The severity of withdrawal from alcohol depends on how intense the patient’s addiction was. People with mild alcoholism won’t suffer anything truly dangerous—shaking hands, nausea, headaches, and other nuisances. Withdrawal certainly won’t be comfortable for alcoholics in this situation, but neither will it be much to worry about. This type of withdrawal can begin as little as a few hours from a person’s last drink. Even heavy alcoholics will start by feeling these symptoms, before hallucinations set in. These can be manifested in any of a person’s senses, from sight to smell to touch. Hallucinations can be extremely frightening and usually occur 6 hours from a person’s last drink.
The worst withdrawal symptom an alcoholic can face is the dreaded delirium tremens. This is usually only seen in the most severe cases of alcoholism. DT is a state where an alcoholic is overcome with intense hallucinations they are unable to distinguish from reality. They experience high fever and involuntary convulsions and are at a high risk for other life-threatening complications. If delirium tremens is experienced without treatment, it carries an approximate 35% chance of being lethal. However, modern addiction medicine has drastically reduced that.