crefloors

LoveItaly, I actually know the answer to that. I was watching Dr. G, Medical Examiner. She had a case where a guy was going to go a a cruise with his wife. They were separated but were going on this trip. He was an alcoholic but had promised her he wouldn't drink while on the trip. He went in to take a bath and the wife found him dead in the tub. He had a heart attack. Alcohol is a seditive and the brain has to work in "overdrive" to compensate. That's why you see alcoholics with the shakes in the morning or they get the DT's when in detox and have to be carefully monitered. This guy just had a "blow out", the brain didn't know to slow down and was still reacting to compensate for the alcohol, but there WAS no alcohol to numb everything down. So there you have it. I believe many drugs work on the body in much the same way.

Seamus

crefloors, I will assume that your last post was done tongue in cheek and that you don't actually use information from television entertainment shows to make decisions about your health and how to maintain it...

crefloors

Seamus..why should that be tongue in cheek? And why would that not make sense? And none of this is travel related anymore anyway, and I don't know why I even posted to this except the "quite cold turkey while on vacation comment" struck a cord. But, I'm going to do some research and see what I come up with. And Dr. G is actually a medical examiner, and the programs are based on her cases and shows how she goes about establishing cause of death and it's very difficult, unlike CIS or what ever it's called, and actually there have been a couple of her cases where the cause of death could not be established, again unlike CIS.

AnthonyGA

Withdrawal from alcohol dependence is considerably more dangerous than withdrawal from opioids. For this reason, cold-turkey withdrawal from heavy alcohol dependence isn't usually a good idea.

The physical withdrawal symptoms from methadone last longer than those from other opioids, but they are still a matter of days ... not months or years. Addiction, however, is psychological, and can persist indefinitely even long after withdrawal is complete.

Anyway, do whatever you want. Addicts always have a very long list of reasons why they cannot quit; that's why they remain addicts. The mystifying part, of course, is that other addicts <i>do</i> quit, thus accomplishing a miracle, if one is to believe those who remain addicted.

Neil_Oz

The fact is that it's much harder for some people to break a physical addiction than others, most recently shown by research into giving up nicotine. The length of the addiction period is also a factor. Anecdotally, it's harder to give up methadone than heroin. Buprenorphine and naltrexone rapid withdrawal treatments offer some hope but no guarantee. Interestingly, people I've known with direct experience of heroin addiction tend display more understanding and compassion (as hard as it can be sometimes) than those remote from the problem. There may be a lesson in that.

LoveItaly

Hi crefloors, I am amazed you understood my post as I just noticed all my mistypes, LOL. Wish we could edit have posting. Very interesting information crefloors, and although I am not in any medical field it sure makes sense. Wonder what medical people do for heavy alcoholics when they stop drinking. Do they give them some kind of medication?

Neil, I feel compassion for anyone that has addictions and from my time spent on this earth I agree that some people become addicted to various things quicker than others and do have a worse time getting over there addictions. As the old saying goes &quot;there but for the grace of God go I&quot;.

ekscrunchy

Anthony: You are absolutely incorrect in your statement that methadone withdrawal symtoms last only a matter of days. As I said earlier, it is not uncommon for a medically supervised withdrawal from this particular drug to last as long as one year. I am not sure that this is the place to keep debating this topic; you seem to be set in your (incorrect) opinions and it appears to be futile to address this topic with you.