Cold Turkey

If you’re on this website, it’s very possible that you already tried to quit drinking cold turkey. The thing is that the more time you’ve been drinking, the harder it will become, until ultimately it becomes impossible. This is because of the unbearable withdrawal symptoms.

Although alcohol is metabolized relatively quickly by the body, the withdrawal symptoms can take longer to subsid. This is because your brain has become used to the relaxing effect it has by increasing both GABA and dopamine levels. Depending on how long you’ve been drinking, it will take your brain a lot of time to recover the capacity to produce its own GABA and dopamine.

This will probably mean that you’ll feel increasingly anxious because of the lack of GABA or depressed because of the lack of dopamine. In very rough terms, this is why the body craves alcohol once it’s taken away. Certain alcoholics can present these symptoms to the point of them being unbearable to live with.

Willpower is necessary to quit drinking, but you’ll need some sort of plan or strategy to overcome the more serious withdrawal symptoms that can arise from going cold turkey.