People who drink daily and experience tremors and palpitations when they stop should not try to quit on their own

Seeing a psychiatrist or addiction specialist costs just a few to several dozen dollars. In severe cases, a short hospital stay may be required.

A 2026 clinical review confirms that chronic heavy drinkers often develop withdrawal syndrome after abruptly cutting back or stopping entirely. Symptoms include tremors, autonomic hyperactivity, anxiety, insomnia, perceptual disturbances, seizures, and delirium tremens — conditions that are both common and potentially fatal in general medical practice. Norway’s national registry included 36,287 individuals diagnosed with alcohol dependence, withdrawal states, or delirium tremens between 2009 and 2015. The annual mortality rate was 8.0% among those with delirium tremens, 5.0% among those in withdrawal states, and 3.6% among those with alcohol dependence. The standardized mortality ratio for the delirium tremens group was 9.8 (95% CI 8.9–10.7), meaning their risk of death was roughly 9.8 times higher than that of age-matched peers in the general population.

Caputo F, Lungaro L, Costanzini A, De Giorgio R, Addolorato G (2026). Alcohol withdrawal syndrome in hospitalized patients: a practical review. European Journal of Internal Medicine, 107103. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejim.2026.107103；Bramness JG, Heiberg IH, Høye A, Rossow I (2023). Mortality and alcohol-related morbidity in patients with delirium tremens, alcohol withdrawal state or alcohol dependence in Norway: A register-based prospective cohort study. Addiction, 118(12), 2352–2359. https://doi.org/10.1111/add.16297

How to tell if you’re at risk: If you drink almost every day, experience tremors, sweating, palpitations, or insomnia when you skip a day, or feel better after having a drink in the morning, you should not attempt to quit on your own. Standard medical treatment involves using benzodiazepines to manage the initial withdrawal period while also supplementing thiamine (vitamin B1). This evidence is rated B because the Norwegian cohort data describe outcomes among people who had already suffered delirium tremens rather than directly testing the effects of self-directed abstinence. Quitting alcohol remains essential; the safer approach is to seek professional medical help. For guidance on what constitutes “frequent” drinking, see section 20; strategies for reducing intake are outlined in section 22.