Can I clear something up here? Saying "alcoholics die when they stop drinking" is like saying "people die when they slip in the shower." While studies claim that "about 3 to 5% of people with alcohol use disorders experience grand mal seizures" not all of those people die and that 3 to 5% is a tiny fraction of the number of alcoholics that seek recovery from alcoholism.

What I mean is alcoholism varies from the college student that comes into recovery because their drinking has led to failing grades to wet brains that have been sleeping on the streets for years. Most of us fall somewhere in the middle. But all of us are alcoholics.

I've been in recovery for thirty years and was an EAP for a major corporation until I retired. I've seen a lot of alcoholics get sober. I've seen cases of the shakes, I've flown round trip to Minnesota with several fellow employees who would rather keep their job than their drinking. I've seen the other too, employees who chose jobless over stopping and a few of them contacted me years later. I've seen cases where professional detox was warranted, and I've seen case where hospital made money off unwarranted professional detox. But what I've mostly seen was someone showing up at an AA meeting, raising their hand to say they are an alcoholic and then either sticking around to recover, sticking around for a short while or going back out to do more research on the question. Some of them come back and raise their hands again.

I've never seen anyone die from putting the plug in the jug and I hate to think of someone who is confused, thinking of stopping, asking questions and reading "Why do alcoholics die when they stop drinking?" when they should be reading "Why do a small percentage of severe alcoholics die during detox?