Is wine addictive?

[minestrone]

They are opening up a Waitrose near to me, third one in Scotland. Yipee.

[BrilloPad]

I am almost tee-total I only only drink on holiday so about 4 weeks per year. And then I dont get plastered.

[EternalOptimist]

I seriously couldn't imagine not having a drink when I get in tonight

Anyone else the same?

Not really a wine fiend so you can have mine anytime Sally. Just come on down and take what you fancy. Help oneself. Feel free. Take it all.
It's yours.
I am addicted to large wobbly boobies though, I must admit, got any spares on you love ?

[SallyAnne]

Not really a wine fiend so you can have mine anytime Sally. Just come on down and take what you fancy. Help oneself. Feel free. Take it all.
It's yours.
I am addicted to large wobbly boobies though, I must admit, got any spares on you love ?

We could make a perfect partnership

Well it seems I dont have a problem after all - been in the house well over an hour now and I haven't hada drink. However I will be opening a bottle when my hubby arrives (10 mins or so).
I think I was just sick of being in work!

[Cliphead]

I'll tell you in the morning...

cheers

[Gonzo]

Anyway...current day situation...we've joined a wine club and have a lovely supply of gorgeous wine in the house...I want wine every night, and I can't see the point in having a meal without it!
I dont want any other booze, and I dont need a whole bottle (although it's getting there!!), but I'm starting to wonder if wine is actually addictive? I've never felt this dependant on something since I smoked.
I seriously couldn't imagine not having a drink when I get in tonight

Anyone else the same?

Ah, you've had that "join a wine-club" moment - seems to happen to most of the middle-classes at some point.

Alcohol is addictive, I don't think that wine is worse than any other type though. Mrs Gonzo and I can easily get through two (or three ) bottles of wine in a single evening. I am careful not to drink it every night though - sometimes we will have beer instead.

I understand that if you consume more than 50 units of alcohol per week then you will be doing some damage to yourself. I am not medically qualified but can state categorically that you will eventually die from something.

The clean-living elder generation in my family mostly survive to be frail 90-somethings that can no longer look after themselves. I am beginning to question the longevity-at-all-costs approach that we seem to have had in the western world over the past 50 years. I suspect that our children and grandchildren will resent paying for it too.

[Cyberman]

Drinking alcohol every day is a recipe for throat cancer. There was an article published last week that stated new evidence of just small amounts of alcohol taken each day greatly increases the risks due to the chemical reactions in the mouth.

http://info.cancerresearchuk.org/healthyliving/alcohol/

http://www.cancer-info-guide.com/throat-cancer.html

[expat]

The clean-living elder generation in my family mostly survive to be frail 90-somethings that can no longer look after themselves. I am beginning to question the longevity-at-all-costs approach that we seem to have had in the western world over the past 50 years. I suspect that our children and grandchildren will resent paying for it too.

Me too. This is no thoughtless bragging on my part: I'm 57, and if I do an online life expectancy calculator and 'fess up to all the booze plus passive smoking plus no exercise plus bacon rolls and real overweight, some of them give me only 20 years more. Of course I may have less, who knows? But the thought that just another 20 years might be all I have, even with luck, focussed my thoughts a bit, especially if I have to work the first 10 years of that 20 to make any kind of retirement income. 10 years work, 10 years scared poverty-stricken living, just for a desperate hope that I might hang on another 10 or 20 with fading health, no money, and no fun? **** that. Where's the life in that?

[TCL]

+1, another wino in the making here.

Used to not be too bothered, I'd have the odd glass if I was offered when out at friends houses and so on, but didn't really buy wine that often.

That all changed about 2 years ago, I became friendly with a stockbroker and we'd regularly polish off a couple of bottles of something red and expensive over lunch a couple of times a week. Still do, when we get together. And ever since then, I've turned into something of a wino of an evening. Get home, kids to bed then what you gonna do? Might as well crack open another bottle. Trouble is ever since baby #3, wife has been off it (including all through the pregnancy, good girl!) So its just been me on my own, I will do a whole bottle about 3-4 times a week. After a while you don't even get a hangover.

OK, have just re-read that before posting and it really does sound like an AA speech....oh dear.

[expat]

Me too. I remember when I would have one drink, but not a second one at home, on my own. Out the window now.

Not my business, but think carefully about diverging from your wife in this lifestyle: it might be worth trying to give up the drink when she's off it (permanently if need be), the hard choice one day might come down to vino or her. Sorry to be dramatic.