Alcohol abuse tends to cause malnutrition, dehydration and all sorts of imbalances... electrolytes that are involved in your cardiac and neuro functions get all thrown out of wack, and my thinking is that because your central nervous system is depressed when you're drinking heavily, when you take that away, it goes in to overdrive.. It isn't used to responding to stimuli and now it responds to EVERYTHING. It doesn't have the correct levels of things to keep it running smoothly, and things go haywire (seizures, et al)
When you're admitted for withdrawal syndrome, they take your blood and look for levels of all these things.. and I don't even know all of them, you can also be anemic and immunosuppressed, low red and white blood cells.. I mean severe chronic alcohol use can mess up EVERYTHING. They will prescribe a plethora of meds and supplements, some you'll get each morning based on your blood levels, and some are on hand in case of an increase in symptoms, like you have a seizure.. nurses continually assess the severity of your symptoms and chart it on a scale that determines what if any meds to give. (I can't wait to get back to nursing school, I love this stuff lol)
Point is, doctors can anticipate how bad your withdrawal will be and keep you from dying. Yeah, I said it. Not everyone will have a little bit of fatigue and shaking. I think if you have ever tried to quit cold turkey and the symptoms were so overwhelming you reached for alcohol, that's a good indication that some medical help might be a good way to go. It can't hurt.
Get health insurance. It could even get you some outpatient treatment.