's not rocket science, my friends. If you quit drinking—or kick any addiction, for that matter— but fail to address the underlying and associated conditions that led to the drinking or addiction in the first place, you're being myopic and naïve. What's more, you're setting yourself up for failure.

I suggest we step back and consider the big picture. I suggest we formulate an idea of what total health really means. And if you're going to quit drinking and you want to make it last, I suggest—strongly, stridently, and passionately—you need to define what total health looks like for you.

What I'm suggesting is neither controversial nor brand-new. What I'm talking about is a well-established view of health and wellness. When I say total health, what I'm talking about is an approach to health that considers three fundamental factors:

1. Biological

2. Psychological

3. Social

This approach to health is called the biopsychosocial model.

Being healthy on one or two levels won't cut it. When you're healthy in all three areas, you dramatically increase the chances you'll kick the booze once and for all. If you neglect one of these areas, you're shooting yourself in the foot—and you'll probably fall off the wagon.

Take some time to look at the diagram again, and then ask yourself the following tough questions:

• Do any of these areas conceal a disaster waiting to happen?

• Do any of these things cause you emotional suffering?

• Have any of these things made you reach for the bottle?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you have some work to do. But here's the thing: It's worth it. It's doable. I've seen people turn things around in all three of these areas. I've watched them go from addicted and unhealthy to sober and healthy.

I believe you can do it too.

HOW MUCH IS TOO MUCH?

Here's my favorite line of all time: “I don't drink that much.”

If I had a dollar for every time I heard this, I'd be a rich woman. Sometimes the people who say this really don't drink that much. More often, though, people say this to make themselves feel better about how much they do drink. “I don't drink that much” is typically followed by “I have about ten to twelve drinks a week,” or “When I go out I usually drink about five or six beers.”

But what is “a drink” and what is “five or six beers” really? This is a rhetorical question, and I have no answer. But think about it.

The amount of alcohol that constitutes “too much” differs from one person to the next, based on factors like gender, height, weight, metabolism, and genetics. That said, there are general medical criteria for defining alcohol consumption. The following information guidelines come from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) and Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). You can see for yourself what they say about where you stand, and determine which category you're in.

MODERATE ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION

Both NIAA and SAMHSA define moderate consumption as

• one drink a day (women); or

• two drinks a day (men).

Binge Drinking

NIAAA defines binge drinking as a pattern of consumption that brings blood...

Erscheint lt. Verlag	7.12.2020
Sprache	englisch
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Psychologie ► Sucht / Drogen
ISBN-10	1-0983-4082-5 / 1098340825
ISBN-13	978-1-0983-4082-7 / 9781098340827

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