Detoxification: Frequently Asked Questions

Can I Detox From Drugs at Home?

For your safety, it’s never recommended to detox from drugs at home without supervision.

Not all substance detoxification is lethal. However, withdrawal from certain substances, such as alcohol withdrawal, can potentially be life-threatening.³ More serious symptoms include hallucinations, seizures, and delirium tremens.

It’s always safest to detox under the supervision of specialized, experienced medical professionals.

You don’t always have to go through detox at a hospital or rehab facility. If you have a strong support system at home and your condition doesn’t require hospitalization, you may be able to opt for outpatient detox.⁴

How Long Do I Need to Detox For?

The time it takes to detox from commonly used substances varies:

• Alcohol: 5 to 7 days
• Benzodiazepines: One day to several months until treatment is introduced
• Opiates: Up to 7 days (however, it’s possible to develop post-acute withdrawal symptoms⁵ that last weeks, months, or even years)
• Cocaine: Up to 7 days
• Heroin: 5 to 7 days

Detoxing From Different Substances

Alcohol

Do I Need to Detox From Alcohol?

Whether or not you need to detox from alcohol depends on how long and how much you’ve been drinking.

The media often portrays people who are addicted to alcohol as living disarrayed lives. The truth is, addiction can affect anyone—many people suffer from high-functioning alcoholism. If you notice signs of alcohol addiction, you may consider getting an evaluation for detox:

• drinking more, or for a longer, than intended;
• trying to stop drinking, but being unable to;
• spending a lot of time drinking or dealing with the aftereffects of drinking;
• continued drinking even when it negatively interferes with work or relationships;
• and more.

Alcohol detox carries a high risk for potentially life-threatening withdrawal symptoms, like delirium tremens (DT).⁶ It’s safest to detox from alcohol under medical supervision.

If you plan to attend rehab, most residential facilities require you to be substance-free for a certain period of time before starting treatment. You can find out whether or not you’ll need to detox from alcohol during the admissions process. You have several options for detox, including on-site detox at certain rehabs.

Can I Safely Detox From Alcohol at Home?

No. Complications from alcohol withdrawal⁷ can pose severe to life-threatening side effects. It’s never recommended to detox from alcohol at home.

Side effects like delirium tremens (DT) can lead to chronic memory disorders or life-threatening seizures. DT side effects often don’t show up until 2 to 3 days after you’ve last ingested alcohol.

Even if you don’t experience life-threatening side effects, because of the extreme discomfort of withdrawal, you’re more likely to relapse if you try to detox from alcohol at home⁸ in comparison to detoxing under medical supervision.

How Long Does It Take To Detox From Alcohol?

It usually takes about 5 to 7 days to detox from alcohol.

What Does Alcohol Detox Feel Like?

Most people experience varying levels of discomfort when detoxing from alcohol. As alcohol leaves your system, you can experience mild to severe alcohol withdrawal symptoms:⁹

• Sleep disturbances, like insomnia
• Nausea
• Vomiting
• Sweating
• Irritability
• Tremors
• Headaches
• Anxiety
• Visual and auditory disturbances
• Cardiovascular complications, like rapid heart rate
• Muscle pain and stiffness

The discomfort alcohol withdrawal causes can lead people to relapse, especially if they try to detox alone at home.

When you detox under medical supervision, clinical staff help monitor your condition, soothe your symptoms, and offer round-the-clock support. Detoxing under medical supervision enhances both your safety and comfort.

Benzodiazepines

Can I Detox From Benzodiazepines at Home?

You should never try to detox from benzodiazepines, or “benzos,” alone at home.

Unsupervised withdrawal from benzodiazepines can result in life-threatening side effects.¹⁰ Because of the potential severity of these withdrawals, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommends “patients taking benzodiazepines should not suddenly stop taking them¹¹ without first discussing a plan with your health care professional for slowly decreasing the dose and frequency.”

It’s also not recommended to quit cold turkey following long-term use; a large number of people have reported negative and long-lasting side effects of benzo withdrawal.¹²

How Long Does It Take To Detox From Benzodiazepines?

It takes one day to several months (until treatment is introduced) to detox from benzodiazepines. Withdrawal symptoms such as anxiety, vomiting, and nausea peak within the first 14 days after you last ingested benzodiazepines.

What Does Benzodiazepines Detox Feel Like?

Detoxing from benzodiazepines can present a wide range of uncomfortable side effects. Because detoxing from benzos can be so uncomfortable, one of the goals of medically supervised detox is to help soothe patients’ discomfort while ensuring their safety.

Some of the most commonly prescribed benzodiazepines¹³ include Valium, Xanax, Halcion, Ativan, and Klonopin. They have similar withdrawal symptoms, however, Xanax may cause more severe symptoms.

When you detox from benzodiazepines after your body has become physiologically dependent on them, you may experience mild to severe withdrawal symptoms:

• Headaches
• Increased anxiety
• Sweating
• Racing heartbeat
• Insomnia
• Muscle spasms
• Nausea or vomiting
• Restlessness
• Hand tremors
• Aches and pains

Benzos withdrawal symptoms occur in stages and depend on your history of substance use.

Stage 1: You may first notice short-lived symptoms such as anxiety and insomnia within 1 to 4 days of benzos discontinuation.¹⁴

Stage 2: Peak withdrawal symptoms occur in the second stage, which many people describe as the most difficult phase to overcome. This usually lasts 10 to 14 days.

Stage 3: An estimated 10 to 25% of people who use benzodiazepines for an extended period of time experience post-acute withdrawal symptoms,¹⁵ or PAWS. During this stage, you’ll notice a return of anxiety and other withdrawal symptoms until you begin to address them with some form of professional addiction treatment.

Opioids

What Does It Feel Like to Detox From Opioids?

Detoxing from opioids can present highly uncomfortable psychological and physical effects¹⁶ depending on your past substance use and severity of dependence. These symptoms can arise whether you’re detoxing from medically prescribed pain relievers like oxycodone, hydrocodone, and codeine, or illicit opiates, such as heroin.

During detox, as substances leave your system, you’ll begin to experience withdrawal symptoms. The extent of these symptoms depends on your substance use history, severity of use, and whether you’re detoxing from immediate-release opioids¹⁷ (such as morphine) or extended-release opioids¹⁸ (such as methadone), as defined by the CDC.

Opioid withdrawal symptoms¹⁹ are often uncomfortable. They can include anxiety, rapid heart rate, muscle pain, runny or watery eyes, nausea and vomiting, insomnia, and more.

Opiate withdrawal can be lethal.²⁰ It’s always recommended to detox under the guidance of an addiction-specialized healthcare professional.

With short-acting opioids, withdrawals typically begin 8 to 24 hours after your last use. With long-acting opioids, withdrawal symptoms can onset 12 to 48 hours after the last use.

How to Detox From Opioids

While usually not life-threatening, opiate withdrawal can be lethal. Therefore, you should always detox from opiates under the guidance of a qualified healthcare professional.

Whether you detox at a hospital, private detox center, or on-site at a residential rehab facility, you should have healthcare workers available to you 24 hours a day.

If you were using short-acting opioids, withdrawal symptoms will onset 8 to 24 hours after your last use. For long-acting opioids, withdrawal symptoms present themselves 12 to 48 hours after last use.

Mild opioid withdrawal management:
If you have mild withdrawal symptoms, treatment providers will ensure you consume 2 to 3 liters of water a day, along with vitamin B and C supplements to replenish lost fluids. They will also observe and monitor your symptoms 3 to 4 times a day using a Short Opioids Withdrawal Scale (SOWS).²¹

Moderate to severe opioid withdrawal management:
Clinicians will follow the same management techniques as with mild withdrawal cases. However, they may also use medication to minimize the severity of symptoms.

It should be noted that while detox is the first step in addiction treatment, it should be followed up with an addiction treatment program to create lasting changes to addictive behaviors.

How Long Does Opioid Detox Take?

It may take up to 7 days for opioids to fully leave your body. However, withdrawal symptoms may last longer than that.

For immediate-release opioids, withdrawal symptoms can last 4 to 10 days. For extended-release opioids, withdrawal symptoms can last 10 to 20 days

Depending on your opioid use background, it’s possible to develop post-acute withdrawal symptoms (PAWS).²² These can last weeks, months, or even years after you’ve last taken opiates. Some of these symptoms include memory issues, irritability, and depressed moods.

There is treatment for PAWS, which can be administered over the period of time you’re experiencing symptoms. Aftercare is critical to addiction treatment. If you’ve completed a treatment program, your aftercare counselor or therapist can help you identify PAWS symptoms and recommend a treatment plan. Or, you can search for rehabs that offer detox programs and speak to an intake specialist about PAWS treatment.

Cocaine

How long does it take to detox from cocaine?

It takes up to 7 days to detox from cocaine. Cocaine withdrawal symptoms are generally more psychological than physical and can include agitation, depression, anxiety, and other effects on your mood.

Where can I Detox?

You can detox at several different types of facilities. While it should be noted that not all at-home detox is lethal, detoxing from certain substances can pose life-threatening risks. It’s always recommended to detox under the guidance of a healthcare professional.

You can undergo substance abuse detox at several types of facilities:

• Hospitals
• Residential rehabs (not all inpatient rehabs offer on-site detox)
• Private detox centers

How Long Do Withdrawal Symptoms Last?

On average, it takes 3 to 7 days for substances to leave your system. However, withdrawal symptoms can persist even after you’re substance-free.

Alcohol withdrawal timeline: Withdrawal symptoms from alcohol typically begin about 6 hours after you’ve last ingested a drink. They can last up to 72 hours after your last drink. In more severe yet rare cases, moderate withdrawal symptoms, such as alcohol hallucinosis, can last for up to a month.²³

Benzodiazepines withdrawal timeline: Withdrawal symptoms from benzodiazepines usually last 10 to 14 days. However, some people can develop post-acute withdrawal symptoms (PAWS), which is a return of withdrawal symptoms several months after last use.

Opioid withdrawal timeline: For immediate-release opioids, withdrawal symptoms can last 4 to 10 days. For extended-release opioids, withdrawal symptoms can last 10 to 20 days. Depending on your substance use history, it’s also possible to develop PAWS from opioids. These symptoms may last weeks, months, or even years after you’ve last taken opioids.

Cocaine withdrawal timeline: Withdrawal usually begins 90 minutes following the last dose. Cocaine withdrawal symptoms,²⁴ such as irritability and cravings, can last up to 10 weeks depending on your level of dependency.

Detox Costs

To learn more about your options for detox treatment, browse through our list of luxury detox centers.