I guess we must all suffer some kind of withrawal, but I looked on mine, a weekly event after a binge, as the mother of all hangovers. It would be two or three days before I felt well enough to eat.
There seem to be degrees of severity and risk. Certainly, alcohol withdrawals can be fatal, and sometimes require medical supervision, but this is relatively rare. In New Zealand the availability of medical detox beds is based on only one percent of alcoholics requiring medical detox. The beds are often empty.