Call now to be connected to a compassionate treatment professional. There are four primary reasons why unsupervised detox is extremely inadvisable. It is dangerous, uncomfortable, less likely to be successful, and it reduces the likelihood that the patient will try detox again. Doctors estimate 3 to 5 percent of people will have severe symptoms. Some people experience a severe form of alcohol withdrawal that doctors call the delirium tremens or alcohol withdrawal delirium.