Alcohol Detox in Lancaster CA

Bellagio In The Desert Residential Treatment Center

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The first step in recovering from alcohol addiction is getting it out of your body. This process is referred to as detoxification. There are several factors you need to know about alcohol detoxification. Continue reading to learn more about alcohol addiction in Lancaster, CA.

What Is Alcohol Addiction?

Alcohol addiction or alcoholism is a disease identified by overdependence on alcohol. It’s also referred to as alcohol use disorder. It involves a pattern of alcohol use and problems controlling your drinking and continuing drinking alcohol even after causing health problems. It also consists in experiencing withdrawal symptoms after rapidly stopping drinking or decreasing your consumption.  

Alcohol addiction puts you at risk of alcohol-related health problems. It also involves binge drinking. Binge drinking means drinking five or more drinks within two hours if you’re a male. If you are a female, it means drinking at least four drinks within an hour.

What are the Signs and Symptoms of Alcohol Addiction?

Alcohol addiction can be mild, moderate, and severe based on the number of signs and symptoms that a person portrays. Some of these signs and symptoms include:

  • Lack of ability to limit your alcohol intake
  • Having several unsuccessful attempts to stop drinking
  • Failure to fulfill significant obligations due to overdependence on alcohol 
  • Continuous use of alcohol, even after experiencing several physical, social, or work problems 
  • Reducing time for activities to continue using alcohol 
  • Developing tolerance to alcohol by using  more alcohol to get the same effect you used to achieve with a lesser amount
  • Experiencing withdrawal symptoms like shaking, sweating, and nausea when you don’t drink

What are the Effects of Alcohol Addiction?

Heavy alcohol drinking can lead to several health problems. For instance, it might cause short-term effects such as memory loss, blackouts, and hangovers. It might also lead to long-term complications such as heart and brain damage, cancer, liver cirrhosis, and severe memory loss. 

Heavy drinkers are at a high risk of dying from automobile accidents, suicides, and homicides. Alcohol addiction also harms your mental health. It can worsen existing conditions such as depression and anxiety or cause new problems such as severe memory loss. 

Alcohol addiction doesn’t only affect the drinker. Spouses and children of the drinkers are at risk of suffering from sexual and physical abuse, neglect, and psychological problems. Women who drink alcohol during pregnancy risk miscarriage, having babies with low birth weight, and premature birth.

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What is Alcohol Detox?

Alcohol detox or detoxification is a natural process. This process involves the removal of waste products and toxins associated with excessive or long-term alcohol consumption. It involves several methods, such as medication, medical observation, and counseling. 

Alcohol detox is a preparatory step before a more comprehensive treatment process. It can be performed at inpatient and outpatient addiction facilities, but inpatient treatment is usually recommended for heavy users. This process usually involves three steps, including:

  1. Patient Intake. In this step, the addiction team comprehensively reviews the patient’s history to understand their situation much better. This includes the patient’s history of drugs, alcohol, and mental health.
  2. Medication. In this step, patients are put on a medication regime to mitigate their alcohol withdrawal symptoms. Their medication might target general discomforts or co-occurring disorders.
  3. Stabilization. In this final step, patients are taken through medical and psychological therapies to create a balance between their mind and body.

What are the Side Effects of Alcohol Withdrawal?

Alcohol withdrawal side effects are referred to as Alcohol Withdrawal Syndrome. These are symptoms when someone physically dependent on alcohol reduces its consumption drastically or stops drinking. They include:

  • Anxiety
  • Tremors and shakes
  • Headaches
  • Gastrointestinal disturbances
  • Rapid abnormal breathing 
  • Seizures
  • Fatigue
  • Insomnia
  • Hallucination 
  • Mood change 
  • Heart palpitations

What Causes Alcohol Withdrawal Symptoms?

Alcohol’s effect on the body is complicated. However, two neurochemicals, Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and glutamate contribute to the short-term alcohol effects. They also contribute to the development of withdrawal symptoms. GABA is the brain’s primary inhibitory chemical, while glutamate is the brain’s main excitatory chemical. 

Once a person drinks an alcoholic beverage, its alcohol changes GABA’s receptor functioning and specific glutamate receptors. This shuts down the brain’s functioning, causing decreased anxiety and sedation. 

The brain responds to the decreasing GABA amount by increasing glutamate levels. This adaptability function will continue as long as you consume alcohol. This is known as tolerance. 

Suppose a person stops drinking alcohol or reduces their intake. This will disrupt the above brain activity, causing a hyper-arousal state that causes the range of withdrawal symptoms above. These symptoms can appear within several hours of your last drink. 

The severity of withdrawal symptoms varies from one person to another. However, more than 80% of people with alcohol addiction experience these symptoms.

What is the Benefit of Residential Alcohol Rehab?

People struggling with alcohol addiction can choose between outpatient and residential alcohol rehabilitation. Residential alcohol rehab works as the better option due to its numerous advantages. Here are the benefits of residential alcohol rehab you should know about:

Structure 

This is probably the most significant advantage of residential alcohol rehab. Residential treatment focuses on creating daily routines that will help you through your recovery. It also causes people struggling with alcohol addiction to trigger to encourage their disorder. 

Close Monitoring During Detox

Alcohol detox comes with several symptoms. It may require medications to manage the complications associated with this process. Residential alcohol rehab offers the perfect environment for close monitoring during this crucial period. Medical staff can quickly adjust their medication based on the patient’s response. 

Easy Medication Process 

After completing the alcohol detoxification process, patients in a residential alcohol rehab center will be in a recovery program. In this phase, medical staff members might use medications such as acamprosate, disulfiram, and naltrexone for long-term alcoholism treatment. 

These medications have different effects on the patients. For instance, disulfiram causes discomfort when someone takes alcohol, while naltrexone minimizes alcohol’s impact on the body. Putting a person in an alcohol rehab center can make the process easier. Being in a controlled setting makes initiating these medications much easier and addressing their impact once they arise.

Alcohol Detox at Bellagio In The Desert Residential Treatment Center

Alcohol detox involves several steps, including withdrawal. A residential alcohol rehab guarantees better results than outpatient facilities. The success of a residential alcohol rehab lies in the level of commitment, experience, and the environment it creates. 

At Bellagio In The Desert Residential Treatment Center, we offer personal care to help you get through alcohol detox. If you need quality alcohol detox services in Lancaster, CA, we are here to help. 

Contact us today to schedule an appointment.