Cold turkey

For other uses, see Cold turkey (disambiguation).

"Cold turkey" describes 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 supposed advantage is, by not actively using supplemental methods, the addict avoids thinking about the habit and its temptation, and avoids further feeding the addiction. The supposed disadvantages related to the abuse of drugs such as alcohol and benzodiazepines are unbearable withdrawal symptoms from the total abstinence, which may cause tremendous stress on the heart and blood vessels (and, in a worst-case scenario, death). Heroin withdrawal shares many of these same symptoms, although deaths only occur in "rapid-detox" treatments alongside other administered medications, such as Naltrexone or Naloxone.

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 dependence upon certain drugs, including opiates such as heroin, going cold turkey may be 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.

In popular culture

Instances of the phrase's use in popular culture include:

Film

• Norman Lear's 1971 movie Cold Turkey, about a small town that gives up smoking to win $25,000,000

Music

• John Lennon's song "Cold Turkey" (1969), about kicking heroin
• Green Day's song "Hitchin' A Ride" (1997), main singer says Cold turkey's getting stale, in a hidden reference to the state
• Cage's song "This Place" (2013), wherein he sings: "I can't believe I made it out with so little damage/ Back then I thought cold turkey was a fuckin' sandwich"

Etymology

An early printed use of the word in the mainstream media to refer to drug withdrawal occurred in a February 26, 1951 Time magazine article "High & Light":

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'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.

It had been previously used in this sense by Mickey Spillane in his novel I, the Jury: "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 are several explanations of the phrase's origin:

• A narrowing of the meaning "suddenly or without preparation", from cold turkey being a dish that requires little preparation; originally used for heroin addicts.
• From the American phrase talk turkey meaning "to speak bluntly with little preparation".
• Some believe the derivation is from the comparison of a cold turkey carcass and the state of a withdrawing addict — most notably, the cold sweats, goose bumps.
• Reference to the periods after Christmas and Thanksgiving holidays where cold (leftover) turkey was likely to be eaten, coinciding with the end of those holidays' characteristically high alcohol consumption.

See also

• Smoking cessation
• Drug withdrawal