Dealing with D.T.'s

So I have a character who is an alcoholic and at one point I'm going to strand him without alcohol for some time. This naturally leads to him getting delirium tremens. This leaves him irritable and short sighted (among other things, but those traits are the ones causing him the most problems at that point) and unable to form a solid plan. I plan to have him overcome this by having him drink some (he is always at least a bit drunk, so this will just be a return to status quo) and 'save' the day.

So my question is: How long would it take from drinking the alcohol to the symptoms of D.T. going away?

Note: I don't care about having a Family-Unfriendly Aesop or some Unfortunate Implications as I plan to make the whole thing as awesomely stupid as I can and then lampshade the hell out of the entire Booze-Based Buff element.

If you want it realistic, you need to be doing some serious research in the medical literature. But in short: It varies widely.

edited 4th Nov '10 9:57:47 PM by Madrugada

As a borderline alcoholic, I'll comment...

Your character will be all right...as long as nothing stressful happens. As soon as something does, he or she will be wishing for a drink to "mellow things out" and be real grumpy when there isn't one.

Also, the first opportunity the character gets to have a drink, they'll get plastered.

Depending on how serious you want your character's addiction to be that's the worst of it for casual alcoholics; more than that and you should hit the medical textbooks. Seeing as I'm not to that stage yet (I hope), that's the best advice I can offer.

Ok... I know of a site where doctors answer questions concerning medical issues. I could probably start there. Thanks.

Withdrawal symptoms can last for a few days up to a couple of weeks. A double dose of Robaxacet - a muscle relaxant - might take the edge off of the shakes.