{"id":713,"date":"2024-05-16T13:18:00","date_gmt":"2024-05-16T13:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.https:\/\/thebrandsmen.com\/principlesrecoverycenter\/?p=713"},"modified":"2026-02-11T16:36:42","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T16:36:42","slug":"can-quit-drinking-alcohol-cold-turkey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebrandsmen.com\/principlesrecoverycenter\/can-quit-drinking-alcohol-cold-turkey\/","title":{"rendered":"Can I Quit Drinking Alcohol \u201cCold Turkey\u201d?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nearly everyone who has ever struggled with alcohol abuse has heard the words, \u201cwhy can\u2019t you just quit?\u201d or \u201cjust don\u2019t drink\u201d. These people generally have good intentions and just want the best for you, but probably don\u2019t have the medical background or awareness to know just how dangerous this can be. <\/span><\/p>\n

Obviously, not everyone who drinks alcohol has to take cautious steps in order to sober up, but for those who have crossed the invisible line into dependency, quitting alcohol \u201ccold turkey\u201d could potentially be fatal. Don\u2019t panic, the detox process is simple if performed under quality care, but painful, terrifying, and dangerous if attempted without medical supervision and without medication. <\/span><\/p>\n

What Does Quitting Cold Turkey Mean?<\/span><\/h2>\n

The debate over the origin of the term \u201ccold turkey\u201d is still unsettled. To put it simply, the oldest known usages of the term point to \u201coutright\u201d as being the closest synonym. However, in relation to drug or alcohol addiction, it\u2019s been theorized that people started using the term in the late 1970s. Herb Caen of the <\/span>San Francisco Chronicle<\/span><\/i> stated in 1978, <\/span>“it derives from the hideous combination of \u2018goosepimples\u2019 and what William Burroughs calls ‘the cold burn’ that addicts suffer as they kick the habit.” <\/span><\/p>\n

In <\/span>Cop Speak: The Lingo of Law Enforcement and Crime<\/span><\/i>, Tom Philbin <\/span>offers an alternate theory<\/span><\/a>, that \u00a0\u201cthe term may derive from the cold, clammy feel of the skin during withdrawal, like a turkey that has been refrigerated”. Regardless of the etymology, quitting a substance \u201ccold turkey\u201d always has the same definition; it is the act of quitting an addiction to a substance, behavior, or habit abruptly. <\/span><\/p>\n

Why is Quitting Alcohol More Dangerous than Quitting Other Drugs?<\/span><\/h2>\n

\"Upset<\/p>\n

The side effects of detoxing from alcohol can be quite severe, depending on how often a person drinks and how much they drink. To illustrate what happens, I\u2019ll use a personal experience since alcohol was always my drug of choice. <\/span><\/p>\n

Towards the end of my active addiction, I needed at least four standard drinks to get out of bed (1 beer = 1 glass of wine = 1 shot, roughly) without full body shakes, projectile vomiting, cold sweats, and a chronic state of anxiety. This continued throughout the day, causing me to need about two handles of vodka daily. You see, at this point, I didn\u2019t even want to be drunk anymore; I <\/span>needed<\/b> to drink to avoid getting very sick and to simply function. <\/span><\/p>\n

Common minor side effects of alcohol withdrawal include: <\/span><\/p>\n