Category Archives: Detox

What are Delirium Tremens?

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What are Delirium Tremens?

Delirium tremens or DT’s for short are a severe and possibly fatal form of alcohol withdrawal. Delirium tremens involve sudden and severe mental or nervous system changes. Anyone who has ever seen someone experience delirium tremens knows how frightening and scary they can be.

Delirium tremens don’t only happen to someone who is withdrawing from alcohol but this is when they are most common. Delirium tremens can occur due to head injury, infection, and illness too. Delirium tremens due to alcohol withdrawal though are probably the most severe.

When someone becomes physically addicted to alcohol they change the physical make-up of their brain. Then when they try to stop drinking the brain is no longer getting what it needs to take care of the body and that is when alcohol withdrawal begins.

Alcohol withdrawal symptoms usually begin within 72 hours of the last drink and can last up to 10 days after that. Alcohol withdrawal symptoms once they begin can quickly become more severe and worsen.

  • Body tremors
  • Changes in mental function
  • Agitation, irritability
  • Confusion, disorientation
  • Decreased attention span
  • Deep sleep that lasts for a day or longer
  • Delirium
  • Excitement
  • Fear
  • Hallucinations (seeing or feeling things that are not really there)
  • Increased activity
  • Quick mood changes
  • Restlessness, excitement
  • Sensitivity to light, sound, touch
  • Stupor, sleepiness, fatigue
  • Seizures

Most common in first 12 – 48 hours after last drink

  • Usually generalized tonic-clonic seizures
  • Symptoms of alcohol withdrawal
  • Anxiety
  • Depression
  • Difficulty thinking clearly
  • Fatigue
  • Feeling jumpy or nervous
  • Feeling shaky
  • Headache
  • Insomnia (difficulty falling and staying asleep)
  • Irritability or excitability
  • Loss of appetite
  • Nausea
  • Pale skin
  • Palpitations (sensation of feeling the heart beat)
  • Rapid emotional changes
  • Sweating, especially on the palms of the hands or the face
  • Vomiting

Other symptoms that may occur:

  • •Chest pain
  • •Fever
  • •Stomach pain

And delirium tremens. Delirium tremens are a medical emergency and are one of the biggest reasons why someone who is experiencing alcohol withdrawal should seek outside help immediately if they begin experiencing any of the alcohol withdrawal symptoms mentioned above. Delirium tremens look a lot like seizures and the usual treatment for them includes the same medications that would be used to help seizures. For instance, valium, Ativan and diazepam are quite common for the treatment of delirium tremens and alcohol withdrawal in general.

Someone who is getting ready to experience delirium tremens will usually show some signs such as the following:

•Heavy sweating

•Increased startle reflex

•Irregular heartbeat

•Problems with eye muscle movement

•Rapid heart rate

•Rapid muscle tremors

The most important thing about delirium tremens is that they can be fatal. This is why it is so absolutely imperative that anyone experiencing any level of severity of alcohol withdrawal should check into an inpatient detox facility or go to the hospital. For someone who is going through the alcohol withdrawal themselves they won’t be able to help themselves should they begin to experience delirium tremens. Delirium tremens also for the person who is not medically equipped can be extremely scary. So if you begin to experience any type of alcohol withdrawal seek medical attention immediately.

If you need help with your addiction give us a call now at 1-800-984-4003.

How to Deal with Suboxone Withdrawal

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How to Deal with Suboxone Withdrawal

What is Suboxone?

Suboxone is a prescription medication that contains both buprenorphine
 and naloxone. Both of these drugs are often given to addicts recovering from opiate addiction. Suboxone helps addicts overcome any drug cravings, thereby assisting them in the recovery process. Doctors should slowly taper the dosage of suboxone until you no longer need it to cope with the consequences of drug addiction.

The buprenorphine found in Suboxone is similar to what is found in other opiates, like morphine and heroin. As an opiate, buprenorphine can cause your body to become physically dependent on the drug, so when you suddenly discontinue suboxone, it will cause your body to undergo withdrawal. Withdrawal is your body’s way of attempting to recover from excessive drug use. Suboxone withdrawal can range from mild symptoms to serious, possible life-threatening effects.

Signs and symptoms of withdrawal:

  • Uncharacteristic irritability or agitation
  • Anxiety
  • Difficulty sleeping
  • Profuse sweating
  • Excessive tears
  • Runny nose
  • Frequent yawning

However, these symptoms are usually overlooked and may be passed off as symptoms of the flu or other mild diseases.

How to deal with Suboxone Withdrawal

I don’t know. Coffee, ibuprofen, lots of water, natural sleeps aids such as melatonin, hot baths, massage?

As a recovering opiate addict, I tried both a methadone maintenance and suboxone (at different times in my addiction). And quite honestly, the withdrawal sucks. That is totally an understatement.

Some years ago, I kicked methadone. Cold turkey. Not recommended. I stayed away from opiates for a little while but, soon enough, I was back at it. I thought the pain and discomfort of kicking for over a month would be enough to keep me from going down that road again. So, when things got bad again, I decided to get on suboxone. I don’t deny that this can be helpful when detoxing from other opiates (yes other because, after all, suboxone does contain an opiate called buprenorphine). But it is meant to be used short term, as in a week at the most, and with a rapid taper. There will be some discomfort at the end, but nowhere near what it’s like to go cold turkey.

While I was researching suboxone for the purpose of writing this blog and time and time again, I kept finding “information” which stated that, if tapered off of suboxone, you won’t experience any withdrawal symptoms and that if you do, you only think you do; it’s all mental. That’s plain old bullshit. I was on a very low dose of suboxone when I decided to go to treatment. I was taking maybe 4mg a day for the last several months of my active addiction. I tried to taper myself completely but the withdrawals came, and with a vengeance. I could not face suboxone withdrawal again. My solution was going into a medical detox and inpatient program.

If you are facing suboxone withdrawal, you may want to consider doing what I did. There are programs that specialize in suboxone detox that can assist you in the process with very little discomfort.

 

If you need help with your addiction give us a call now at 1-800-984-4003.

Dope Sick Detox

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Dope Sick Detox

Detox is the first step to getting into treatment for drug addiction and alcoholism. Detox is also the safe haven for many addicts who are dope sick. Dope sick is most commonly a term used to describe someone who is coming off of heroin. When an addict stops using heroin they experience both mental and physical withdrawal symptoms. Heroin withdrawal symptoms are known as dope sickness. The symptoms of being dope sick include chills, irritability, anxiety, muscle pain, depression, nausea, and vomiting and muscle pain. Heroin withdrawal symptoms are not life threatening but they are really uncomfortable. In fact, most heroin addicts will just continue using the drug to avoid being dope sick at all costs. That is, until they detox.

There are many different dope sick detoxes out there. If an addict is dope sick they can pick from a number of different detox methods to become well again. The first of the dope sick detox programs is a rapid detox.

  • Rapid dope sick detox involves the use of drugs to push heroin out of the body. The addict is put under anesthesia in a medically controlled setting and is unconscious for the entire procedure. As a result the heroin addict doesn’t actually experience being dope sick. With a rapid detox like this addicts are usually under the general anesthesia for around two hours and are in the hospital for up to two days until they are physically stable.
  • Another dope sick detox is known as a drug assisted detox. A drug assisted detox uses drugs such as methadone or buprenorphine and clonidine to provide relief from being dope sick but none of the high. Buprenorphine, clonidine, and methadone are all very similar in structure to heroin. With the drug assisted detox the addict takes regular doses of the drug over a period of time slowly lowering the dose. This allows the addict to withdrawal from heroin without feeling dope sick. Unfortunately the drugs used to assist with being dope sick are addictive too so there may be some discomfort felt by the addict.
  • Medical dope sick detox is like rapid detox but the addict is awake. In a medical detox the addict quits cold turkey but the medical team helps them with the feelings of being dope sick by making them as comfortable as possible. This may mean the medical team gives them drugs in order to give the addict some relief from the symptoms of being dope sick. Medical detox lasts the same length as the symptoms of being dope sick.
  • Home dope sick detox means quitting cold turkey, with no medical help and this means the addict will definitely be dope sick. The addict basically “rides out” the withdrawal. While this method can be successful, without supervision the addict may use heroin again in order to stop the symptoms associated with being dope sick. Quitting cold turkey and going through being dope sick is not highly recommended by anyone including former heroin addicts.

If you need help with your addiction give us a call now at 1-800-984-4003.