Maybe someone here will know this. How much does a person have to be drinking on a daily basis to get the DT's when he or she suddenly quits? Say a guy never has a drink during the day, but every night at about 7:00pm or so he starts drinking and has 12 or more drinks until he falls asleep. If this guy just stopped doing that, could that be dangerous?
It varies a lot from person to person. DT's usually begin 24-48 hours after stopping drinking. http://www.emedicine.com/EMERG/topic123.htm
DT's is dangerous. A benzodiazepines taper is used to treat DT's as it works on the same receptor as the alcohol and can ease the withdrawal. Alcoholics are usually deficient in the vitamin thiamine and magnesium (due to alcohol interference with its absorbption) which can lead to Wernicke's encephalopathy or peripheral neuropathy or cardiomyopathy. So some daily vitamins with a lot of thiamine and maybe some Mg would be a good thing.
I remember when John Daly went through them, he was wearing a coat and shaking on the golf course in 100 degree heat. Im sure if you youtube it it will be out there somewhere.
The are a bunch of other good reasons not to be a slobering drunk like man tits, alcoholic cardiomyopathy, small testicles and low testosterone and high estrogen, esophageal varices that have a high chance of rupturing and causing death, brain injury, liver cancer, liver failure, inability to keep fluid in the cardiovascular system with liters of fluid filling up the abdominal cavity causing swelling and making it heard to breathe, hepatorenal syndrome which is essentially a death sentence without a liver transplant, man tits due to high estrogen. I could go on and on. All this stuff is pretty common. I saw it all the time in the hospitals.
Man tits is by far the worst of all of those. I'll let my buddy know that when the DT's hit he needs to suck it up.
And aren't alcoholics drunk all the time? This guy only starts drinking at night. He gets up at 8:00 and goes to work but when evening comes, he drinks himself stupid. He does this 7 days a week and has been for years.
If he wants to quit he should get a benzodiazepine taper and some thiamine and magnesium. He should be watched in the hospital if it is legit DT's because it can be fatal. On the upside the baby soft skin from all the estrogen will help make his man tits feel like the real thing.
Come on drunk all the time? You are describing a slobbering stinking drunk. One indicator of how big a drunk someone is how high their liver enzymes are. In drunks the ALT and AST liver enzymes are elevated and the AST is usally about 2 x the ALT. When the liver starts to completely burn out they can go back down and appear normal to low even if the liver is shot. Another indication can be if the liver is enlarged.
For once Dan may be right. nearly. There is a great medicine for alcohol abuse that stops cravings (Acamprosate). It really works. Tell your friend to get to the Doctor and get some and to get some Klonopin as well. Take him to AA every night for about 60 days. It's easy after that. After your friend gets sober, buy him a rod and reel and teach him to fish.
Maybe my definition of an alcoholic is different than you alls. Not saying drinking like that every night isnt a sign of alcoholism. But the ones I have seen wake up drinking beer. Have beer in their truck toolboxes sitting out in the parking lot at work drinking hot beers at lunch. Always chewing gum to try and mask the breath. I might drink 6-8 on a weekend night, but I dont drink during the week, or both nights on the weekend. However if I am fishing I am drinking a beer. Of course I think my man tits came from food, not alcohol.... and no maj, I am not sending you pics.....
This guy drank 13 beers and a 200ml bottle of scotch last night. The night before that it was about 16 beers and a 200ml bottle of tequila. The night before that it was all beer but about 18 of them. I think I underestimated his quantities. He does this every night and has not taken a day off from it in about two years. He took 5 days off close to 16 months ago though, just to see if he could do it. He says it was tough and he smoked cigarettes like a fiend the whole time. Maybe he should just slow down gradually. Like, drink a 6 pack every night for a couple weeks and then start cutting it back from there. 5 the next week and so on. I don't think he will take medication (ironically) and he'd probably end up killing someone if he went to AA. He hates people who whine about their problems.
This has been going on for a long time. http://www.fugly.com/features/drunk/index.php was not made up, that was real. It's not important why this is under Martin's name.
Damn. That is a lot. Does he drink to 'get away' from something? I know some people like to use that as an excuse to drink. Can't handle the kids/wife/job type deal.
I think he drinks because he's ashamed of himself but I think the main reason he's ashamed of himself is because he drinks so much. It makes much more sense to him when he's drunk.
He works, he is productive, as long as he is not hurting anyone else, isn't he entitled to live his life the way he see's fit?
By shortening it? I wouldn't think he could "see" much of anything clearly. Self-medicating is one thing, slow suicide may call for intervention.
I am always amazed that people will pour pure posion down their hatches (alcohol, crack, etc.) and then say very piously - "i don't want to take meds." "Meds" that have been tested, studied, quanitified, qualified, and manufactured under the most ridgid of standards. Think just how stupid it is to shun the "one pill a day" for a date with Cirrosis. Talk about delusional.
