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Comment by sndean | Hacker News Reader

> Withdrawal is hard.

Just to emphasize that:

Before my SO started working in a hospital, I had no idea that people going through alcohol withdrawal can end up in the ICU. They're ending up in an ICU because of the withdrawal, not the alcohol... That was really surprising to me.

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Alcohol is one of the only substances on the planet that can cause you to straight up die from withdrawal alone. Deaths from opiate withdrawal are secondary, usually from falling during a seizure. But with alcohol, your heart can simply stop or your brain have a massive stroke from the withdrawal. We think it harmless because its legal, but alcohol is radically dangerous from an addiction standpoint.

That's interesting and makes alcohol sound pretty menacing. I should read more about it. It definitely sounds like seizures and heart issues come up the most. Plus their livers are shot, so toxicity of normally benign treatments is a concern.

Also interesting that, in the very wealthy area we're in, outside of infants and the elderly, middle-aged white men going through alcohol withdrawal are the most common ICU patients.

(sorry for derailing discussion away from opioid addiction)

FWIW, you can die from alcohol withdrawal well before your liver is shot. Also, you don't need to have been drinking for decades; you can get yourself in that pickle in months, not years.

Alcohol and benzodiazepines are the only ones, IIRC. In 2014, Xanax killed more people than fentanyl, morphine, and meth (https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016-12-20/heroin-cocai...)

My cousin is a pharmacist... During her training she found out "sometimes if you have an old drunk, you prescribe him alcohol, because the withdrawal will likely kill him"

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