What are Delirium Tremens?

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.

What’s the difference between a hangover and alcohol withdrawal?

What's the Difference Between a Hangover and Alcohol Withdrawal

Nearly everyone who has tried alcohol has experienced headache, nausea, anxiety, fatigue, and dehydration after a long night of drinking; you know it better as a hangover. Not everyone has experienced alcohol withdrawal, even though they may have tried alcohol. And while some of the characteristics of the two are similar; there is a huge different between a hangover and alcohol withdrawal.

So what is the difference between a hangover and alcohol withdrawal? Well, in order to answer that question it is good to look at what both of them are.

What is a hangover?

A hangover is a collection of signs and symptoms linked to a recent bout of heavy drinking. The sufferer typically has a headache, feels sick, dizzy, sleepy, confused and thirsty. Hangovers can occur at any time of day, but are usually more common the morning after a night of heavy drinking. As well as physical symptoms, the person may also experience elevated levels of anxiety, regret, shame, embarrassment, as well as depression. The severity of a hangover is closely linked to how much alcohol was consumed, and whether the sufferer had enough sleep. A hangover is the consequence of consuming too much alcohol which causes urination and the chances of dehydration; an immune system response which can affect appetite, concentration and memory; stomach irritation which can cause nausea and stomach ache; a drop in blood sugar which can result in shakiness, moodiness, tiredness, weakness; dilation of blood vessels which can cause headaches; sleep quality which causes tiredness and fatigue.

What is alcohol withdrawal?

Alcohol withdrawal refers to a group of symptoms that may occur from suddenly stopping the use of alcohol after chronic or prolonged ingestion. Not everyone who stops drinking experiences withdrawal symptoms, but most people who have been drinking for a long period of time, or drinking frequently, or drink heavily when they do drink, will experience some form of alcohol withdrawal symptoms if they stop drinking suddenly. Alcohol withdrawal symptoms can include:

  • Anxiety
  • Irritability
  • Rapid emotional changes
  • Depression
  • Fatigue
  • Bad dreams
  • Headache – general, pulsating
  • Sweating, especially the palms of the hands or the face
  • Nausea and Vomiting
  • Loss of appetite
  • Insomnia, sleeping difficulty Paleness
  • Rapid heart rate (palpitations)
  • Eyes, pupils different size (enlarged, dilated pupils)
  • Skin, clammy
  • Abnormal movements
  • Tremor of the hands
  • Involuntary, abnormal movements of the eyelids

Alcohol withdrawal can also result in hallucinations, agitation, fever, convulsions, seizures, black outs, DTs, and in the worst case scenario death.

So what is the difference between a hangover and alcohol withdrawal?

The answer should be quite obvious now. The difference between a hangover and alcohol withdrawal is: A hangover is the result of consuming too much alcohol and alcohol withdrawal is the result of cutting back on alcohol or stopping all together. The two are totally different from one another. Alcohol withdrawal is the result of a physical dependence on the substance and then depriving the body of it and a hangover is merely the body’s reaction to taking in too much alcohol one night. Alcohol withdrawal can result in death. A hangover may make you feel like death, but you won’t die. Many people get hangovers because it is so easy to accidentally take in too much alcohol but many people do not suffer alcohol withdrawal because they have had to build a physical addiction to it and then try to stop drinking first in order to experience it.

 

Source:

http://www.addictscience.com/hangover-withdrawal/

 

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