Alcoholism isn’t simply a behavioral disorder. It’s actually a brain disease.
Alcohol causes real, tangible changes to your brain that make it more difficult to stop drinking. Because of that, it’s often not realistic to try to just quit drinking.
For severe cases of AUD, the withdrawal symptoms from not drinking can even be dangerous. In these instances, detox is absolutely necessary.
Most people go to a treatment center or a hospital for detox because of symptoms like tremors, hallucinations, and seizures that may occur during the process. That could mean either an outpatient treatment program with regular visits, or inpatient treatment for people with heavier drinking problems.
Additionally, therapy is usually needed in some form to try and change the behaviors that lead to drinking and remove alcohol as a part of functioning in day to day life. Teletherapy is also helpful if you’re reluctant at first to leave your house.
Support groups are also a major benefit.
At Sun Health Center, we use a special technique called Neuro Therapy to help mitigate the symptoms of alcohol withdrawal and reprogram the brain to become less dependent on it.