When you keep taking wine to the point that you cannot control how much you drink, and where you take it, then you might have an alcohol use disorder on your hands.

Some people dealing with wine addiction might think that the only way to deal with some of the negative emotions, stress, and other factors stressing them is to take enough alcohol.

However, the positive effects are only short-lived because they need to keep taking more alcohol to sustain the pleasant effects in the long run.

When addiction is in play, it modifies the pathways in the brain, which will make it difficult for you to quit it. However, if you want to be done with addiction, you need to learn more about the treatment options available to you.

Detoxification

The primary essence of detoxification is to eliminate the toxins and waste products in your system that accumulated because of the wine intake. During this period, you will be required to refrain from alcohol so that the detoxification process will be more effective.

You might likely experience some withdrawal symptoms like seizures, fatigue, nausea, tremors, etc. However, if you undergo this process at the hands of a professional therapist, they will be able to manage your condition to ensure that it doesn’t take a great toll on you.  

Inpatient treatment

This option is ideal for people who have a chronic case of addiction. Such people would need more monitoring especially when they are at the withdrawal symptom stage.

When someone is in inpatient treatment, it might be difficult for them to do other things because they need to remain within the treatment facility till they are sober and clean.

Outpatient treatment

Outpatient treatment is for people whose addiction situation is milder than those with chronic cases. Such people do not need to stay at the treatment facility because they don’t need round-the-clock monitoring.

All they need to do is come from home to receive treatment, and they can return to their respective engagements.

Often, we tend to focus on the negative aspect of drinking wine. This makes people ignore the positive aspects of drinking wine. Research has shown that there are some health benefits you gain when you drink wine.

Therefore, this article will highlight some of the gains you get to your mental and physical health when you drink wine. These benefits are often associated with red wine but are not restricted to red wine alone.

So, here are some health benefits you can gain from drinking wine.

• It Promotes a Healthy Heart

One health benefit of drinking wine is that it helps to maintain a healthy heart. This is because wine, especially red wine contains resveratrol, a natural substance that helps to expand blood vessels and reduces blood clots. This resveratrol is also known as polyphenol.

So, the presence of these substances in wine helps to preserve the heart when you drink it. Drinking wine also helps to minimize bad cholesterol, which is associated with artery damage.

• It Guides Against Obesity

Drinking wine helps to guide against obesity. It does this through the presence of antioxidants, especially in white wine. These substances help to reduce excess fat by reducing bad cholesterol and inflammatory properties.

• It Improves Immune System

Drinking wine can help boost your immune system. Wine contains substances that help to fight viruses in the body. Ethanol is in wine, and it works to increase the efficacy of vaccinations.

Therefore, by drinking wine you can improve the defence system of your body.

• Drinking Wine Brings About Improve Eyesight

You can also improve your eyesight by drinking wine. It can help prevent loss of sight. This is because the resveratrol found in wine fights against the decline of eye muscles, especially due to age.

• It Gives Healthier Skin

Drinking wine gives you healthier skin. Wine contains antioxidants that help to promote healthy skin formation. When you drink wine in moderation, the antioxidants work to foster blood circulation, which reduces wrinkles in the skin.

Therefore, drinking wine has vital benefits to your health, not only for red wine but sometimes for white wine. Note though, that research shows that this is only applicable when you drink in moderation and not in excess. For instance, excess drinking of wine rather than cause healthier skin, instead cause skin dehydration.

But when you drink wine in moderation, these are some of the health benefits you enjoy.

Wine addiction is a peculiar situation where a person lies on excessive intake of wine to live. Unlike other types of addictions, it is more hidden, as people can hide under the pretense of social gatherings to drink wine. Many people drink wine today, it has even become an important part of social gatherings and celebrations.

But some people have become addicted to wine. It is often hard to identify such people because the signs are sometimes vague and vary based on each situation. However, there are some signs which indicate wine addiction.

The following signs indicate that a person is addicted to wine.

• Non-stop Drinking

Yes, drinking wine happens occasionally, but if you notice a person can’t stop drinking wine that is becoming more of an addiction. When a person always wants to be where there is wine, avoiding places where there is no wine, that is a sign of addiction.

• Drinking at Odd Times

A lot of people drink wine nowadays, but drinking at odd times is more of an addiction. For instance, if a person is drinking wine early in the morning, or at work, or in a meeting. This is a sign of addiction.

Addiction is when a person can’t do without that thing, but lies on it every time.

• Hiding to Drink

When a person begins to hide to drink, that is a sign of wine addiction. Or when you begin to find hidden wine bottles around them. It shows that such a person is addicted and cannot stop themselves from drinking.

• Changes of Friends

Another sign could be when they begin to change friends. People addicted to wine would often want to be with people who encourage them to drink more and have supplies of wine. So, when a person begins to change friends to people who drink, this is a sign of addiction.

• Depression and Anxiety

Emotional trauma is not far from someone with a wine addiction. He/she would experience mood swings, and could often be depressed about everything. This change in emotions indicates addiction.

In summary, wine addiction isn’t so different from other addictions. Although it can be hard to spot, the abovementioned signs indicate addiction to wine. But these signs work collectively to identify wine addiction and not singularly.

The emergence of wine addiction is not a one-off event, it is something that develops over time. Wine addiction is the end-result of wine abuse. This means that one of the ways to curb wine addiction, is to control wine abuse and possibly take it off the grid.

Wine abuse occurs when an individual takes wine incessantly to the point when it becomes an obsessive and compulsive act.

Hence, when the individual drinks wine to the point whereby the degree of obsessiveness and compulsiveness is high, then the person is addicted. Now, when addiction sets in, the individual would give precedence to wine addiction over other essential tasks.

This means that the individual in question would prefer to stay home all day and drink wine instead of attending to other important tasks.

People who are addicted to wine need help because just like other forms of addiction, they are likely to lose the essence of life with their addiction problem. Their health is also at risk because their body organs would be affected due to the addiction problem.

It would interest you to know that teenagers who begin abusing wine at a tender age, are likely to be addicted to wine before they become adults.

This is why parents need to be watchful of what their children or teenagers do, they must be on the lookout to avert various abusive tendencies that their children start to display.

If care is not taken, the young individual can combine wine addiction with drug addiction or any form of behavioral addiction, and the end-result could be disastrous.

Wine addiction affects the brain, heart, liver, pancreas and other vital organs. This is why people opt for organ transplant because their organs have been damaged by the excess wine in their system.

If you have a wine addiction problem, the first step is to acknowledge the fact that you are addicted, and you need help. Also, if you know someone who is addicted to wine, one way you can help them is to approach them with love and not prejudice.  

People reading the header of this piece would be shocked to see that wine addiction also exists. As a matter of fact, there is a thin line between wine abuse and wine addiction.

When a high level of premium is placed on drinking wine, such that the individual values it above other productive tasks, then wine addiction is in motion.

In the treatment of wine addiction, the best method of approach is the personal treatment method. This is possible when the addict is admonished by someone who is well versed in the concept of addiction.

Addicts do not like it when you condemn them, even though they know what they are doing is wrong, it is best to approach them lovingly.

Wine addiction is a sub-category of alcohol addiction, because of the constituents that make up the substance. Wine contains yeast which is responsible for the ingestion of whole sugar to produce ethanol, known as the major ingredient in alcohol.

One of the reasons why wine addiction is unknowingly widespread is because it is easily accessible and people love it. Wine addiction has advantageous effects that play out both in the short-term and long-term.

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In the short-term, wine addiction causes extreme calmness, vomiting, somnolence; the individual is not able to concentrate, his or her speech becomes slurred and the person might relapse in a coma if care is not taken.

Looking at the long-term effect of alcohol addiction, the major organs of the body are affected. And if care is not taken, there is a tendency for deterioration to occur.

The Brain which is very delicate, could undergo modification whereby the communication pathways of the brain are affected, and memory loss could occur in the process.

The Heart too could also be affected. The individual could also experience irregular heartbeat, stroke or even high blood pressure.

The same applies to the Liver, being the natural filter of the body, it could deteriorate if the wine taken is too much. Some liver problems like fibrosis, hepatitis and others could occur.

Wine can be regarded as a sophisticated drink which is something to be sampled, supped and enjoyed over a meal. Just like other alcoholic drinks, taking too much wine could also induce wine addiction alongside with other possible health problems.

It is a known fact that not everyone who takes alcohol would come down with an addiction. However, drinking much without an addiction in place has the tendency to birth more problems.

Irrespective of the fact that it is red or white wine addiction, taking too much drink can have adverse effects on your health.

Below are the possible effects which could occur as a result of excess wine consumption:

• Boosted blood cholesterol and toxins due to damaged liver function
• Premature maturing
• Increased fertility risk
• Possible sexual dysfunction
• Insomnia and poor quality sleep
• Obesity

To some individuals, it could be confusing how wine intake can affect their health. Now, it should be noted that moderate consumption of wine has certain health benefits, and they often oppose the adverse health effects of drinking.

For example, taking red wine in moderation ensures that weight loss and its maintenance occurs, because of the presence and work-action of antioxidants on the fats in the body. However, when it is taken in much quantities, more pounds could be added.

Alcohol contains lots of calories, devoid of the provision of nutrition alongside the stimulation of appetite. An individual who drinks much is very likely to ingest extra calories which are present in the alcohol.

It is essential for an individual to note that there is a thin line between moderate drinking and excessive drinking, and the individual must be observant to note that there are some symptoms which are associated with excessive drinking, which could transcend into being challenging.

Excessive intake of wine has the capacity to induce serious complications which could cause health issues which must be attended to and managed.

The points listed below are signs that drinking has gotten out of hand:

• Making attempts to stop drinking, but it does not work
• Setting a drinking limit and exceeding it
• Ability of other people to detect that you have a drinking habit
• Feeling of shame and guilt after drinking
• Taking wine alone and frequently
• Hiding your drinking habits and lying about them

WINE ADDICTION- SHORT TERM EFFECTS, LONG TERM EFFECTS AND CONTROL

Problems associated with wine might be hard to spot, based on the fact that wine is linked with the social aspect of drinking which may not be perceived as being risky. However, wine addiction happens to be an after-effect of drinking on a daily or frequent basis. Approaching this form of addiction with a personal treatment approach, getting free from wine addiction is very possible.

Wine happens to be an accepted beverage which is made from fermented grape juice without having to add enzymes, water, sugar and the likes. There is a common substance in wine which is called, yeast, and this substance ingests the whole sugar in order to give rise to ethanol, which is the active ingredient in alcohol.

It might be difficult to state that wine addiction exists due to the fact that it is generally accepted and readily available. Alcohol which is found in wine, is known to cause vision problems, judgement, inability to multitask amongst other effects. There are two known periods of wine addiction effect, which are the long term and short term.

For the short term, the known effects of wine addiction are:

• Calmness
• Vomiting
• Somnolence
• Inability to concentrate
• Slurred speech
• Coma
• Mood swings

As for the long term effect, excessive wine has the ability to negatively impair the following organs:

Brain- Taking alcohol for a very long time could affect the communication pathways of the brain, which could lead to memory loss

Heart- The effect on the heart also occurs in the short-term as well. Irregular heartbeat could be experienced, alongside with high blood pressure and probably stroke

Liver- The liver which happens to be the natural sieve of the body, could get impaired if the volume of alcohol gets too much, and liver problems such as hepatitis, fibrosis and the likes, could occur

Pancreas- Heavy intake of alcohol could also cause pancreatitis which causes vomiting and pain in the abdomen

The very first step to control wine addiction, is for addicts to come to term with the fact that they have a problem which can only be solved if someone helps them. The effects of wine vary from one person to another. Hence, there is a strong need for a personal treatment approach when handing wine addiction.

Furthermore, treatments such as cognitive behavioural therapy, stress management and dialectical behavioural therapy, would also suffice.