"Cold turkey" refers to the abrupt cessation of a

substance dependence Substance dependence, also known as drug dependence, is a biopsychological situation whereby an individual's functionality is dependent on the necessitated re-consumption of a psychoactive substance because of an adaptive state that has develope ...

and the resulting unpleasant experience, as opposed to gradually easing the process through reduction over time or by using replacement

medication A medication (also called medicament, medicine, pharmaceutical drug, medicinal drug or simply drug) is a drug used to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent disease. Drug therapy ( pharmacotherapy) is an important part of the medical field an ...

. Sudden withdrawal from drugs such as

alcohol Alcohol most commonly refers to: * Alcohol (chemistry), an organic compound in which a hydroxyl group is bound to a carbon atom * Alcohol (drug), an intoxicant found in alcoholic drinks Alcohol may also refer to: Chemicals * Ethanol, one of sev ...

benzodiazepines Benzodiazepines (BZD, BDZ, BZs), sometimes called "benzos", are a class of depressant drugs whose core chemical structure is the fusion of a benzene ring and a diazepine ring. They are prescribed to treat conditions such as anxiety disorders, ...

, and

barbiturate Barbiturates are a class of depressant drugs that are chemically derived from barbituric acid. They are effective when used medically as anxiolytics, hypnotics, and anticonvulsants, but have physical and psychological addiction potential as ...

s can be extremely dangerous, leading to potentially fatal

seizure An epileptic seizure, informally known as a seizure, is a period of symptoms due to abnormally excessive or synchronous neuronal activity in the brain. Outward effects vary from uncontrolled shaking movements involving much of the body with l ...

s. For long-term alcoholics, going cold turkey can cause life-threatening

delirium tremens Delirium tremens (DTs) is a rapid onset of confusion usually caused by withdrawal from alcohol. When it occurs, it is often three days into the withdrawal symptoms and lasts for two to three days. Physical effects may include shaking, shiver ...

, rendering this an inappropriate method for breaking an alcohol addiction. In the case of

opioid withdrawal Opioid withdrawal is a set of symptoms (a syndrome) arising from the sudden withdrawal or reduction of opioids where previous usage has been heavy and prolonged. Signs and symptoms of withdrawal can include drug craving, anxiety, restless legs, n ...

, going "cold turkey" is extremely unpleasant but less dangerous.Opiate withdrawal
Medline Plus — NIH. Life-threatening issues are unlikely unless one has a pre-existing medical condition.

Smoking cessation Smoking cessation, usually called quitting smoking or stopping smoking, is the process of discontinuing tobacco smoking. Tobacco smoke contains nicotine, which is addictive and can cause dependence. As a result, nicotine withdrawal often m ...

methods advanced by

J. Wayne McFarland ''J. The Jewish News of Northern California'', formerly known as ''Jweekly'', is a weekly print newspaper in Northern California, with its online edition updated daily. It is owned and operated by San Francisco Jewish Community Publications In ...

and Elman J. Folkenburg (an M.D. and a pastor who wrote their Five Day Plan ca. 1959),

Joel Spitzer Joel Spitzer (born c. 1957) is an American smoking cessation educator. He currently serves as technical advisor at WhyQuit.com, a free nicotine dependence recovery website. All of his videos and writings on WhyQuit.com end with his advice, "Neve ...

and John R. Polito (smoking cessation educators) and

Allen Carr Allen John Carr (2 September 1934 – 29 November 2006) was a British author of books about stopping smoking and other psychological dependencies including alcohol addiction. Biography Born in Putney, London, Carr started smoking cigarettes ...

(who founded Easyway during the early 1980s) are cold turkey plans.

Etymology

The very one of 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. The journal's issue of January 3, 1877, featured the fictional diary of one John Humes, Esquire. The diary's transcript on the day in question details Mr Humes' exploits over his

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year ...

holiday. Throughout, Humes demonstrates a humbug attitude, complaining to every shopkeeper and acquaintance about the irony of the words "merry" and "jolly" being attached to the season. Most significantly, Hume is invited to stay at his cousin Clara's as a part of her household's celebrations. Hume, the miser to the core, is shocked that Clara serves him slices of (literal) cold turkey with his pudding and other side dishes on the evening of his arrival. A poor substitute for the roasted and dressed kind of turkey is the continually played-up implication in the

comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term ori ...

piece. The dissatisfied barrister stays several days nonetheless, and with each passing day, he is more and more shocked that the cold turkey finds its way onto his plate again. Finally, Hume arrives home, utterly disgusted at having been treated so badly. He calls for his estate lawyer and chops Clara completely out of his

will and testament A will or testament is a legal document that expresses a person's ( testator) wishes as to how their property (estate) is to be distributed after their death and as to which person ( executor) is to manage the property until its final distributi ...

. The

hypothesis A hypothesis (plural hypotheses) is a proposed explanation for a phenomenon. For a hypothesis to be a scientific hypothesis, the scientific method requires that one can testable, test it. Scientists generally base scientific hypotheses on prev ...

posited by researchers is that word quickly spread from

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

to the rest of Britain, and finally the U.S., about Hume's having given Clara "the cold turkey treatment," as in excluding and excommunicating someone (taking Clara out of his will) in order to exact revenge for the person's ongoing ill-treatment of oneself (the repeated serving of the cold turkey). The next known earliest print appearance of "cold turkey" in its exclusionary sense dates to 1910, in Canadian poet Robert W. Service's ''The Trail of '98: A Northland Romance'': "Once I used to gamble an' drink the limit. One morning I got up from the card-table after sitting there thirty-six hours. I'd lost five thousand dollars. I knew they'd handed me out 'cold turkey'..." Another possible origin relates to the American phrase ''talk turkey'', meaning "to speak bluntly with little preparation".cold turkey
definition, ''Dictionary.com''. The phrase "taking cold turkey" has also been reported during the 1920s as slang for pleading guilty. The term is also attributed to piloerection or "

goose bumps Goose bumps, goosebumps or goose-pimples are the bumps on a person's skin at the base of body hairs which may involuntarily develop when a person is tickled, cold or experiencing strong emotions such as fear, euphoria or sexual arousal. The f ...

" that occurs with abrupt withdrawal from opioids, which resembles the skin of a plucked refrigerated

turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

. However, the term was used in other contexts before being used to describe withdrawal. The similar term "kick the habit" alludes to the muscle spasms that occur in addition to goosebumps in some cases. A term appears in its contemporary usage in a December 1920 New York City medical bulletin: Another early printed use, this one in the media to refer to drug withdrawal occurred in the ''

Daily Colonist The ''Times Colonist'' is an English-language daily newspaper in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. It was formed by the Sept. 2, 1980 merger of the ''Victoria Daily Times'', established in 1884, and the ''British Colonist'' (later the ''Daily ...

'' in British Columbia in 1921:Movers and Shakers: A Chronology of Words that Shaped Our Age, by John Ayto

References

{{Reflist Drug rehabilitation Substance dependence Slang

Etymology

See also

References