Vitamins and nutrients are the body’s essential fuel. They’re like the gasoline that keeps your vehicle running. Drugs, alcohol, stress, and a bad diet can deplete those levels of essential fuel in your tank— at which point, it’s not uncommon to begin to experience the effects of a compromised immune system. You may notice you’re getting sick more often or that you have low energy and fatigue, are more anxious or depressed, feel out of whack, or have trouble focusing.
IV Therapy, or Vitamin Infusion Therapy, is a minimally invasive way to refill your tank and restore key vitamins and nutrients to optimum levels. The results, which patients will often begin to notice as early as within one to two sessions, are an enhanced sense of overall wellness in mind and body.
There are so many benefits of IV therapy. For people in their first year of recovery from drugs and alcohol, though, drip therapy can be especially beneficial. In fact, it would not be an exaggeration to note that these benefits can go a long way to boosting a person’s chances of successful, long-term recovery.
How Post-Acute Withdrawal Symptoms (PAWS) Can Lead to Relapse
It’s a bit of a myth that withdrawal symptoms end once detox, (a process that typically takes 1-2 weeks when supervised in a medical facility), is complete. Some people who go through detox may be this fortunate: Once they’re through the worst of it, the rest is smooth sailing.
Many others aren’t so fortunate, however. Just when they think the worst is behind them—and the intense and sometimes life-threatening, physical symptoms of withdrawal have finally receded—they begin to experience mood and psychological symptoms that represent the second, post-acute phase of withdrawal, or “PAWS” (for “Post-Acute Withdrawal Symptoms).
PAWS symptoms will vary in severity and duration, lasting anywhere from weeks and months to a year or more, depending on the person; and, while it’s possible for PAWS to manifest as aches and pains, headaches, cramping, and other physical issues, most of the time, PAWS symptoms are emotional and psychological in nature. A person may suffer from very low energy, fatigue, and depression. They may struggle with mood swings and emotional dysregulation.
Other common PAWS symptoms and sensations may include:
- Memory problems
- Foggy thinking
- Hypersensitivity to stress
- Fatigue
- Anhedonia (trouble getting motivated or taking initiative)
- Anxiety or panic
- Urges and cravings
- Sleep problems, especially insomnia
- Distractibility
Not surprisingly, these symptoms not only greatly affect quality of life but also, understandably, trigger urges and cravings to use or drink again. Meanwhile, the prospect of relapsing would be devastating after so much hard work in treatment. That’s the mindset and experience of many of the people who come to Sun Health for outpatient help. They’re struggling with PAWS, worried about relapse, and open to exploring how IV Therapy might help.
How Vitamin Infusion Therapy Relieves PAWS and May Reduce Relapse Risks
Vitamin Infusion Therapy replenishes the nutrition that both brain and body need to function properly. It also helps to restore key organ systems like the brain and the heart, which depend on proper nutrition in order to fulfill their critical roles.
By hydrating the body, IV Therapy helps to flush out toxins from the body and its cells, where these toxins often reside. That toxic buildup can even affect the neurochemicals in your brain (and elsewhere), having a direct impact on how you feel.
In addition to positive physical effects, people often report feeling a lift in mood and improvements in anxiety or depression. The immediate absorption of nutrient-rich fluid into the bloodstream, (without having to go through the digestive system first and be syphoned off), helps to ensure faster-working, therapeutic effects.
As early as the first infusion, patients often report more energy, less overall fatigue, and a reduction in their cravings. Patients with pain issues sometimes also report a decrease in pain after IV Therapy— maybe thanks to the hydration and balancing of electrolytes that occurs.
PAWS and its symptoms are thankfully temporary, but they can also be very difficult and even distressing. IV Therapy has helped many people through this stage of their recovery with less pain and difficulty and sobriety intact.
Struggling with symptoms of PAWS or worried about relapse?
Call us today to schedule a consultation.
This article has been medically reviewed by our staff at Sun Health Medical Center in Deerfield Beach, Florida.
