Who has had alcohol withdrawal seizures?
 

I had three in one day back in October and that was one hell of a wakeup call I can tell you!

Thing is, when I was going to stop drinking a year or so ago, I read up alot on going cold turkey and how dangerous it could be. Unfortunately nobody seemed to think it would be a problem, that it was a load of rubbish and that I was just 'a *****' for not being able to just stop drinking.
I guess they realise the truth now, altho I could have done without spending two weeks in hospital to show them!

I did. Scary. But I continued to drink for another 6 years. You'd have think I should have learned something from the experience........

I did not know how fatal withdrawal could be when I made the decision that 'enough was enough' that I was going to die no matter what and I wanted to die sober.

Once my BAC dropped to .38 I went into seizures in the waiting room of the ER. They spent all day working on me. I would seizure long enough that my heart would stop, they would get my heart started and within a short time I would start to seizure again.

This went on from approximately 8 in the morning until 4:28 pm when after almost a 1/2 hour of trying to get my heart started AGAIN, the ER doctor called it and was writing the TOD on my chart, and .............................. my heart started on its own.

I can never STRESS enough how dangerous detox from alcohol can be, and always that a person check with their doctor or go to an ER and not try to do it 'cold turkey' on their own.

Yes, maybe my case was a 'severe' one because I drank so hard and long, however, I have seen others go into seizures with lower BAC than I had.

In my mind, having seen so many problems arise in those trying to 'cold turkey' over these many years, I can only say once again, DO NOT TRY TO COLD TURKEY, go see your Dr or go to the ER.

J M H O

Love and hugs,

I have not had seizures, but my ex girl friend used to get them. Very scary to be around. She died last year, am not sure if she had a seizure but do know it was liver/drink related.

It's a shame people don't understand the dangers tho, because altho I realise that at the end of the day it was my problem and only I could sort it out, nobody actually helped me and even when I mentioned the dangers of going cold turkey nobody believed me. So I am slightly bitter about that!

I saw a very good alcohol nurse and she told me that people don't even have to be alcoholics to have seizures, they can get them just by binge drinking every once in a while and then suddenly stopping.

Yes...I did too...what a relief to know that won't happen again
as long as I don't drink.

hope you are doing well these days ...sober is so darn good!
:yup:

i have. after those experiences, i know now i'd never survive another withdrawal. it's a major reason i won't pick up again.

Withdrawal seizure wake up call
 

My drinking was ruining my marriage, my jobs, everything. I just couldn't stop. I would say I was 'dosing' myself to avoid withdrawal. So stupid. I would drink all day, even at work. VODKA because it doesn't smell, and I would chew almost an entire pack of gum.

The other day, on Sept 15, I knew it had to stop. I had the worst withdrawals I've ever had ... Puking in the shower, shaking so hard I couldn't even take a sip of water. My husband went to work and I thought it prudent to just lay in bed and wait for it to be over. Man, I was shaking and twitching so hard. All I could do was cry and beg god for it to be over. I fell asleep .... And when I woke up, my mouth hurt. I felt a bit better, and went to the bathroom. WHAT A SHOCK. My tongue was cut and bruised and so swollen I could hardly talk. At the time it didn't dawn on me ... I kept mentioning it to people, and everyone was stumped. How could I bite my tongue THAT hard in my sleep and not even wake up?!

The next night in bed, lights out, my husband suggested it was a seizure. I sat bolt upright and began to sob uncontrollably. I knew, KNEW it was from alcohol. I couldn't believe I had gotten to that point.

My tongue has healed mostly, still painful to swallow, I still have flu-like symptoms .... But in general, since I decided to give it up .... Even tho it's only been 2 days, I feel so much better. My old self again.

If you only have 3 beers a week, fine. More power to you. But if, like me, you are downing more than a pint of vodka a day, plus beer .... Please, please stop. Withdrawal and seizures suck the life out of you.

This is why you don't quit alcohol cold turkey. I went to detox for the reasons you guys have explained. It's just dangerous.

Lucky - please please understand that you are not out of the woods yet. You can seize up to the 5th day after quitting drinking. And once you have one, you can have more.

Please get medical attention.

I haven't and I don't plan to. I did hallucinate once after a few days of heavy drinking.

Laurie, that is one very intense story. Glad you're still with us.

Lucky, you should probably see your Dr. ASAP

I had three withdrawal seizures, two of which put me in the hospital. Those things are brutal, it feels like you've been run over by a 2-ton truck afterwards. I could barely walk for a week after one of them, and nearly bit my tongue off during another. I was also completely uninformed and had no idea that stopping drinking would lead to a seizure. Finally, I have heard that once you have the first one, it 'opens a door' and subsequent seizures become more likely if you continue the behavior.

My final seizure convinced me to quit for good and seek treatment, there's no way I could ever handle another one of those bad boys.

I've had a mini seizure where my whole body started shaking uncontrollably for about 10 seconds. I was conscious throughout the seizure which suggested it wasn't a full blown one but it scared the living hell of me - I'd only been drinking for two weeks and prior to that I'd had 3 months sober . In that two weeks I'd been drinking about a bottle of vodka a day though but still, I thought seizures were the reserve of people who'd been round the clock drinkers for years. How wrong I was...

Well, I would go to the doctor if I had insurance, but I don't. I've been relatively okay since then .... Mainly just sweating a lot and it feels like I have the flu. I will take that over being drunk all day.

Im glad I didn't have to have one of those to make the decision to quit. It took me a few tries to really quit so I know how once you feel better your thinking changes to, "Was it really that bad?" So far my answer has been yes it was..thankfully

It's only really since Amy Winehouse that withdrawal seizures was even discussed in the media. I only knew about it because I looked into it myself.

I've always found it odd that the only dangers of alcohol that are really explained to young people in schools is about drink driving, the possibility of getting in an accident or fight whilst under the influence and possible liver problems. We were never taught in school about alcohol addiction and withdrawal seizures or delirium tremens. I bet if you told kids about alcohol withdrawal seizures and/or showed them a clip of someone going through full blown DTs, a lot of them would be waaaay too scared to even go near the stuff! I suppose its not in the governments interest to be scaring kids away from booze though as when they get to adulthood they need to get some revenue of these people in as many ways as they can and booze is one of them....

What happens is the receptors in your brain are trying to compensate for the alcohol trying to keep them depressed .

Remove alcohol and they over compensate - simple really .

What is the crap shoot is - what is the amount where they will go into warp speed and kill you ,or almost kill you .

I am 32 and I have I have had 3 seizures and I don't even drink hard spirits expect the odd shot here and there.

The first one happened maybe two years ago, started with loads of shaking, vomiting, itchy skin, sweating, everything out of control ( this was after two stag does and weddings etc ). I tried to go cold turkey and had I had no idea what was going on until the evening came and my partner found me on the floor having a seizure. I was sober arriving at the hospital, of course I didnt have drink that day because I was scared it would make things worse.

Second one was pretty much the same story, but after a festival summer of booze. The seizure came in the evening again and I almost bit my tongue in half.

In both cases I ended up in the A&E, but also in both cases they let me go after checking me out and making sure everything is okay.

The last one came last week, I had increased my alcohol intake in the past few months but nothing too serious, just summer fun. The seizure happened during the day at work going for lunch... again trip to A&E.

I go to AA, but as everyone knows here, its not easy not to have a drink. Actually taking it slowly is much more healthier than going cold turkey which can be deadly, believe me, but that takes a strong mind and you need somebody there to watch your drinking.

I cant stand another trip to the A&E, so I will quit slowly but surely. Cold turkey is nothing to mess with, even the doctors kind of whispered in my ear that if your hands are shaking so much that you cant drink a coffee, go and have a beer, just one.

Most of European countries offer diazepam's or benzo's to get over the extra drink you need to prevent the seizure, but that is also not the right way to go and needs a trip to the doctors.

Good luck to everyone :).

This is a great post, in fact, it's really difficult to find videos at all of people in full blown DTs (I've tried, only come up with one legitimate one).