“Cold Turkey has got me on the run,” sings John Lennon. As he was recovering from heroin abuse, Lennon sang about the cold sweats, high temperatures, that he wishes he was a baby, that he wishes he was dead. What he describes as “thirty six hours of pain” is a pretty accurate description of the difficulties of recovering “cold turkey.”
“Cold turkey,” or recovering from drug or alcohol abuse with no assistance of medication to ease the symptoms of withdrawal, is a very difficult way of recovering from addiction. For abusers of an opioid like heroin, the acute withdrawal symptoms are almost always bound to be painful and disruptive. Other symptoms of opioid withdrawal include nausea, increased heart rate or heart palpitations, lots of sweating and high blood pressure.
If the addict was a very heavy abuser, in a rehab setting they might be given methadone for an opioid addiction such as heroin, or Ativan for the withdrawal symptoms associated with alcohol abuse. In fact, alcohol is one of the most risky drugs for withdrawal.
The name “delirium tremens” refers to a symptom of alcohol withdrawal, which includes uncontrollable movements, such as tremors and trembling, nausea, as well as hallucinations in the form of sight, sweating, high blood pressure, which is sometimes also accompanied by severe acute symptoms of anxiety, panic, and depression. Often, the person experiencing delirium tremens senses an imminent feeling of death; they may also feel confused and have difficulty in speaking or with fine motor skills. These collective symptoms also contribute to a heightened risk of seizure or stroke.
Due to these symptoms for opioid and alcohol withdrawal, it’s crucial that an addict complete the process in a medically-assisted setting. In an inpatient rehab, medical professionals will provide the maintenance medication and oversight to assure that no dangerous symptoms of withdrawal occur. Though it might be tempting to cease use on your own—that it might seem easier than going to rehab—this is not the case. Going cold turkey can be dangerous, and we now have the drugs and assistance to make sure dangerous symptoms, or worse, don’t happen.
