Second of all, the likelihood of a seizure is much higher than you would expect when someone is in alcohol withdrawal and starting to shake.  This is true for people who have never, ever had a seizure before in their entire life.  If they are quitting drinking and their arms start to shake uncontrollably, then they are a prime candidate for a possible seizure.  And of course, this is a serious medical condition as well that can be life threatening, depending on the circumstances.

So what can you do about it?

Well the number one solution is always going to be to get the person professional, medical attention.  This should be the number one priority and the only question becomes: “How well is the help targeted to alcoholism?”

In other words, you could very well take the person to an emergency room or a hospital, but these are not necessarily ideal situations.  While those places can monitor the person, keep them safe, and probably give them the right medications so that they are not in danger, there is still potential for a better form of treatment.  Taking the person instead to a drug or alcohol rehab center is almost always going to provide better care.  There are a couple of reasons that this is the case.

One, the medical staff and the doctors who watch over people in rehabs have experience and special knowledge about how to treat alcohol withdrawal.  They do it every day and they are experts at it.

Second, the rehab will give the alcoholic an opportunity to start some form of therapy.  Even if the person does not attend any groups or lectures while in detox, they can still get tremendous benefit from being in a rehab rather than in a hospital.  Why?  Because they will be in detox with other alcoholics.  This is absolutely huge and anyone who has not gone through the process of recovery could never understand just how important his identification process is.

We need to know that we are not alone.  We need to know that we are not crazy, and that there are others who struggle with alcoholism.  This can only happen when we talk with other alcoholics and share our stories with them.  This is the process of identification in early recovery.  And it does not have to happen in a meeting necessarily.  It can happen in a detox smoke room at any rehab.

Furthermore, if you take an alcoholic to rehab and let them detox there, then there is a good chance that they will be able to continue on in treatment and get more therapy from residential treatment.

Any alcoholic who starts shaking without drinking needs serious help.  This is a strong sign of physical dependence, and they need to take a serious look at their drinking and think about getting help.  Most alcoholics will be fearful of going to rehab, even though they will not admit it.  But it is medically important that they have medical supervision for the detox process, so strongly encourage them to get to a real detox unit.  There they will receive medications that will prevent them from having the shakes, and they might even be able to overcome their drinking problem altogether.