Originally Posted by
KevinDee 
I want to go into detox and my roomate thinks I just need to stop immediately... I'm 155 pounds and have consumed between 4-25 drinks a day, about 6 days a week, for the past 7 years. I start getting shakes after 6 hours, wake up in cold sweats at night, and get stomach pain when I don't drink, and have found red blood in my feces.
Do you think it is dangerous if I just quit cold turkey... I can't get into detox for 3 weeks, and he's trying to force me to stop drinking immediately.
Does your roommate fix the brakes on your car? Is he performing root canal for you when you get a toothache? Does he pack your parachute when you go skydiving? More to the point, is your roommate anyone who has been in recovery or suffered a heavy withdrawal from alcohol?
I can certainly see how he arrived at this conclusion, but unless he knows what he's on about it's basically no different than taking a plumbers opinion on quantum physics. He simply doesn't know, nor can he truly comprehend exactly what you could be facing medically speaking, especially considering the volume of drinking you have admitted to. For so many concerned folks watching us booze hounds burn our lives to the ground, the answer is simple - stop drinking now!!!
My advice will likely mirror others here, even though I haven't had an opportunity to read this thread, (on my iPhone) most of us have one thing in common... brutal and dangerous withdrawals. Don't stop cold turkey on your own at this point. If you need detox and nothing is immediately available, go to the ER and explain what you are doing. An ER savvy on alcohol withdrawals will admit you quickly and detox you properly.
Since it's impossible to statistically measure how many alcoholics die from withdrawal, there is little precedent to reference. Yet if you ask any ER doctor with some tenure, they will tell you the number of deaths due to withdrawal is massively under-reported. In other words, what was written as "heart attack" in many autopsy reports fails to note that alcohol withdrawal is responsible for the dangerously high blood pressure that caused it. Too many examples of alcohol withdrawal related sudden death to list.
Some of us have this perverted guilt which leads us to believe the oncoming suffering is required. Sounds ridiculous, but it happens. I've been guilty of that "just need to man up" philosophy, and as a result - at one point I ended up in an ICU and had my heart stop beating. I flat-lined. In my case, on that night, had my wife not been there to call the ambulance once it got tricky, I would most certainly be dead and not able to now warn you of the danger that your roommate is obviously ignorant of.
So, get sober, but do it right. Don't listen to anyone that is NOT medically qualified to offer advice on this thing. You can die from your roommates counter-intuitive concern.