system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
What about alcohol addiction makes detox so dangerous?

I keep hearing that serious drinkers can run the risk of liver failure if they suddenly stop cold-turkey. Why is that? Heroin addicts don't run the risk of dropping dead like that. Do they?
gpt
With detox it's typically the mental status changes and potential seizures that are problematic. Because alcohol modulates receptors in the brain (GABA receptors) that are inhibitory in nature (alcohol is a depressant), over long-term use the body adapts to this by decreasing the number of these receptors (tolerance!). The problem is that when you take the alcohol away, you now have too little inhibition of the brain (we all have a basal level of inhibition at all times that is substantial). In this scenario, seizures become more likely (and more likely the worse of an alcoholic you are). So the real danger is either death from seizures (status epilepticus) or things like aspiration pneumonia associated with the CNS changes you'll see.

And no, heroin addicts don't have this problem. Mostly alcohol. Benzodiazepine or barbiturate dependence can also cause these same issues via an extremely similar mechanism.