Alcohol Addiction: Signs, Complications, and Recovery

Experts have tried to pinpoint factors like genetics, sex, race, or socioeconomics that may predispose someone to alcohol addiction. Psychological, genetic, and behavioral factors can all contribute to having the disease. If you have no family history of melanoma and none of the other risk factors mentioned above, I wouldn’t worry too much about any increased risk from drinking white wine.

How to quit drinking

A night of drinking can cause uncomfortable symptoms like diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting. Chronic and excessive alcohol use disrupts the balance of bacteria in the gut microbiome (dysbiosis). Over time, this imbalance triggers chronic gastrointestinal inflammation, leading is wine addictive to a higher risk of gastrointestinal diseases. Addiction is a complex condition that affects many individuals and families. Whether you are addicted to wine or any other kind of substance, help is available for you and your loved ones.

Mayo Clinic Q and A: Is daily drinking problem drinking?

Day drinking can interfere with your alertness, your thought processes, and your ability to work or drive. Are you constantly making excuses to drink earlier in the day or joking that “it’s five o’clock somewhere”? If you’ve brought your nightcap into the daytime, your wine habit might be morphing into addiction.

Long-Term Health Risks

• Someone with an alcohol addiction who has remained sober for months or years may find themselves drinking again.
• It can help someone handle withdrawal symptoms and emotional challenges.
• In worst-case scenarios, liver cells die and get replaced with scar tissue, leading to a serious condition called cirrhosis (3, 6, 7).
• But if you find yourself back to the bottle in a few days, you’ve learned that you can’t control your drinking.

In worst-case scenarios, liver cells die and get replaced with scar tissue, leading to a serious condition called cirrhosis (3, 6, 7). One of its main roles is to neutralize various toxic substances you consume. For this reason, your liver is particularly vulnerable to damage by alcohol intake (3).

How We Get Hooked: Understand Alcohol Misuse

Wine addiction is a serious issue that can affect your physical health, mental health, and livelihood — but it is treatable with the right treatment plan. The alcohol content of wine, or its concentration of alcohol, can affect its strength, the https://ecosoberhouse.com/ effects of alcohol on the body, and the recommended serving size. U.S. dietary guidelines for alcohol use recommend that adults of legal age limit their alcohol intake to one drink or less per day for women, or two drinks or less for men.

• Alcohol can damage your body’s organs and lead to various health concerns.
• Sarah would unwind after work by enjoying a glass of her preferred red wine.
• Treatments like cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), mindfulness and stress management and dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) help people restore balance and purpose in their lives.
• During medical detox, doctors help you give up wine gradually, which reduces your risk of withdrawal symptoms.
• Alcohol withdrawal symptoms may start as early as eight hours after a person’s last drink and can last for several weeks.

One personal anecdote exemplifies the stress relieving and mental health benefits of wine. Sarah would unwind after work by enjoying a glass of her preferred red wine. Savoring wine helped her unwind and let go of the stress accumulated throughout the day. Sarah observed an improvement in her mood, feeling more content and at ease after indulging in a glass of wine. For example, it can cause liver damage — including cirrhosis — brain damage, heart failure, diabetes, cancer and susceptibility to infections (9, 54, 58, 72, 73, 74). Chronic alcohol abuse can have catastrophic health effects, impacting your entire body and causing a range of health problems.

Alcohol Addiction and Withdrawal

Any information published on this website or by this brand is not intended as a substitute for medical advice, and you should not take any action before consulting with a healthcare professional. Many people assume someone like me doesn’t have an alcohol use disorder. That’s why I started sharing my sobriety journey on TikTok nearly two years ago. It took me a while to work up the courage to start posting, but once I did, I realized how much it helped me feel seen, heard, and validated. Now I get so many messages from people saying they had no idea anyone else was going through the same thing.

• Many people with alcohol use disorder hesitate to get treatment because they don’t recognize that they have a problem.
• In fact — while drinking beer regularly may cause an increase in waist circumference — the well-known “beer belly” — wine consumption may have the opposite effect (31, 35, 36).
• The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism reports that up to 15.1 million adults have Alcohol Use Disorder, a chronic disease characterized by uncontrolled consumption of and dependency on alcohol.
• These early perceptions often overshadow the delayed negative consequences.
• Over time or on one single occasion, excessive wine can take a serious toll on your health.
• For example, it can cause liver damage — including cirrhosis — brain damage, heart failure, diabetes, cancer and susceptibility to infections (9, 54, 58, 72, 73, 74).

It’s possible to become addicted to alcohol by drinking white or red wine alone. That is, alcohol addiction can develop even if you don’t drink other alcoholic beverages, like wine or spirits. However, excessive wine consumption can lead to a reverse effect called alcoholic dementia. It is very easy to become addicted to wine consumption, and wine addiction symptoms are sometimes very subtle until they become an issue. The knowledge of how to spot a potential alcoholic will help to prevent serious consequences.

That habit continued into college, where the binge drinking lifestyle was pretty normalized, so nothing I was doing seemed wrong or out of the ordinary. Francisco Church is a rehabilitation specialist and the chief editor of Recovery Ranger. He creates this site to offer guidance and support to individuals seeking to overcome addiction and achieve lasting sobriety. With extensive experience in the field of addiction treatment, Francisco is dedicated to helping individuals access the resources they need for successful recovery. The easiest way to see if your wine habit has turned into a problem? If drinking isn’t an issue for you, you shouldn’t have an issue forgoing the booze.