Cold turkey

'Cold turkey' refers to the abrupt cessation of a substance dependence and the resulting unpleasant experience, as opposed to gradually easing the process through reduction over time or by using replacement medication. The term comes from the piloerection or 'goose bumps' that occurs with abrupt withdrawal from opioids, which resembles the skin of a plucked refrigerated turkey.Some addicts voluntarily stop taking opiates and 'suffer it out' as they express it without medical assistance, a process which in their slang is called taking 'cold turkey'...Perhaps the most pitiful figures who have appeared before Dr. Carleton Simon ... are those who voluntarily surrender themselves. When they go before him, that are given what is called the 'cold turkey' treatment.Included was a medical record from the hospital when he had made her go cold turkey, which is dope-addict talk for an all-out cure.There is one dimly hopeful side to the teenage dope problem. Unlike older people, few teenagers appear to take to drugs because of psychological troubles; youngsters usually start using narcotics either out of ignorance or the same reckless impulses which lead them to race hot rods. Though they are easier to wean, however, there are almost no facilities for taking care of them. On New York City's Rikers Island, youngsters have to endure the horrors of a sudden 'cold turkey' cure or get none at all. Once released, many go right back to drugs again. 'Cold turkey' refers to the abrupt cessation of a substance dependence and the resulting unpleasant experience, as opposed to gradually easing the process through reduction over time or by using replacement medication. The term comes from the piloerection or 'goose bumps' that occurs with abrupt withdrawal from opioids, which resembles the skin of a plucked refrigerated turkey. Sudden withdrawal from drugs such as alcohol, benzodiazepines, and barbiturates can be extremely dangerous, leading to potentially fatal seizures. For long-term alcoholics, going cold turkey can cause life-threatening delirium tremens, rendering this an inappropriate method for breaking an alcohol addiction. In the case of opioid withdrawal, going 'cold turkey' is extremely unpleasant but less dangerous. Life-threatening issues are unlikely unless one has a pre-existing medical condition. Smoking cessation methods advanced by J. Wayne McFarland and Elman J. Folkenburg (an M.D. and a pastor who wrote their Five Day Plan ca. 1959), Joel Spitzer and John R. Polito (smoking cessation educators) and Allen Carr (who founded Easyway during the early 1980s) are cold turkey plans. Though the very first adaptation of the phrase “cold turkey” to its current meaning is a matter of some debate and ambiguity, scholars of 19th-century British periodicals have pointed to the UK satirical magazine Judy as the true catalyst of “cold turkey’s” evolution in meaning. “Judy” enjoyed a very wide readership, in no small part because it contained the first serial comic strip, “Ally Sloper,” which followed its namesake character's adventures as a cartoon wartime correspondent.