Hello everyone, newly sober 20-something here, I cut both nicotine and alcohol out of my life cold turkey 4 days ago.
The first day was of course hell, but the second day only left me with hallucinations and insomnia, by the third day, I was feeling amazing. Then I had a seizure on the evening of the third day and had to be hospitalized.
If anyone knows if I should expect any more severe symptoms going forward, i would appreciate any advice. Thank you
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Firstly,welcome to this forum, where you will find encouragement, and support. You are not alone in this journey, so please take advantage of the resources here. Secondly, congrats on 4 days sober, that’s a great start!
About the seizure, that sucks! I hope you have a good primary care physician you can work with. S/he may have better insight into the cause. 
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Hi, welcome
Congrats an 4 days 
Sorry to hear about your complications.
When I’m the hospital did you tell them you were going through withdrawals? Maybe they would provide you with extended care and perhaps some medication.
My journey didn’t have these experience so I can’t bring much light to this.
The community here is a lot of support. Hope you stick around.
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I was open with both the EMTs and the doctors, and they’ve had me in extended care, should be getting out soon, I am excited to finally get home and celebrate my 5-day milestone.
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Welcome to your sobriety and welcome to the forum Richard. As you already found out, quitting cold turkey from alcohol is a dangerous thing to do. My advice is to discuss this with the medical professionals that are treating you, as they know your situation, and your physical and mental state.
That being said, in general I can say this: the greatest risk is now over, but another seizure is still possible. As is getting in a delirant state (which of course can be very dangerous when home, especially alone). As i sad, the doctors treating you know best what to tell you as I don’t know about you. I work as a nurse in a detox and the standard admission time for people detoxing from alcohol is 10 days. Depending on their physical state and how much they drank, to fight withdrawals and to curb the greatest dangers, valium (diazepam) or ativan (lorzepam) is prescribed for a limited number of days (seven max if i’m not mistaken), which one of those two based on how a patients liver is doing.
Very well possible you have a Thiamine deficiency too, which can cause a range of neurological defects and symptoms, do you have that supplemented? I guess so. How are your sugar levels in your blood? Alcohol, beer especially, massively messes with that and many drinkers are (pre)diabetic without knowing it.
Like I said, best advice you can get is from your direct caregivers. And to others, when you drink a lot please seek medical attention BEFORE quitting. When you don’t want to go to detox, a doctor can advice you on how to slowly decrease your alcohol intake to make it as safe as possible. Quitting all at once is NOT adviseable. Take care friend and welcome again.
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Just updating, I’m coming up on day 5, out of the hospital, with some prescriptions to help me slowly get back to normal, and scheduled for an abdominal ultrasound and therapy this week, so I’m hopeful that my recovery is just beginning, and will continue for a long, long time, thank you all
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Hey there I have seizures,
I had them my whole life, but when I was withdrawing from alcohol it became worse,
You did the right thing by getting medical treatment,
I’m assuming they did an MRI and EEG? Brain scan and checking the electrical impulses in your brain for more seizure activity?
Seizures can be caused by alcohol withdrawl, because of it being a depressant, it slows the central nervous system when you stop you cause all those nerves suddenly providing more electrical impulses than normal and it gets scattered,
I’m assuming you are on anti seizure meds? Maybe an barbiturate?
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Yes, I received a tapered medication for nerve pain and anticonvulsant, as well as vitamins to protect my brain, I am lucky that I was around other people when it happened, so that I could get the help I need.
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I am so glad you were around people who were there to get you the medical attention. I am glad you have the needed medication. I hope you are doing good. Hope you see you sharing and journeying here for time to come.
Welcome and congratulations on 4 days! I’m glad you got the medical attention you needed and that you’ll be out of hospital shortly. I can’t advise, but just wanted to wish you well on your journey🙏
I’m going through severe depression and feeling not good I’m at 3 weeks and I can’t leave my room…