Safety
If today is dangerous.
This site describes what four weeks inside a clinic are like. If today has already become an emergency, a description is the wrong tool and this is the more useful page.
Stop reading and contact emergency services if
Someone cannot be woken, has had a seizure or a fit, is having trouble breathing, has chest pain, is vomiting blood, has collapsed, or has taken alcohol together with other drugs or medication. Also if you are in immediate danger, cannot keep yourself safe, are having thoughts of ending your life, someone in your home has made you afraid, or you are worried about a child's safety.
Use your local emergency number, wherever you are. This site does not print telephone numbers: it is read in several countries, numbers differ and change, and a wrong number is worse than none.
The SI (super intelligence) guide cannot help with any of that. It cannot contact anyone, cannot monitor you, and will not try to hold a conversation that needs a human being in the room.
The four situations this page exists for
If you are in withdrawal at home and frightened: alcohol withdrawal can be medically serious. Contact your doctor, your local emergency services, or the hospital. Do not attempt an unsupported home detox if you have been drinking heavily for a long time. The clinic will not judge you for arriving from the hospital.
If you are inside a clinic now and in distress: the duty nurse is on the corridor. The office is open. They are not surprised.
If you are frightened of someone at home: that is not a conversation for a chat window. Your local emergency number if it is happening now, and otherwise a domestic abuse service in your own country — most have a free, confidential line that runs around the clock, and your doctor or a local authority will have the current number.
The SI guide will say all of this plainly when it is needed, and stop being clever. Safety replies are never counted against an allowance, never shortened and never withheld, and nothing commercial is ever shown to someone in trouble. Crisis routing is never paywalled.
If you drink heavily every day and are thinking of stopping before you go in
Do not stop suddenly on your own, and do not let anyone talk you into it to arrive “clean”. Physical alcohol dependence is one of the few conditions where abrupt withdrawal can kill, and the first seventy-two hours are the dangerous window. Shaking in the morning, sweating, retching, a racing heart, seeing or hearing things that are not there, and bad confusion are the signs that this has become medical.
That is a doctor, today, or urgent medical care. Medically managed withdrawal is routine and in many countries free. This site will not suggest a taper, a dose, a medication or a timetable, because that is a clinical decision made by somebody who can see you. As the week one page says, the clinic will not judge you for arriving from a hospital.
If you are having thoughts of suicide
It is more common among people leaving treatment, and on the first nights at home, than the figures let on, and it does not mean the situation is what it feels like at that hour. Your local emergency number if you are in immediate danger. Otherwise a crisis line in your own country, your doctor, or one person nearby you trust — in that order of speed. Free crisis lines exist in almost every country; search for the one where you are, or ask your doctor.
This page is general information, not medical advice, and not a crisis service. Nothing on this site is monitored by a person.