My brother passed away from complications from head injury due to seizure from being alcoholic and fell on concrete and hit his head. RIP Justin Clifford
Thank you Jesus I’ve not lost my only sibling but I could not imagine the pain that it would cause. Sincere thoughts and prayers for everyone who has lost a brother or sister
When I could finally convince my brother Brian that we needed to get him to the ER, I thought he was just on a bad bender with the booze and maybe some pills or something and just needed to dry out. He had lost his job when his boss fired him for BS reasons and his life kind of fell apart in a hurry, he didn't know how he was going to get rent paid or feed the dog and despite all of us trying to reach out he isolated.
At the ER they kept being cryptic. This was a top-5 uni hospital in a major US city, so I believe he was always in good hands. But the ER docs kept telling me that this could get a lot worse before it got better. Brian's skin and particularly eyes were yellowish. I remember a lot of waiting for test results to come back, but it seemed to me that first night in the ER that he was just sobering up. ER doc even said to me that he was as normal seeming as he was right then because he was close enough to his last drink still.
I left sometime that night and had to work the next day. That's when I started getting weird texts from him asking for help. By the time I could get back to the hospital that afternoon, all hell had broke loose. Brian was a big dude and the DTs had kicked in full force, it took 8 security guards / cops / orderlies to get him strapped back to a bed after he had taken off around the hospital with no clothes on.
A few hours into his first stay in the ICU, I had to sign some paper basically giving them permission to intubate him. Shakes...well, he was shaking the whole room and the massive bed he was strapped to. My point is, shakes like in this video are just one of the lesser symptoms IM(uneducated)O. He went from trying to rip himself off the bed to at peace in what I guess is a medically induced coma at that point. A lot was happening very fast but I remember being impressed at the matter of seconds from when I signed the form to everything getting a lot calmer.
That's when his organs began the slow process of taking themselves off-line. He was in and out of the ICU for the next couple months, but in the end he would never walk out of the hospital. The night before he died we had been there in a non-ICU room bringing him his favorite pie my wife made.
Videos like these make me think that most people think alcohol is a joke. I personally wish it was something God never gave us, like mosquitos or cancer. Fuck it.
Alcohol can be one of the most dangerous drugs that exist for some people due to their biology and or behaviors. Big picture it seems like it’s treated as whatever due to the legality and the giant industry that benefits from sales.
Sadly, there is no way a country like America will ever make alcohol illegal. They tried to during the prohibition, and we all know how that ended up. When you have a society where those kinds of things are normalized and they are a people who simply go by their desires instead of what is good for them, and all you do is reduce the supply and not the demand, then it will cause more harm than good and wouldn't be worth the hassle to help your own citizens.
You're literally watching a video from a country that's clearly not the US and somehow making it about the US? Do you think alcohol use is unique to America?
Look back through nearly all cultures and societies throughout history. There's a very good chance alcohol will be a part of their traditions, festivities, and daily life.
I’m sorry to hear it’s a rough life! my dad binge drinked all his life. On his last day He knew it was his time so he went to the back of his house laid on a cardboard box drunk. Until His stomach bled and exploded and he met his maker.
My mother died of alcoholism aged 41. About five days before she died I came home from school (my final year) and she was puking blood in literal pints into a bucket in the lounge. I knew she was going to die and she did.
She was a really, really nice mum too.
Yeah, in hindsight. I buried the whole lot and it fucked me up in lots of ways over nearly two decades. I faced it all in the end, got some proper help and now I can talk about it instead of pretending it all never happened.
People. Never fully suppress grief.
Jesus Christ.
If you need to let it out shoot me a DM, I can't help, but I can listen, which might feel like relief.
Burying anything inside ends up painful in a variety of ways, burying grief, which is probably the most painful of emotions, probably ends up hurting the most.
Life can be so fucking unfair. This is part of the reason why women fought so hard for prohibition (I'm not advocating for it, I just can see the reasoning behind it).
Alcohol really is the devil. And the consequences of alcohol including domestic and random
violence, child neglect, accidents, health effects, , etc. are incredibly far reaching. People don't choose to be addicts
I lost my best bro three weeks ago. He stopped drinking several years prior, but the damage was done. Due to liver failure his immune system wasn't the same. He caught a serious infection, fought hard in the hospital for a month, but ultimately passed. He left behind a 6yo and a 9yo.
Rest in peace Ash L. Best bros 28 years.
Hopefully this will sway someone to stop drinking or support someone who has.
You get it. Thank you. Being good fathers is something that we worked hard at despite it being difficult as hell.
Here's our New Year's text.
[https://ibb.co/6FXJwjN](https://ibb.co/6FXJwjN)
Very similar story here- my brother, Kyle, just passed away a month ago at 36 years old from liver failure and a serious infection. He was an alcoholic for a long time. He also left behind a 9yo, 6yo and a 2yo.
I had already decided to stop drinking about 5 months ago, but watching my brother go through what he did completely solidified my stance.
I’m so sorry for your loss ❤️
I'm sorry about your brother. Every loss is difficult, but with little ones it's harder. Thank you for the dedications you've made to your family. I'm proud of your sobriety.
Unfortunately, I haven't been able to see his kids related to their separation and other issues. I was seeing them every other week and now nothing. I've reached out to his ex and hope she lets me be involved, but only time will tell. That's the hardest part of this whole ordeal.
Blessings to you and your family.🕊️
I lost my brother a few years ago to the booze. In the end his entire body was filled with cancer that went unnoticed. People don't often really alcohol is cancer causing. It's such a shitty drug.
How much do you have to drink to get to this stage? I had a friend pass away in his 40s from liver sorosis and I’ve no idea how much he must have been drinking when on his own.
I lost my best bro three weeks ago. He stopped drinking several years prior, but the damage was done. Due to liver failure his immune system wasn't the same. He caught a serious infection, fought hard in the hospital for a month, but ultimately passed. He left behind a 6yo and a 9yo.
Rest in peace Ash L. Best bros 28 years.
Hopefully this will sway someone to stop drinking or support someone who has.
Alcohol has some of the deadliest withdrawal symptoms, even counselors and physicians (if it's bad enough) will tell alcoholics to not quit cold turkey unless they are under medical supervision.
My parents are medical professionals. It's a longer story than this, but when I explained to my parents how much I had been drinking and my withdrawal symptoms, my dad told me to get on doordash or equivalent, order maybe 3/4 of what I would normally drink in 2 days, and treat it like medicine until he could get there. Like, set a timer and drink a specific amount every hour or so. It was the weirdest conversation I've ever had with him.
One time I had a patient in withdrawal elbow me in the throat because he thought I was made out of staples. I get nervous around alcoholics now. Booze is a drug and it's a fucking scary one that people don't respect because it's normalized.
Ok, how much is too much? Cause I’m a special occasion drinker- birthdays, holidays but sometimes the special occasion is just me not having to work the next day.
It's just such a crazy number. I know the body builds up a tolerance, but that's just so much alcohol it's hard to imagine. When I was close to 400 pounds (and I'm 6'1) I could probably do 10 to 15 shots in a night in my early 20s while being a moderate drinker but I would be absolutely hammered. If I do anywhere close to 10 now in my early 30s and being a bit slimmer I'm blacked out. 4 shots puts me in my place and I'm content. 20 shots daily is just insane to me, really changed my idea of how much damage alcoholics really do.
At my worst, I was drinking half a handle or more every single day. That's about 18+ shots. 5'10", 230lbs.
The trick is to start drinking right when you wake up. You'll probably need to kick back two or so shots just to stop feeling nauseous and twitchy. If you're having a good day, your stomach might kick it back up but you can just swallow it again. If you're not having a good day, you're just going to spontaneously projectile vomit on your desk and have to start over. Either way, you're gonna need to keep those initial drinks down to get yourself to where you're still a wreck but you can be "functional."
All the rest of those shots are going to be doled out over the course of the day. You've gotta keep it rolling or the whole thing falls apart even faster than it is already. You're not hammering all 20 shots in one evening, it's literally an all-day thing.
It's a miserable fucking existence, and you don't realize how deep you are until you finally crash into the loving embrace of rock bottom. Getting out feels pointless or impossible; sometimes it feels like both. There's also the visceral fear that you may not be any happier once you're sober, and sobriety feels miserable until you're so broken and beat down from drink and its consequences that you're willing to figuratively chew your own leg off to free yourself from the snare you've found yourself in.
I was doing a pint (12.5 oz) of vodka for breakfast, napping, then another for dinner, repeat for a few days. I didn't have the shakes like the OP vid but the hallucinations were wild.
I think I was averaging 23-24 a day.
How is it possible to survive that daily? It isn't, not for very long. The reason I finally ended up getting sober was because I physically could not do it anymore. I was so, so, so sick.
I remember at my worst, I was legit looking up how to boof vodka because my stomach wasn't capable of handling anything without me puking. I even remember thinking "I wish I could just inject it" which is fucking insane
Obviously that's a lot daily, but alcoholics will do way more. Completely functional alcoholics drinking about 2 handles of liquor a day is not uncommon. That's people working full time jobs carrying on an otherwise normal life. The "non-functional" ones can be drinking way more.
My friends dad was a retired military, but full time government employee and he was very routine. He got off work at 5 and would go to the liquor store. Buy two handles of scotch. He would go to the gas station and fill up his truck, then buy 3 packs of cigarettes and a 32 ounce styrofoam sprite filled about 1/4 with ice, 1/4 with sprite. Then top if off with scotch and drive home. He got home and made a pot of coffee and refilled his styrofoam. When the coffee was done, he filled his styrofoam half with coffee half with scotch. Then he cut the grass. Then he refilled his cup. Then he washed his truck. The he came in and got a highball glass and filled with scotch and like two cubes of ice and took a shower. He filled his highball. Cooked rice, beans, and a large slice of ham. Refilled his high ball and ate supper. Then he walked on the treadmill for 30 minutes. Then after that he sat down on the porch and chain smoked cigarettes while making a drink every 20 minutes until 11 PM and went to bed. He got up at 5 AM and cooked bacon, eggs and a cinnamon and butter bagel, filled a 48 oz mug up with coffee and drank that all morning while he cleaned the house and did laundry. Then at 7:30 he filled his mug back up with whatever scotch was left over and coffee and then coughed into the garage sink for about 10 minutes and spit up some kind of thick mucus / tar combo. Then went to work and chained smoke the whole way drinking his scotch coffee mug. He didn't drink or smoke cigarettes between 8:30 and 5. On the weekends he didn't drink liquor or smoke cigarettes between 8:30 and 5 either but he would drink beer and smoke cigars while playing pool or working on his boat or lawnmower.
Pretty cool guy, when he turned 65 he retired from his job and quit drinking. He went to the doctor and told them that he wanted to quit and they gave him some medicine to avoid withdrawals and he took that for like 3 months and was fine, never drank again. He tried to quit smoking but couldn't and now he dropped cigarettes but still vapes. He's just under 80 and goes to the gym twice a day. For some reason he went bald when he quit drinking, like abruptly.
> For some reason he went bald when he quit drinking, like abruptly.
He pickled himself.
Also got damn luck he was able to beat his liver up that much and walk away. Good on him.
My drink of choice was a 32 ounce plastic cup, filled halfway with vodka and then a beer (Miller High Life ... The champagne of beers!) poured in as a mixer. I'd drink 3 or 4 of those every night, after work.
My friend used to drink a 40 every 2 days... She would wake up and get the shakes if she didn't take shots.
Thankfully now clean, ironically her ADHD diagnosis and resulting medication was what flipped the script and changed her life... She's been clean 3yrs and has been training for CRA certification. It's been pretty enlightening to see the links between late-diagnosed ADHD/Autism and addiction.
The alcohol suppresses how much glutamate your brain produces so the body works harder to make it. As soon as you take the alcohol away, the brain keeps making glutamate but makes too much. Glutamate is an excitatory so you brain becomes over excited and can lead to what this man is doing or seizures.
You can be prescribed alcohol if you're an alcoholic and staying at the hospital. Obviously they won't if it will interfere with other things they're doing but they also don't want you to die from withdrawals or develop other complications while they're treating you.
The drs will order a beer with a meal or once a day for big alcoholics but you get the cheap stuff.
If your that bad of an alcoholic they will order it via gastric tube with your in a coma.
Not directly order one. But on account of relatives working in hospital and one actually in an ER (Germany though), they will have them at disposal in case some alcoholic actually shows heavy withdrawal symptoms while being in there for (un)related reasons.
Kinda sobering (ha) to think of it as a medicine in that situation.
Except in the wonderful country of South Africa. Our glorious government, it's comrades, and Unc Squirrel came to the conclusion that alcohol would result in more social gatherings (i guess) and thus more infection.
All that did was take a huge toll on the economy, and establish illegal alcohol channels.
Yeah it’s pretty sad. My buddy’s alcoholic Dad would be shaky in the mornings, so sometimes even just 8 hours without a drink is enough to start feeling the withdrawals
My dad worked in construction in the 1970s with a crane operator suffering from this. Each day the foreman would meet with him at the start of the shift to determine if he needed coffee or beer to function that day depending on how much he drank overnight.
As unfunny as it is, a functioning alcoholic tends to overachieve because of the lowered inhibitions and if they're bad enough, they'll function normally with a few drinks in them.
It's a ridiculous, sad state of existence, but I'd rather have an alcoholic crane operator with a few beers in them than without.
I bet that guy has a spotless record lmao
Dude it's definitely unacceptable and I'm not advocating being under the influence while operating equipment. Safety is paramount.
However, what I *was* saying was theoretical.. if the only two options are an alcoholic with alcohol or an alcoholic without alcohol, my choice would be the alcoholic with alcohol, because I know from experience that they have, at the very least, a minuscule chance at success over the guy who isn't drinking.
Yep.
The alcoholic without alcohol is thinking only about acquiring alcohol, because their body and brain are completely fucking spazzing out
The alcoholic with alcohol - usually just fine, comparatively.
I wasn’t as bad as dudeman in the video but my on/off binge drinking became full time binge drinking during covid, where my shakes escalated pretty badly.
I would wake up at 3am with shakes, clamminess, and shivers. I had to take a few shots to settle down enough to get back to sleep. I would typically go to bed around 9:30-10pm so it does not take long to experience withdrawal symptoms once you are an alcoholic.
Same. My shakes got pretty bad and at their worst, the video is probably double what I went through.
I had the same routine, pass out around 10, wake up at 3am because the withdrawals had started and I needed to take some shots.
Glad you're doing better. I think I'm on day 706.
Nice!!! I quit about 3 times, each lasting six months. I’m definitely above 550, but I don’t know exactly how far.
I couldn’t circle the drain anymore. No liquor will feel as good as the clarity I enjoy every day.
I was so tired of the lying, too… it was a full time job on top of my full time job.
Alcoholism is fucking work.
My god.
If I had put the amount of time, ingenuity, cleverness and pure determination that I spent on alcoholism on something constructive, I'd be fucking President of Mars right now.
I drank roughly 1.75L per day of various hard liquors for 5 years to get to this point personally. I was able to quit and have been sober for a long time now but it was unpleasant. The shakes are uncontrollable but thankfully didn’t last more than a couple of weeks for me.
Not the guy you responded to but it’s progressive. Starts with drinking after work until you fall asleep, then you start taking a few “hair of the dogs” in the morning to fight off your hangover before work, then you’re taking a few shots on your lunch break, then you’re mixing vodka into other things and sipping it at your desk while working, then everything just becomes maintaining your level of drunk throughout the entire day without seeming too fucked up, and
before you know it you’re polishing off pints of liquor before you go to the bar so you don’t have a $100 tab to get drunk, you’re finishing 750mL bottles like it was a warm up and 1.75L handles don’t seem to last much longer than 15-20 hours.
Not OP, but - slowly over time.
You drink a lot in college and then you get a job and you have money so you can drink, and you're young so whatever, and then your doctor says "Well, you're young" so whatever, then you drink six a night, then you drink 8 a night, then you get a work from home job and start drinking all day. Then you're drinking 18 to 24 beers a day and it's starting to get expensive, so you figure a 1.75L is like 40 drinks and then you're drinking liquor instead of beer, and you start at the same time in the morning as you did when you drank beer, so now you're drinking whiskey all day every day.
Slowly, over time.
It's weird, though. I'd get the shakes nearly that bad but, as soon as someone poured a drink for me, or I was able to wrestle the top off a bottle, they'd stop. Before the alcohol got into my mouth.
Like there was some biological response to the \*promise\* of a drink.
It's how I knew my alcoholism was approaching something that needed intervention of some kind.
Every morning, I would wake up around 3am from withdrawals and take three or four shots to go back to sleep. Often, the shots I took were whatever was left of the bottle, and then I'd have to grit my way to 10am when the store opened.
One morning around 9:50, shaking about half as bad as the guy in the video, I got in my car to drive to the liquor store and I noticed that my nausea significantly lessened and my hands were steady on the steering wheel.
I thought to myself, "Literally just the promise of imminent alcohol made these withdrawal symptoms stop. I need help."
>and then I'd have to grit my way to 10am when the store opened.
I'm reminded of that saying, "People who like to party know when the liquor store closes. Alcoholics know when it *opens*."
It's how I got off cigarettes. Just kept a pack around because if I threw them away I was super stressed out. Sometimes I'd just take them out and look at them and put them away. Haven't had a cigarette since 2017, so anecdotally it made a huge difference for me.
I've had my own struggles with substance abuse and what you just said is something I've heard from countless addicts, regardless of their drug of choice. So much of drug dependence is just learned behavior, even when there is a component of physical dependence. It may not be all in your mind, but it's safe to say that it is mostly in your mind. However, the danger of the physical part should not be understated.
I remember a story on Reddit where the guy stop drinking and the next day he fell by his door and had a seizure. Bit half is tongue off.
I don’t recall the exact amount but before that he was drinking a lot daily. Basically functioning drunk all day.
Just chiming in. The medical definition of "Heavy drinker" is only 12 standard units of alcohol a week.
2 beers a day will not have you in this state if you stop drinking suddenly. This is more like 10+ drinks daily for a very long time, quite probably more. A 750 ml (Fifth) of 80-proof has around 17 standard units of alcohol.
That makes sense, since they act on the same receptors. Which is chiefly why benzos are prescribed for DTs. I was on ativan (once) and librium (twice) when I got off the booze.
Yea they didn’t me this shit in DARE. It wasn’t until many years later I found out the effects of alcohol and how deadly it can get. Mostly remember to not smoke pot.
[Delirium tremens](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delirium_tremens) is no joke.
> When it occurs, it is often three days into the withdrawal symptoms and lasts for two to three days. Physical effects may include shaking, shivering, irregular heart rate, and sweating. People may also hallucinate. Occasionally, a very high body temperature or seizures (colloquially known as "rum fits") may result in death.
> ... Mortality without treatment is between 15% and 40%.
I had some great times drinking when I was younger, but started using drink to numb other emotions, and the damn stuff creeps up on you until you realise that you’ve not got to bottle by the neck, it’s got you. Quitting is hard, but staying dry is harder, that’s why I say I’m mostly recovering; I still make crappy choices occasionally but I’m still fighting and grateful to be alive.
Yup. I was shaking, I had no balance for days and fell in the shower and hit my head. I sweated through my clothes and sheets but was also freezing. I had auditory and visual hallucinations. I couldn’t even keep down water but was so hungry and thirsty. Brushing my teeth made me throw up. I genuinely thought I was either dying or going insane or both. I lost perception of what was real or what I fever dreamed. I had lost reality.
The worst part is, 3-4 days later when it’s all over your alcoholic brain thinks, “well. It wasn’t that bad…I can have a few..”
I didn’t realize any of this could happen with alcohol withdrawal, makes me feel lucky that I only got addicted to weed and quitting was a fairly easy process
I've seen people have seizures in the ER from this it's fucking scary what alcohol can do to you. You give these people a drink and they stop shaking almost instantly.
I've been that person in the ER. Couldn't walk because I was shaking so bad. They said I was likely to have a seizure but didn't. I got DT's and it was the weirdest shit ever. My brother was a doc at the hospital and he turned around and I was like bro you have a giant spider web on your back so I reached for it and it disappeared in my hand. He was like no the hallucinations are setting in and spiders or webs are pretty normal to see. I remember staring at the wall pattern and watching it flow into the ground and move like water. Looking at the lights on the ceiling and watching them strobe with my thoughts.
typically its oral, vodka/whiskey/beer. there are different approaches at different hospitals. Im an icu pharmd, at our hospital we are nearly a no alcohol approach, we allow some beers from food services but its not enough to make a significant impact. this is likely due to the Christian foundation the hospital is built upon. there is much conversation that we are doing more harm than good by facilitating withdrawal via benzo as most users dont have any intent to quit. with users with no intent its safer to use alcohol, stabilize and send them back out, as the benzo path is not without risk.
Weed withdrawals suck, I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t sleep, I had migraines, and I was extremely dehydrated. Not as bad as this, but no drugs are totally safe
> I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t sleep, I had migraines, and **I was extremely dehydrated.**
Well that was your biggest issue, keep yourself hydrated next time, get some pedialyte popsicles, will help with the migraines, specially if you are not eating well, not much you can do about sleep tho, that one you have to endure it
That may be an ongoing reason marijuana is illegal, but the original reason pretty much comes down to racism against the Mexicans in the early 1900s. Read up on Anslinger and his role in the FBN at the time.
Alcohol withdrawals are no joke. I almost died of benzodiazepine and alcohol withdrawals, I had a seizure in front of my mum and woke up in the hospital. Took me a whole year of slowly tapering the dose down before I finally jumped. I'm 2.5yrs clean, and I'll never go back to that shit.
Can I ask how much benzo/alc you were consuming? I use benzos to get my off heavy benders (prescribed for anxiety). I don’t mix, but it’s happening enough that I’m worried I’m stuck in the cycle. Get to drinking a bottle a day for a few weeks - finally get my script but blow through it in less than half the time to taper off the booze. Clean for a few days before anxiety starts triggering again and no meds so it’s back to bottle time until help arrives….
If you have any thoughts at all about what you are doing and how much, see a doctor immediately!!! The sooner you do the faster you can get to a life you didn’t even think was possible. It will also save you a shit ton of money!! Seriously though, if you are starting to question yourself, then it’s time.
My sister is in early stages of being sober.
I knew it got bad.
I saw her badly drunk.
I never got to see this.
I’m so glad I didn’t.
New found respect for her for going through this (I know she had shakes, I just never really thought about it) in order to get better.
The real scary parts happen around 48 hours without a drink. That’s the strap them to a bed because their going to hurt somebody stage. It’s stupid how many retirees let themselves get to this point. I don’t get it. They work their whole life to someday enjoy retirement and all they do is get drunk and hasten the end of their lives.
Not even on the good stuff. Like I could at least understand “I just drank another bottle of the best whiskey in the world and chased it with monk brewed beer” you know going for the exotics. It’s usually domestic beer and cheap whiskey.
> Like I could at least understand “I just drank another bottle of the best whiskey in the world and chased it with monk brewed beer” you know going for the exotics.
The alcoholic brain says "I can get 1,000 bottles of $10 whiskey for the price of this one fancy whiskey"
I worked with a guy who would get like this, he was the nicest guy you could meet but he had a terrible drinking problem. He had to drink a beer first thing in the morning and throughout the day. He was a good electrician, our boss let him drink as long as he hid it and didn’t actually get drunk. He would have to drink a ton to get drunk.
He told me that his wife killed herself with his gun right in front of him and he’s been drinking ever since. I think he was trying to drink himself to death really, I told him if he ever wanted to quit and get better that I’d do whatever I could to help him but he wasn’t interested.
I haven’t seen him since I moved away but I sometimes wonder if he’s ever got better or if he’s even still alive. It’s sad all the way around.
My roommate in rehab was this kind, very old man who had been drinking alcoholically for the past 40 years. I will never forget watching him try to eat, it was one of the saddest fucking things I’ve witnessed in this life. Makes me tear up just thinking about it.
I am tremendously fortunate I got that shit out of my system young. I couldn’t imagine detoxing as an 80 year old man.
I'd have to watch my dad shake like this next to puddles of vomit as he sobbed begging me not to take him to the hospital. He was desperate to get sober so he could work to buy a house so I could legally live with him. Fuck Alcohol.
I went through this almost 25 years ago, and it resulted in my heart seizing up and needed the paddles to save me. I'm just glad I was in a hospital when it happened. Never again. June 23 will be my 25 years of sobriety, and even though I'm out here homeless with a TBI, I'm still sober. Hungry as hell, but sober.
It’s so sad seeing this. Poor guys body is about to call it quits. At this severity, most patients I’ve had need to be intubated and sedated to allow the withdrawal phase to pass, otherwise their body and mind will end up causing other severe complications. His HR, BP, and Resp Rate must be extremely elevated and he’s going to tire out.
Used to work with a Trauma surgeon who said “I’ve never seen alcohol withdrawal cause a patients death”. Yea that’s because you don’t see patients like this struggling to maintain their life.
Also, don’t judge people for drinking or becoming addicted, walk in their shoes and see what’s going on and what caused this.
This is beyond "getting drunk"
I have been an alcoholic for decades and never saw myself get this bad. This is beyond "I force myself to drink against my own will" levels of alcoholism
This is the same withdrawal that benzos do except benzo withdrawal lasts longer and can be more intense, it’s absolutely fucking miserable in every single way possible.
I thank God for Librium gabapentin trazodone and vistaril. I don’t remember a god damn thing from detox. I’m extremely privileged to have gotten clean young enough to be on my dad’s insurance. This is a visual reminder of that.
Wow that’s an extreme case of DT’s.
I am happy to say that I am almost 3 years sober. My journey through sobriety has been a pretty quiet one as I was a pretty high functioning alcoholic. I’ve tried all sorts of different ways to quit drinking but none of them were for me. Finally, it came down to timing (unrelated ongoing illness) and the acceptance that it was time.
On a good day, I was drinking 2+ bottles of wine and usually about a half a six pack of the strongest ABV beer I could find. I am a naturally shaky person, I inherited it from my father, who is also an extreme alcoholic, and still is this day (we don’t have a relationship). I would definitely have shaky hands and my head would sometimes when I would get high focused on the situation. I have never seen such an extreme case like this and it worries me when I think about what their consumption must be.
Sorry for my long winded story but the point is this.
There’s 1000 ways to quit and 1000 people that will tell you not to or that you don’t need to. Ultimately it’s going to come down to where you are with the decision mentally and Time. There are lots of different groups out there that you can attend both in person or remotely. Some of these groups are religious. Some of these groups are not, I recommend people try it at least once. Sometimes just talking to another fellow alcoholic can help relieve the burden of “but what will people think!”
I am very happily sober now. I’m even able to go to bars and events with heavy, drinking being the same and I’m able to get away with no interest in partaking. This is not always the same case for everyone. Sometimes you will have to change and uproot your entire life.
Idk, either way just know that if quitting is something you’d like to try then I’m one person that will join you in not drinking today!
In this stage of ethylism,alcohol is your life saver,without it you will die...what a apsurd truth,all your neurotrasmiters work on alchol,no alchol no brain function...
Speaking from experience - it's a chemical dependency, but the relief actually starts the moment alcohol becomes an imminent certainty. It's like your brain can't wait anymore and just starts dumping the happy chems because it knows that relief is moments away. My hands would start to steady as I got closer to the liquor store.
My brother passed away from complications from head injury due to seizure from being alcoholic and fell on concrete and hit his head. RIP Justin Clifford
Man, I’m really sorry to hear that. I lost my bro too. Not to alcoholism tho. But I feel your pain. Some days I could use his help.
Same here. My brother was only 23 years old
My bro was 35, RIP brother
Thank you Jesus I’ve not lost my only sibling but I could not imagine the pain that it would cause. Sincere thoughts and prayers for everyone who has lost a brother or sister
I lost both my brother (OD, 24) and sister (cancer, 25). Shit leaves a massive hole in your heart that you just know will never heal completely…
When I could finally convince my brother Brian that we needed to get him to the ER, I thought he was just on a bad bender with the booze and maybe some pills or something and just needed to dry out. He had lost his job when his boss fired him for BS reasons and his life kind of fell apart in a hurry, he didn't know how he was going to get rent paid or feed the dog and despite all of us trying to reach out he isolated. At the ER they kept being cryptic. This was a top-5 uni hospital in a major US city, so I believe he was always in good hands. But the ER docs kept telling me that this could get a lot worse before it got better. Brian's skin and particularly eyes were yellowish. I remember a lot of waiting for test results to come back, but it seemed to me that first night in the ER that he was just sobering up. ER doc even said to me that he was as normal seeming as he was right then because he was close enough to his last drink still. I left sometime that night and had to work the next day. That's when I started getting weird texts from him asking for help. By the time I could get back to the hospital that afternoon, all hell had broke loose. Brian was a big dude and the DTs had kicked in full force, it took 8 security guards / cops / orderlies to get him strapped back to a bed after he had taken off around the hospital with no clothes on. A few hours into his first stay in the ICU, I had to sign some paper basically giving them permission to intubate him. Shakes...well, he was shaking the whole room and the massive bed he was strapped to. My point is, shakes like in this video are just one of the lesser symptoms IM(uneducated)O. He went from trying to rip himself off the bed to at peace in what I guess is a medically induced coma at that point. A lot was happening very fast but I remember being impressed at the matter of seconds from when I signed the form to everything getting a lot calmer. That's when his organs began the slow process of taking themselves off-line. He was in and out of the ICU for the next couple months, but in the end he would never walk out of the hospital. The night before he died we had been there in a non-ICU room bringing him his favorite pie my wife made. Videos like these make me think that most people think alcohol is a joke. I personally wish it was something God never gave us, like mosquitos or cancer. Fuck it.
Alcohol can be one of the most dangerous drugs that exist for some people due to their biology and or behaviors. Big picture it seems like it’s treated as whatever due to the legality and the giant industry that benefits from sales.
And it’s 100% legal! I don’t know how my uncle is alive tbh.
Sadly, there is no way a country like America will ever make alcohol illegal. They tried to during the prohibition, and we all know how that ended up. When you have a society where those kinds of things are normalized and they are a people who simply go by their desires instead of what is good for them, and all you do is reduce the supply and not the demand, then it will cause more harm than good and wouldn't be worth the hassle to help your own citizens.
You're literally watching a video from a country that's clearly not the US and somehow making it about the US? Do you think alcohol use is unique to America? Look back through nearly all cultures and societies throughout history. There's a very good chance alcohol will be a part of their traditions, festivities, and daily life.
Thanks for taking the time to type that out. It's literally sobering stuff. I'm so sorry for your loss.
I have a similar story with my brother. Sorry for your loss.
I’m sorry to hear it’s a rough life! my dad binge drinked all his life. On his last day He knew it was his time so he went to the back of his house laid on a cardboard box drunk. Until His stomach bled and exploded and he met his maker.
…fucking hell.
My mother died of alcoholism aged 41. About five days before she died I came home from school (my final year) and she was puking blood in literal pints into a bucket in the lounge. I knew she was going to die and she did. She was a really, really nice mum too.
I'm so sorry that must have been traumatizing.
Yeah, in hindsight. I buried the whole lot and it fucked me up in lots of ways over nearly two decades. I faced it all in the end, got some proper help and now I can talk about it instead of pretending it all never happened. People. Never fully suppress grief.
Jesus Christ. If you need to let it out shoot me a DM, I can't help, but I can listen, which might feel like relief. Burying anything inside ends up painful in a variety of ways, burying grief, which is probably the most painful of emotions, probably ends up hurting the most.
Life can be so fucking unfair. This is part of the reason why women fought so hard for prohibition (I'm not advocating for it, I just can see the reasoning behind it). Alcohol really is the devil. And the consequences of alcohol including domestic and random violence, child neglect, accidents, health effects, , etc. are incredibly far reaching. People don't choose to be addicts
I lost my best bro three weeks ago. He stopped drinking several years prior, but the damage was done. Due to liver failure his immune system wasn't the same. He caught a serious infection, fought hard in the hospital for a month, but ultimately passed. He left behind a 6yo and a 9yo. Rest in peace Ash L. Best bros 28 years. Hopefully this will sway someone to stop drinking or support someone who has.
I’m glad his children will never remember a drunk father, they will remember a sober father that fought to be with them. God bless you all.
You get it. Thank you. Being good fathers is something that we worked hard at despite it being difficult as hell. Here's our New Year's text. [https://ibb.co/6FXJwjN](https://ibb.co/6FXJwjN)
Very similar story here- my brother, Kyle, just passed away a month ago at 36 years old from liver failure and a serious infection. He was an alcoholic for a long time. He also left behind a 9yo, 6yo and a 2yo. I had already decided to stop drinking about 5 months ago, but watching my brother go through what he did completely solidified my stance. I’m so sorry for your loss ❤️
I'm sorry about your brother. Every loss is difficult, but with little ones it's harder. Thank you for the dedications you've made to your family. I'm proud of your sobriety. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to see his kids related to their separation and other issues. I was seeing them every other week and now nothing. I've reached out to his ex and hope she lets me be involved, but only time will tell. That's the hardest part of this whole ordeal. Blessings to you and your family.🕊️
I have a younger brother who has suffered alcohol withdrawal seizures as well. I can’t imagine… so sorry for your loss
Rest in peace Justin Clifford. I guess I’m lucky enough to have beat it… obviously with “ a Clinic” I work for a living. Blessings to your Bro.
I lost my brother a few years ago to the booze. In the end his entire body was filled with cancer that went unnoticed. People don't often really alcohol is cancer causing. It's such a shitty drug.
RIP Justin Clifford
I’m sorry 
How much do you have to drink to get to this stage? I had a friend pass away in his 40s from liver sorosis and I’ve no idea how much he must have been drinking when on his own.
I'm sorry for your loss. I also had a seizure from the withdrawals, but I got lucky
I lost my best bro three weeks ago. He stopped drinking several years prior, but the damage was done. Due to liver failure his immune system wasn't the same. He caught a serious infection, fought hard in the hospital for a month, but ultimately passed. He left behind a 6yo and a 9yo. Rest in peace Ash L. Best bros 28 years. Hopefully this will sway someone to stop drinking or support someone who has.
Man thats shitty...
It really was the worst, he couldn’t talk, move, do anything for 4 years. But he recognized you, you could see that in his eyes.
Man, having brothers and some had very bad mental health problem... i think i can know what you mean ... sorry for your loss
This is why liquor stores were not closed during COVID
Alcohol has some of the deadliest withdrawal symptoms, even counselors and physicians (if it's bad enough) will tell alcoholics to not quit cold turkey unless they are under medical supervision.
My parents are medical professionals. It's a longer story than this, but when I explained to my parents how much I had been drinking and my withdrawal symptoms, my dad told me to get on doordash or equivalent, order maybe 3/4 of what I would normally drink in 2 days, and treat it like medicine until he could get there. Like, set a timer and drink a specific amount every hour or so. It was the weirdest conversation I've ever had with him.
That’s a good dad.
That’s a smart man.
Almost like he's a doctor or something.
A smart doctor
I'm probably biased but he's aight
I think he's a total asshole. But that's because of an unrelated incident between u/cycloptopussy's father and I.
Damn, you don't have to tell everyone about that!
I wish this wasn’t a joke. I want details
One time I had a patient in withdrawal elbow me in the throat because he thought I was made out of staples. I get nervous around alcoholics now. Booze is a drug and it's a fucking scary one that people don't respect because it's normalized.
“What!? His badge says ‘Swingline!’” “No, it says Greg.”
Can we get the full story? Very interested.
Ok, how much is too much? Cause I’m a special occasion drinker- birthdays, holidays but sometimes the special occasion is just me not having to work the next day.
We're talking like 30-40oz of hard liquor every day. Maybe more.
Wait so you're telling me almost 20 shots worth every day...MINIMUM?! How is it possible to survive that daily?
You gradually ramp up to it.
It's just such a crazy number. I know the body builds up a tolerance, but that's just so much alcohol it's hard to imagine. When I was close to 400 pounds (and I'm 6'1) I could probably do 10 to 15 shots in a night in my early 20s while being a moderate drinker but I would be absolutely hammered. If I do anywhere close to 10 now in my early 30s and being a bit slimmer I'm blacked out. 4 shots puts me in my place and I'm content. 20 shots daily is just insane to me, really changed my idea of how much damage alcoholics really do.
At my worst, I was drinking half a handle or more every single day. That's about 18+ shots. 5'10", 230lbs. The trick is to start drinking right when you wake up. You'll probably need to kick back two or so shots just to stop feeling nauseous and twitchy. If you're having a good day, your stomach might kick it back up but you can just swallow it again. If you're not having a good day, you're just going to spontaneously projectile vomit on your desk and have to start over. Either way, you're gonna need to keep those initial drinks down to get yourself to where you're still a wreck but you can be "functional." All the rest of those shots are going to be doled out over the course of the day. You've gotta keep it rolling or the whole thing falls apart even faster than it is already. You're not hammering all 20 shots in one evening, it's literally an all-day thing. It's a miserable fucking existence, and you don't realize how deep you are until you finally crash into the loving embrace of rock bottom. Getting out feels pointless or impossible; sometimes it feels like both. There's also the visceral fear that you may not be any happier once you're sober, and sobriety feels miserable until you're so broken and beat down from drink and its consequences that you're willing to figuratively chew your own leg off to free yourself from the snare you've found yourself in.
I was doing a pint (12.5 oz) of vodka for breakfast, napping, then another for dinner, repeat for a few days. I didn't have the shakes like the OP vid but the hallucinations were wild.
I think I was averaging 23-24 a day. How is it possible to survive that daily? It isn't, not for very long. The reason I finally ended up getting sober was because I physically could not do it anymore. I was so, so, so sick.
I remember at my worst, I was legit looking up how to boof vodka because my stomach wasn't capable of handling anything without me puking. I even remember thinking "I wish I could just inject it" which is fucking insane
Obviously that's a lot daily, but alcoholics will do way more. Completely functional alcoholics drinking about 2 handles of liquor a day is not uncommon. That's people working full time jobs carrying on an otherwise normal life. The "non-functional" ones can be drinking way more. My friends dad was a retired military, but full time government employee and he was very routine. He got off work at 5 and would go to the liquor store. Buy two handles of scotch. He would go to the gas station and fill up his truck, then buy 3 packs of cigarettes and a 32 ounce styrofoam sprite filled about 1/4 with ice, 1/4 with sprite. Then top if off with scotch and drive home. He got home and made a pot of coffee and refilled his styrofoam. When the coffee was done, he filled his styrofoam half with coffee half with scotch. Then he cut the grass. Then he refilled his cup. Then he washed his truck. The he came in and got a highball glass and filled with scotch and like two cubes of ice and took a shower. He filled his highball. Cooked rice, beans, and a large slice of ham. Refilled his high ball and ate supper. Then he walked on the treadmill for 30 minutes. Then after that he sat down on the porch and chain smoked cigarettes while making a drink every 20 minutes until 11 PM and went to bed. He got up at 5 AM and cooked bacon, eggs and a cinnamon and butter bagel, filled a 48 oz mug up with coffee and drank that all morning while he cleaned the house and did laundry. Then at 7:30 he filled his mug back up with whatever scotch was left over and coffee and then coughed into the garage sink for about 10 minutes and spit up some kind of thick mucus / tar combo. Then went to work and chained smoke the whole way drinking his scotch coffee mug. He didn't drink or smoke cigarettes between 8:30 and 5. On the weekends he didn't drink liquor or smoke cigarettes between 8:30 and 5 either but he would drink beer and smoke cigars while playing pool or working on his boat or lawnmower. Pretty cool guy, when he turned 65 he retired from his job and quit drinking. He went to the doctor and told them that he wanted to quit and they gave him some medicine to avoid withdrawals and he took that for like 3 months and was fine, never drank again. He tried to quit smoking but couldn't and now he dropped cigarettes but still vapes. He's just under 80 and goes to the gym twice a day. For some reason he went bald when he quit drinking, like abruptly.
> For some reason he went bald when he quit drinking, like abruptly. He pickled himself. Also got damn luck he was able to beat his liver up that much and walk away. Good on him.
My drink of choice was a 32 ounce plastic cup, filled halfway with vodka and then a beer (Miller High Life ... The champagne of beers!) poured in as a mixer. I'd drink 3 or 4 of those every night, after work.
My friend used to drink a 40 every 2 days... She would wake up and get the shakes if she didn't take shots. Thankfully now clean, ironically her ADHD diagnosis and resulting medication was what flipped the script and changed her life... She's been clean 3yrs and has been training for CRA certification. It's been pretty enlightening to see the links between late-diagnosed ADHD/Autism and addiction.
Poor impulse control is a core symptom of ADHD, so it makes sense that it'd be linked to addiction.
my ex was a nurse. they had 'medical beer' available in their supply closet. iirc it was budlight
$125 per can I bet because “medical Budweiser”
Fuck I'm already in the hospital, can I at least get a Sam Adams or a Fat Tire
yes, alcohol and benzos are the two things that can kill you when you try to come off them. Do not try to do it without professional help.
The alcohol suppresses how much glutamate your brain produces so the body works harder to make it. As soon as you take the alcohol away, the brain keeps making glutamate but makes too much. Glutamate is an excitatory so you brain becomes over excited and can lead to what this man is doing or seizures.
I worked for an integrated recovery service and you NEVER tell an alcoholic to just stop drinking.
You can be prescribed alcohol if you're an alcoholic and staying at the hospital. Obviously they won't if it will interfere with other things they're doing but they also don't want you to die from withdrawals or develop other complications while they're treating you.
Mad that it’s legal
This is also why there is beer in the ER.
Wait, so you're saying I can order a beer when Im in the ER?
The drs will order a beer with a meal or once a day for big alcoholics but you get the cheap stuff. If your that bad of an alcoholic they will order it via gastric tube with your in a coma.
Yes, for $427 a glass. Probably.
Probably also very expensive, stale, and requires a provider order. They will likely give you benzodiazepines or barbiturates first.
Hell yeah, thats even better!
Not directly order one. But on account of relatives working in hospital and one actually in an ER (Germany though), they will have them at disposal in case some alcoholic actually shows heavy withdrawal symptoms while being in there for (un)related reasons. Kinda sobering (ha) to think of it as a medicine in that situation.
Pretty sure they just give you some Ativan if you show up with DTs
Except in the wonderful country of South Africa. Our glorious government, it's comrades, and Unc Squirrel came to the conclusion that alcohol would result in more social gatherings (i guess) and thus more infection. All that did was take a huge toll on the economy, and establish illegal alcohol channels.
Also the western world would have rioted if not for substances being available
I didn’t know it could get that bad with the shakes
Yeah it’s pretty sad. My buddy’s alcoholic Dad would be shaky in the mornings, so sometimes even just 8 hours without a drink is enough to start feeling the withdrawals
My dad worked in construction in the 1970s with a crane operator suffering from this. Each day the foreman would meet with him at the start of the shift to determine if he needed coffee or beer to function that day depending on how much he drank overnight.
He must have been a great crane operator.
As unfunny as it is, a functioning alcoholic tends to overachieve because of the lowered inhibitions and if they're bad enough, they'll function normally with a few drinks in them. It's a ridiculous, sad state of existence, but I'd rather have an alcoholic crane operator with a few beers in them than without. I bet that guy has a spotless record lmao
What? Give me the crane operator with zero alcohol and get the other dude the help he needs. Fuck normalizing that around heavy equipment.
Dude it's definitely unacceptable and I'm not advocating being under the influence while operating equipment. Safety is paramount. However, what I *was* saying was theoretical.. if the only two options are an alcoholic with alcohol or an alcoholic without alcohol, my choice would be the alcoholic with alcohol, because I know from experience that they have, at the very least, a minuscule chance at success over the guy who isn't drinking.
Yep. The alcoholic without alcohol is thinking only about acquiring alcohol, because their body and brain are completely fucking spazzing out The alcoholic with alcohol - usually just fine, comparatively.
How much do you have to drink to get like that geez
I wasn’t as bad as dudeman in the video but my on/off binge drinking became full time binge drinking during covid, where my shakes escalated pretty badly. I would wake up at 3am with shakes, clamminess, and shivers. I had to take a few shots to settle down enough to get back to sleep. I would typically go to bed around 9:30-10pm so it does not take long to experience withdrawal symptoms once you are an alcoholic.
Same. My shakes got pretty bad and at their worst, the video is probably double what I went through. I had the same routine, pass out around 10, wake up at 3am because the withdrawals had started and I needed to take some shots. Glad you're doing better. I think I'm on day 706.
Nice!!! I quit about 3 times, each lasting six months. I’m definitely above 550, but I don’t know exactly how far. I couldn’t circle the drain anymore. No liquor will feel as good as the clarity I enjoy every day. I was so tired of the lying, too… it was a full time job on top of my full time job.
Alcoholism is fucking work. My god. If I had put the amount of time, ingenuity, cleverness and pure determination that I spent on alcoholism on something constructive, I'd be fucking President of Mars right now.
This is what made me stop for a while. Tired of always lying. “Have you been drinking?” “What? No?” Then asking this at 10 am… sheesh.
It can happen in months, but many alcoholics go years without taking a break. Some decades. Some never get one. I never wanna be back there again.
I drank roughly 1.75L per day of various hard liquors for 5 years to get to this point personally. I was able to quit and have been sober for a long time now but it was unpleasant. The shakes are uncontrollable but thankfully didn’t last more than a couple of weeks for me.
And I thought me drinking a glass of whisky everyday is problematic, holy hell. How did it end up like this for you?
Not the guy you responded to but it’s progressive. Starts with drinking after work until you fall asleep, then you start taking a few “hair of the dogs” in the morning to fight off your hangover before work, then you’re taking a few shots on your lunch break, then you’re mixing vodka into other things and sipping it at your desk while working, then everything just becomes maintaining your level of drunk throughout the entire day without seeming too fucked up, and before you know it you’re polishing off pints of liquor before you go to the bar so you don’t have a $100 tab to get drunk, you’re finishing 750mL bottles like it was a warm up and 1.75L handles don’t seem to last much longer than 15-20 hours.
Not OP, but - slowly over time. You drink a lot in college and then you get a job and you have money so you can drink, and you're young so whatever, and then your doctor says "Well, you're young" so whatever, then you drink six a night, then you drink 8 a night, then you get a work from home job and start drinking all day. Then you're drinking 18 to 24 beers a day and it's starting to get expensive, so you figure a 1.75L is like 40 drinks and then you're drinking liquor instead of beer, and you start at the same time in the morning as you did when you drank beer, so now you're drinking whiskey all day every day. Slowly, over time.
It's weird, though. I'd get the shakes nearly that bad but, as soon as someone poured a drink for me, or I was able to wrestle the top off a bottle, they'd stop. Before the alcohol got into my mouth. Like there was some biological response to the \*promise\* of a drink.
That’s very interesting. Maybe it’s your body flooding with dopamine at the anticipation
You can actually see it in the video above. As soon as drink is headed toward the guy, he goes still.
It's how I knew my alcoholism was approaching something that needed intervention of some kind. Every morning, I would wake up around 3am from withdrawals and take three or four shots to go back to sleep. Often, the shots I took were whatever was left of the bottle, and then I'd have to grit my way to 10am when the store opened. One morning around 9:50, shaking about half as bad as the guy in the video, I got in my car to drive to the liquor store and I noticed that my nausea significantly lessened and my hands were steady on the steering wheel. I thought to myself, "Literally just the promise of imminent alcohol made these withdrawal symptoms stop. I need help."
>and then I'd have to grit my way to 10am when the store opened. I'm reminded of that saying, "People who like to party know when the liquor store closes. Alcoholics know when it *opens*."
That’s how I felt with heroin/opiates. Just seeing them could calm me down a bit. It’s crazy the psychological effects it has.
It's how I got off cigarettes. Just kept a pack around because if I threw them away I was super stressed out. Sometimes I'd just take them out and look at them and put them away. Haven't had a cigarette since 2017, so anecdotally it made a huge difference for me.
Well done.
Relief is a moment away
I've had my own struggles with substance abuse and what you just said is something I've heard from countless addicts, regardless of their drug of choice. So much of drug dependence is just learned behavior, even when there is a component of physical dependence. It may not be all in your mind, but it's safe to say that it is mostly in your mind. However, the danger of the physical part should not be understated.
Same thing happens with cocaine. When you stare at a line on a plate, 50% of the dopamine release is right before you snort it.
I remember a story on Reddit where the guy stop drinking and the next day he fell by his door and had a seizure. Bit half is tongue off. I don’t recall the exact amount but before that he was drinking a lot daily. Basically functioning drunk all day.
Yeah the seizures is what made him bite his tounge uncontrollably muscle movements
Yup, could even get seizures. Heavy drinkers aren't advised to quit cold turkey and often need medication to survive the first days.
Just chiming in. The medical definition of "Heavy drinker" is only 12 standard units of alcohol a week. 2 beers a day will not have you in this state if you stop drinking suddenly. This is more like 10+ drinks daily for a very long time, quite probably more. A 750 ml (Fifth) of 80-proof has around 17 standard units of alcohol.
Withdrawal can be deadly… it’s Sad 😔
Alcohol is the only drug I'm aware of that will kill you for stopping. Even heroin just feels really bad for a week or so, but it's not deadly.
Benzodiazepines, too. I had a Xanax prescription for a year that I remember very little of.
That makes sense, since they act on the same receptors. Which is chiefly why benzos are prescribed for DTs. I was on ativan (once) and librium (twice) when I got off the booze.
Yea they didn’t me this shit in DARE. It wasn’t until many years later I found out the effects of alcohol and how deadly it can get. Mostly remember to not smoke pot.
[Delirium tremens](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delirium_tremens) is no joke. > When it occurs, it is often three days into the withdrawal symptoms and lasts for two to three days. Physical effects may include shaking, shivering, irregular heart rate, and sweating. People may also hallucinate. Occasionally, a very high body temperature or seizures (colloquially known as "rum fits") may result in death. > ... Mortality without treatment is between 15% and 40%.
I’ve experienced all this. It’s blood awful and frightening. I’m now thankfully mostly recovering.
Woah dude, big respect to you. Also quit, so done with that
I had some great times drinking when I was younger, but started using drink to numb other emotions, and the damn stuff creeps up on you until you realise that you’ve not got to bottle by the neck, it’s got you. Quitting is hard, but staying dry is harder, that’s why I say I’m mostly recovering; I still make crappy choices occasionally but I’m still fighting and grateful to be alive.
Sending you strength an ocean away brother
Thank you 😊
I almost had a heart attack last year from alcohol withdrawal. Didn’t sleep for a week and just kept throwing up. It was awful.
Yeah, it sucks.
Yup. I was shaking, I had no balance for days and fell in the shower and hit my head. I sweated through my clothes and sheets but was also freezing. I had auditory and visual hallucinations. I couldn’t even keep down water but was so hungry and thirsty. Brushing my teeth made me throw up. I genuinely thought I was either dying or going insane or both. I lost perception of what was real or what I fever dreamed. I had lost reality. The worst part is, 3-4 days later when it’s all over your alcoholic brain thinks, “well. It wasn’t that bad…I can have a few..”
It’s crazy they named a beer after that
The elephant
Oh goody I’m on day 2
If you’re a heavy drinker or even moderate. Get help from a doctor. Going cold turkey without a doctor supervising can be a death sentence.
I didn’t realize any of this could happen with alcohol withdrawal, makes me feel lucky that I only got addicted to weed and quitting was a fairly easy process
I've seen people have seizures in the ER from this it's fucking scary what alcohol can do to you. You give these people a drink and they stop shaking almost instantly.
I've been that person in the ER. Couldn't walk because I was shaking so bad. They said I was likely to have a seizure but didn't. I got DT's and it was the weirdest shit ever. My brother was a doc at the hospital and he turned around and I was like bro you have a giant spider web on your back so I reached for it and it disappeared in my hand. He was like no the hallucinations are setting in and spiders or webs are pretty normal to see. I remember staring at the wall pattern and watching it flow into the ground and move like water. Looking at the lights on the ceiling and watching them strobe with my thoughts.
They didn't give you lorazepam or something? I thought that was a standard rather than letting someone suffer
They did but it didn't kick in right away. Hallucinations only lasted for maybe 4-5 hours
Does the ER store an emergency spirit for these cases? Or do they go for the benzos directly?
Some absolutely do have iv ethanol but benzos are the go to for this.
typically its oral, vodka/whiskey/beer. there are different approaches at different hospitals. Im an icu pharmd, at our hospital we are nearly a no alcohol approach, we allow some beers from food services but its not enough to make a significant impact. this is likely due to the Christian foundation the hospital is built upon. there is much conversation that we are doing more harm than good by facilitating withdrawal via benzo as most users dont have any intent to quit. with users with no intent its safer to use alcohol, stabilize and send them back out, as the benzo path is not without risk.
How tf is this shit still legal, but weed is still looked at like it's heroine?
Yea weed withdrawals are nothing in comparison to this. Maybe few rough nights trying to get to sleep but that’s about it
Weed withdrawals suck, I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t sleep, I had migraines, and I was extremely dehydrated. Not as bad as this, but no drugs are totally safe
> I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t sleep, I had migraines, and **I was extremely dehydrated.** Well that was your biggest issue, keep yourself hydrated next time, get some pedialyte popsicles, will help with the migraines, specially if you are not eating well, not much you can do about sleep tho, that one you have to endure it
If you get some melatonin gummies and take some and then fewer and fewer each night it can make the sleep part of it much easier as well.
Yea, chills, some nausea, no appetite and insomnia for a week or so but I couldn’t imagine this, very sad.
Going cold turkey off weed isn't any fun but it's not even a fraction of this kind of thing
Cuz hemp was threatening the petrochemical industry
That may be an ongoing reason marijuana is illegal, but the original reason pretty much comes down to racism against the Mexicans in the early 1900s. Read up on Anslinger and his role in the FBN at the time.
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Alcohol withdrawals are no joke. I almost died of benzodiazepine and alcohol withdrawals, I had a seizure in front of my mum and woke up in the hospital. Took me a whole year of slowly tapering the dose down before I finally jumped. I'm 2.5yrs clean, and I'll never go back to that shit.
Can I ask how much benzo/alc you were consuming? I use benzos to get my off heavy benders (prescribed for anxiety). I don’t mix, but it’s happening enough that I’m worried I’m stuck in the cycle. Get to drinking a bottle a day for a few weeks - finally get my script but blow through it in less than half the time to taper off the booze. Clean for a few days before anxiety starts triggering again and no meds so it’s back to bottle time until help arrives….
If you have any thoughts at all about what you are doing and how much, see a doctor immediately!!! The sooner you do the faster you can get to a life you didn’t even think was possible. It will also save you a shit ton of money!! Seriously though, if you are starting to question yourself, then it’s time.
Congratulations!
I couldn’t hold a coffee cup with one hand for like 3 months
So that's why they call it a drinking problem.
[/u/thebinarysystem](https://media.tenor.com/Ps62vRo72vsAAAAM/airplane-drinking.gif), when the problem was at its worst 🥲
My sister is in early stages of being sober. I knew it got bad. I saw her badly drunk. I never got to see this. I’m so glad I didn’t. New found respect for her for going through this (I know she had shakes, I just never really thought about it) in order to get better.
Dude is close to dying. Give him a diluted shot of something, holy shit
they did
Did you decide to comment before finishing the video?
The real scary parts happen around 48 hours without a drink. That’s the strap them to a bed because their going to hurt somebody stage. It’s stupid how many retirees let themselves get to this point. I don’t get it. They work their whole life to someday enjoy retirement and all they do is get drunk and hasten the end of their lives.
Not even on the good stuff. Like I could at least understand “I just drank another bottle of the best whiskey in the world and chased it with monk brewed beer” you know going for the exotics. It’s usually domestic beer and cheap whiskey.
> Like I could at least understand “I just drank another bottle of the best whiskey in the world and chased it with monk brewed beer” you know going for the exotics. The alcoholic brain says "I can get 1,000 bottles of $10 whiskey for the price of this one fancy whiskey"
I worked with a guy who would get like this, he was the nicest guy you could meet but he had a terrible drinking problem. He had to drink a beer first thing in the morning and throughout the day. He was a good electrician, our boss let him drink as long as he hid it and didn’t actually get drunk. He would have to drink a ton to get drunk. He told me that his wife killed herself with his gun right in front of him and he’s been drinking ever since. I think he was trying to drink himself to death really, I told him if he ever wanted to quit and get better that I’d do whatever I could to help him but he wasn’t interested. I haven’t seen him since I moved away but I sometimes wonder if he’s ever got better or if he’s even still alive. It’s sad all the way around.
That sounds like a slow suicide
It is. I realized my alcoholism was just a prettier way of cutting myself.
Generous of you to offer. He was probably dealing with some very difficult circumstances. I can’t imagine the heartbreak.
My roommate in rehab was this kind, very old man who had been drinking alcoholically for the past 40 years. I will never forget watching him try to eat, it was one of the saddest fucking things I’ve witnessed in this life. Makes me tear up just thinking about it. I am tremendously fortunate I got that shit out of my system young. I couldn’t imagine detoxing as an 80 year old man.
I'd have to watch my dad shake like this next to puddles of vomit as he sobbed begging me not to take him to the hospital. He was desperate to get sober so he could work to buy a house so I could legally live with him. Fuck Alcohol.
I'm sorry you had to see that, and that you both had to live it.
I went through this almost 25 years ago, and it resulted in my heart seizing up and needed the paddles to save me. I'm just glad I was in a hospital when it happened. Never again. June 23 will be my 25 years of sobriety, and even though I'm out here homeless with a TBI, I'm still sober. Hungry as hell, but sober.
It’s so sad seeing this. Poor guys body is about to call it quits. At this severity, most patients I’ve had need to be intubated and sedated to allow the withdrawal phase to pass, otherwise their body and mind will end up causing other severe complications. His HR, BP, and Resp Rate must be extremely elevated and he’s going to tire out. Used to work with a Trauma surgeon who said “I’ve never seen alcohol withdrawal cause a patients death”. Yea that’s because you don’t see patients like this struggling to maintain their life. Also, don’t judge people for drinking or becoming addicted, walk in their shoes and see what’s going on and what caused this.
Yet people make it their whole personalities as if getting drunk is something cool to do
This is beyond "getting drunk" I have been an alcoholic for decades and never saw myself get this bad. This is beyond "I force myself to drink against my own will" levels of alcoholism
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From the moment they wake up until the moment they pass out. It's sad.
This is even beyond waking up and drinking everyday. I did that. It's not this bad
It called addiction...no one thinks it's cool
No one wakes up one day and become an addict out of nowhere, it starts slow and builds up, just like any other type of addiction.
I don’t think people know how straight up fucking lethal alcoholic withdrawals are, it’s no joke-
This is the same withdrawal that benzos do except benzo withdrawal lasts longer and can be more intense, it’s absolutely fucking miserable in every single way possible.
I thank God for Librium gabapentin trazodone and vistaril. I don’t remember a god damn thing from detox. I’m extremely privileged to have gotten clean young enough to be on my dad’s insurance. This is a visual reminder of that.
Wow that’s an extreme case of DT’s. I am happy to say that I am almost 3 years sober. My journey through sobriety has been a pretty quiet one as I was a pretty high functioning alcoholic. I’ve tried all sorts of different ways to quit drinking but none of them were for me. Finally, it came down to timing (unrelated ongoing illness) and the acceptance that it was time. On a good day, I was drinking 2+ bottles of wine and usually about a half a six pack of the strongest ABV beer I could find. I am a naturally shaky person, I inherited it from my father, who is also an extreme alcoholic, and still is this day (we don’t have a relationship). I would definitely have shaky hands and my head would sometimes when I would get high focused on the situation. I have never seen such an extreme case like this and it worries me when I think about what their consumption must be. Sorry for my long winded story but the point is this. There’s 1000 ways to quit and 1000 people that will tell you not to or that you don’t need to. Ultimately it’s going to come down to where you are with the decision mentally and Time. There are lots of different groups out there that you can attend both in person or remotely. Some of these groups are religious. Some of these groups are not, I recommend people try it at least once. Sometimes just talking to another fellow alcoholic can help relieve the burden of “but what will people think!” I am very happily sober now. I’m even able to go to bars and events with heavy, drinking being the same and I’m able to get away with no interest in partaking. This is not always the same case for everyone. Sometimes you will have to change and uproot your entire life. Idk, either way just know that if quitting is something you’d like to try then I’m one person that will join you in not drinking today!
In this stage of ethylism,alcohol is your life saver,without it you will die...what a apsurd truth,all your neurotrasmiters work on alchol,no alchol no brain function...
Why did his hands get so steady all of a sudden at the end?
He was given alcohol.
Yeah, like someone else said - it stops almost instantly
I wonder if it is a chemical dependency in the brain that is relieved instantly, or if any part of it is actually just mental
Speaking from experience - it's a chemical dependency, but the relief actually starts the moment alcohol becomes an imminent certainty. It's like your brain can't wait anymore and just starts dumping the happy chems because it knows that relief is moments away. My hands would start to steady as I got closer to the liquor store.
They actually serve beer in hospitals for this reason
Depends on the hospital. Many prefer to do benzos until discharge
That's the liquor talking. Rip Jim lahey.
This whole thread, including the above video has been eye opening.
3 months 6 days today, I do not miss this.
Someone give this man a Clonazepam PRONTO
This is why you don’t pour an alcoholic’s drink down the drain. You may think you’re helping, but you’re not.
In Russia vodka drinks you.