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Alcohol Detox

Alcohol detox at Abbington House is medically supervised and individually assessed, with medication used where appropriate. It forms the first phase of a residential stay, with treatment continuing afterwards.

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01438 583222

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Michael Williams (Mikey) is the Treatment Manager at Abbington House and has been in recovery since 2011. He oversees the day-to-day delivery of care and brings lived experience into every part of the work.

What alcohol detox is

Alcohol detox is the period in which your body adjusts to reducing and stopping alcohol after physical dependence has developed.

When someone has been drinking heavily and regularly, the body can adapt to alcohol being present, so reducing or stopping can cause withdrawal.

Medically supervised detox means that this is planned rather than guessed at. Your drinking and health are assessed beforehand, medication is prescribed where appropriate, and staff monitor how you are doing as withdrawal progresses.

Many people who come to Abbington House have already tried to stop drinking themselves. Some started drinking again because of how they felt when they stopped. For others, stopping was possible for a while, but staying stopped was the harder part.

Detox deals with the immediate physical problem. The rest of the stay deals with what kept bringing you back to alcohol.

Why assessment comes first

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There is more to planning an alcohol detox than knowing how much somebody drinks.

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Before detox begins, the clinical team needs to understand what you have been drinking and how regularly, whether you have withdrawn before, your physical health, the medication you take and whether other substances are involved.

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That information helps determine how withdrawal should be managed and whether Abbington House is the appropriate setting for it.

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When physical dependence has developed, suddenly stopping or sharply reducing alcohol can cause withdrawal and, in some cases, serious complications. These can include withdrawal seizures and delirium tremens.

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If you think you may be physically dependent on alcohol, get medical advice before stopping suddenly.

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For more detail on what withdrawal can involve, including symptoms and timing, read our alcohol withdrawal guide.

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Alcohol detox at Abbington House is managed in line with NICE guidance and Drug Misuse and Dependence: UK Guidelines on Clinical Management, by our on-site prescriber, Sophie Picton.

How medication is used during alcohol detox

Where clinical assessment shows medication is appropriate, prescribed chlordiazepoxide or diazepam may be used to manage alcohol withdrawal at Abbington House.

How it is prescribed and reduced is decided individually. Your drinking history, previous withdrawal, physical health, other medication and how you respond once detox begins all form part of that decision.

There is no fixed schedule applied to everyone. Prescribing and any changes to medication are managed by our prescriber and clinical team according to how you are actually doing.

Staff check on you during the early part of the stay, with changes or concerns passed to the clinical team.

How long does alcohol detox take?

There is no single number of days that applies to everybody.

Your drinking history, previous withdrawals, physical health, other substances or medication and how you respond once withdrawal begins can all affect how detox is managed.

The withdrawal plan is set following assessment and reviewed as the days progress rather than fitting everybody into the same timetable.

Detox is only the first phase of treatment at Abbington House. Residential stays are a minimum of 28 days, with length of stay considered individually.

Can I detox from alcohol athome?

  • Some people can have a medically assisted alcohol detox at home or through a community alcohol service. That is different from deciding to stop drinking suddenly on your own.
  • One of the problems with trying to work this out yourself is that the amount you drink does not tell the whole story. Previous withdrawals, physical health, medication, other substance use and any history of complications also matter.
  • A properly arranged community detox follows clinical assessment and may include prescribed medication and regular contact with the service managing it. For some people, this can be an appropriate way to stop drinking. For others, the assessment may point towards closer supervision or another clinical setting.
  • Abbington House does not provide home detox. Alcohol detox here takes place as part of a residential stay.
  • If assessment suggests residential treatment is not necessary, or that another service is better placed to manage your withdrawal, we will tell you.
  • If you are unsure whether physical dependence has developed, our alcohol withdrawal guidegoes into that in more detail.
  • Get medical advice before stopping suddenly if you think you may be physically dependent on alcohol.
  • As the physical effects of stopping settle, attention moves towards the pattern around your drinking. That may mean looking at what alcohol had started doing for you, what kept pulling you back to it and what tended to happen before drinking started again.

  • Stopping was never the whole question for many people. They had stopped before.

  • The work after detox is about understanding why it kept coming back.

  • That is why Abbington House does not offer alcohol detox as a standalone service. Detox is the first phase of alcohol rehab at Abbington House, rather than something you book separately and leave as soon as withdrawal has passed.

Withdrawal settling does not necessarily change the reasons alcohol became important in the first place. At Abbington House, you do not move somewhere else once detox is over. The stay continues around the same people and in the same environment.

What happens after alcohol detox?

If private treatment is not an option

Private residential treatment is not the only way to access an alcohol detox.

  • Your GP or local drug and alcohol service can assess what has been happening and may be able to arrange medically assisted withdrawal in the community or another appropriate setting.

  • Funded residential treatment may also be available in some circumstances. What is available and how it is accessed varies between areas.

  • If paying privately is not realistic, it is still worth asking your GP or local alcohol service what support is available rather than assuming residential treatment is the only route.

Our rehab costs page explains what treatment at Abbington House costs and what is included.

Common questions about alcohol detox

Where medication is appropriate, chlordiazepoxide or diazepam may be prescribed at Abbington House to manage alcohol withdrawal.

What is prescribed and how it is reduced is decided individually by the prescriber. We do not publish doses or fixed schedules because those decisions depend on the person being treated.

There is no fixed timetable for everybody. The clinical team considers your drinking history, previous withdrawal, physical health, other medication or substances and how you respond once detox begins.

For some people, medically assisted withdrawal at home or in the community can be appropriate following clinical assessment. Abbington House does not provide home detox; detox here is provided as part of a residential stay.

If reducing or stopping alcohol makes you physically unwell, or you have tried to stop and returned to drinking because of how you felt, get medical advice rather than trying to determine the level of dependence yourself.

You don’t need to know whether detox is definitely necessary before speaking to somebody. That is one of the things the assessment is there to establish.

If physical dependence has developed, suddenly stopping or sharply reducing alcohol can cause withdrawal and serious complications in some people.

If you think you may be physically dependent on alcohol, get medical advice before stopping suddenly.

Talking things through

Tell us what your drinking has looked like recently, whether you have tried to stop before and what happened when you did.

The first conversation is about understanding the situation and whether a residential stay beginning with alcohol detox may be appropriate.

Sometimes another form of support, or another clinical setting, will make more sense. We will tell you that too.

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