History Main / GoingColdTurkey

* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode "Recap/FuturamaS7E6TheButterjunkEffect The Butterjunk Effect]]", in order to break Leela and Amy from addiction to a steroid-like drug, they're handcuffed to a bed in order to go through the withdrawal effect for an undetermined amount of time (but implied to be no more than a couple days). After that, the two of them are good as new and never show symptoms of relapsing.

* ''WesternAnimation/ThePenguinsOfMadagascar'': "Two Feet High and Rising" -- To prevent King Julien from banishing Mort, Marlene brings him to the penguins to help him overcome his crazed obsession over [[ICantBelieveItsNotHeroin King Julien's feet]]. Using conditioning to equate the touching of feet with electrical shocks, Mort gradually becomes "100% lemur foot-phobic". However, for [[StatusQuoIsGod the sake of status-quo]], this is all undone towards the end of the episode.
* ''WesternAnimation/HarleyQuinn'': Lampshaded during the second season. Jim Gordon (who's become an alcoholic slob after the fall of Gotham and the rest of the Gotham PD deserting him to work for the criminals controlling the city) realizes how far he's fallen and decides to kick the habit. He asks Barbara (who he's been living with) if she wants to have a montage that skips all the issues of actually trying to clean yourself up from alcoholism and the two of them proceed to pour all his booze down the drain and get him sobered up in roughly one afternoon.
* ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'': When Hank catches Bobby smoking a cigarette, he punishes him by forcing him to smoke an entire carton. The plan backfires when Bobby instead becomes more addicted, while the situation makes Hank and Peggy take up smoking again for relaxation. After days without a cigarette, Hank, Peggy, and Bobby are cranky and ready to kill one another, until they discover one stray cigarette in the house. After they fight over it, Luanne, having had enough, locks the three of them inside Hank and Peggy's bedroom until they finally beat their addiction. In the morning they all thank Luanne for helping them through it.

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1985'': In "The Hellgramite Method", TheAlcoholic Miley Judson decides to go cold turkey in order to force the Hellgramite worm in his stomach into a dormant state. He sends his wife Frannie and their son Chad to her parents' house for several weeks so that he can isolate himself. Miley's attempt is made all the more difficult because starving the worm of alcohol causes him excruciating pain and is potentially life-threatening. One day, he frantically searches for any trace of alcohol and eventually finds a small bottle in his gym bag. Although Miley strongly considers drinking it, he is able to resist the temptation and finally manages to go sober after many failed attempts.

* TV commercials for [[http://www.chantix.com Chantix]], a medication to help people quit smoking, use the visual pun above to acknowledge how difficult it is to quit "cold turkey," so they help people quit "slow turkey."

* ''Literature/ChristianeF'': the book on which the above-mentioned film is based is about a group of teenage junkies. The term "cold turkey" is used not just for the process of getting clean, but for the feelings of withdrawal that signature the person needs their next hit. In addition to the scene described above, the narrator describes some of the terrible things they do while trying to avoid "cold turkey." The narrator also withdraws, gets clean, and goes back to drugs several times throughout the text.

* When Daniel Jackson becomes addicted to the sarcophagus in the ''Series/StargateSG1'' episode "Need," he goes through a painful and nearly fatal withdrawal when he's prevented from using it again. In a variation, his detox stage isn't one that he enters voluntarily, and he's strapped to an infirmary bed until the worst of the symptoms are over. Or at least that was the plan; he gets loose and injures multiple people before Jack talks him into rejecting the sarcophagus. After this episode, sarcophagus addiction never comes up again except for a brief mention in seasons six and seven. No one from the SGC ever uses a sarcophagus again either, except for when Ba'al uses one to torture Jack.

* ''Series/OrangeIsTheNewBlack'': Tricia goes through a painful withdrawal in the episode "Moscow Mule." Nicky is sent to tell her Red won't forgive her for a second infraction.

* ''WesternAnimation/ThePenguinsOfMadagascar'': "Two Feet High and Rising" -- To prevent King Julian from banishing Mort, Marlene brings him to the penguins to help him overcome his crazed obsession over [[ICantBelieveItsNotHeroin King Julian's feet]]. Using conditioning to equate the touching of feet with electrical shocks, Mort gradually becomes "100% lemur foot-phobic". However, for [[StatusQuoIsGod the sake of status-quo]], this is all undone towards the end of the episode.

* On ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'' Angelica attempted to give up her favorite food (cookies) after getting a stomach ache from eating too many at one sitting. She was not successful.
* ''Franchise/StarTrek'':In The Next Generation series episode "Symbiosis", the Enterprise discovered a system where a civilization is exploiting a neighboring planet with an addictive drug and seeing what it has done to the Ornarans Picard opted to follow the Prime Directive and refused to repair the Brekkians only space worthy freighter leaving the Ornarans with no more supply of the drug. The aftermath of Picard's decision was shown in Star Trek: The Lower Decks episode "Trusted Sources" where the Cerritos visited planet Ornara 20 years after Picard's vist and learned that after Picard's decision the entire population went through 10 to 14 years of chaos and violence over their painful withdrawal, but eventually they overcame their addiction and are now devoted to a lifestyle of fitness and healthy diet.

** In another early example of celebrity rehab, Creator/JerryLewis kicked a 12-year addiction to Percodans (oxycodone with aspirin) in 1978, and was consequently featured in People magazine as one of the first mainstream celebs to admit to drug abuse. The tablets had been prescribed for a serious back injury from a pratfall that went wrong. Shortly after quitting, Lewis nearly died from a gastric ulcer bleed - caused by the aspirin in the tablets. The symptoms had been hidden by the analgesic effect. This is why the drug companies switched to mixing the oxycodone with APAP instead, to make the now better-known Percocets.

[[caption-width-right:250:Somehow, I don't think this is what they meant.]]

* ''Franchise/StarTrek'':In The Next Generation series episode "Symbiosis", the Enterprise discovered a system where a civilization is exploiting a neighboring planet with an addictive drug and seeing what it has done to the Ornarans Picard opted to follow the Prime Directive and refused to repair the Brekkians only space worthy freighter leaving the Ornarans with no more supply of the drug. The aftermath of Picard's decision was shown in Star Trek: The Lower Decks episode "Trusted Sources" where the Cerritos visited planet Ornara and learned that after Picard's decision the entire population went through 10 to 14 years of chaos and violence over their painful withdrawal, but eventually they overcame their addiction and are now devoted to a lifestyle of fitness and healthy diet.