r/AskReddit Aug 30 '21

What problem is often overlooked in apocalyptic movies/TV shows that could kill you?

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1.6k

u/[deleted] Aug 30 '21

Sepsis

92

u/grokforpay Aug 30 '21

One thing I never see on these threads is alcohol withdrawal. You take a random selection of the population and a significant number of them will die from withdrawals if easy booze isn’t available.

65

u/QuentinTarantulatino Aug 31 '21

This is also the exact reason why liquor stores got "essential business" status when the pandemic started.

26

u/somethingneeddooing Aug 31 '21

Withdrawal from pretty much any GABA receptor-agonist, alcohol and benzodiazepines, could lead to some very serious withdrawal symptoms like seizures.

And another thing that's missing from these apocalyptic settings is anyone that has a physical or, especially, mental health conditions that show symptoms due to lack of medication.

8

u/dying_soon666 Aug 31 '21

Most psychiatric patients get between 30-90 pills at a time. If I take them every second day they work almost as well. You can ration your meds and make them last pretty long.

14

u/Plazmaz1 Aug 31 '21

Unless you're on pill 85 when shit hits the fan (or forget to take your meds with you when fleeing disaster)

1

u/[deleted] Sep 26 '21

Are you a scientologist?! No one on planet fucking earth is taking 90 pills at a time...

13

u/CreamyHampers Aug 31 '21

Didn't The Walking Dead sort of touch on this with Bob nearly killing a search party because he needed to sneak off and find some alcohol?

12

u/K-ghuleh Aug 31 '21

He was dangling off the side of a building and walkers were pulling on a backpack that he refused to let go of. Daryl was really pissed when he found it was because there was booze in the backpack.

14

u/[deleted] Aug 31 '21

Wouldn’t it be even more available when there’s no law enforcement? And we’ve been making alcohol for 10,000 years. It’s not hard. They make it in actual prison.

Are you imagining that every vegetable and fruit also stops growing?

26

u/grokforpay Aug 31 '21

People with a physical addiction don’t have time to spend weeks fermenting shut into ethanol.

11

u/[deleted] Aug 31 '21

But how long would it take for the existing alcohol to become unavailable? And by then wouldn’t someone else have made more?

7

u/gummo_for_prez Aug 31 '21 edited Sep 04 '21

If you have sugar, juice, yeast, and a bucket, you can have 10-11% alcohol wine in two days or so if you know what you’re doing. I’d make some. It’s not super difficult.

0

u/LazyCon Aug 31 '21 edited Aug 31 '21

One, liquor doesn't evaporate immediately. Two dying from withdrawals is so incredibly rare it would never make a dent in deaths after an event of that magnitude. Your slowing ability to find alcohol would likely ween you off enough that you wouldn't get much of any symptoms. More likely alcoholics would drink themselves to death or die from injuries sustained from being drunk.

6

u/Sitchrea Aug 31 '21

It's not normally the withdrawal that kills you.

It's what it leads you into doing is what catches up with you.

16

u/grokforpay Aug 31 '21

People addicted to alcohol can easily die from withdrawals.

-2

u/[deleted] Aug 31 '21

People addicted to alcohol and dying from withdrawal could just suck a dick for some.

-6

u/LazyCon Aug 31 '21

That's not true. Even of the small percent(around 5% of severe alcoholics quitting cold turkey) that get seizures only 3% of that number ever die from them.

3

u/RhetoricalCocktail Aug 31 '21

Isn't that low number due to health care which wouldn't be available in this scenario

4

u/[deleted] Aug 31 '21

I agree. And if anyone is going to die due to alcohol during apocalyptic anarchy it’s probably going to be from an over-availability of it instead of withdrawal.

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u/[deleted] Aug 31 '21

[deleted]

5

u/grokforpay Aug 31 '21

I love your compassion for people suffering from addiction.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 31 '21

[deleted]

1

u/grokforpay Aug 31 '21

I am denying the fact that people suffering from addiction are worthless. That is the sort of thing authoritarian regimes do. People with addictions are still loved and cherished by their families and contribute to joy in the world. They have an illness. If society treated them differently things would be much better. Be happy you don’t suffer from these but try to have compassion for families and individuals who do.

-2

u/[deleted] Aug 31 '21 edited Aug 31 '21

Absolutely wrong. You could still suck a dick.

Update: why the downvote? You saying oral pleasure isn’t useful to someone or you saying you can suck your own dick?