top of page

6 common alcohol abuse symptoms uncovered by online rehab searches

In this review, I want to speak about the common symptoms that tend to motivate people to seek information about help with alcohol addiction. I'd like to draw your attention to a study that involved 12000 people because it identifies 6 common symptoms that motivate people to search for information about help with alcohol addiction. Now, several of these symptoms are associated with a social embarrassment, which is a likely reason why people became motivated to seek help. They searched for information about the AA 12-step program to help with alcohol addiction.


I'll also discuss the limitations of the study because the doctors could not gauge from their research whether those who sought information about a getting help ended up attending an AA 12-step program or not. So, we'll look at another study which indicates that some people simply do not attend an AA 12-step program due to fear of social embarrassment. Finally, I will offer an alternative method to 12-step programs, which is rapidly gaining in popularity precisely because of its lack of stigma.


The study

The study was conducted by doctors at the University of Columbia USA. They hypothesised that by analysing anonymous internet search engine data that they would be able to identify a specific list of common symptoms which would motivate people to seek treatment information about dealing with their alcohol addiction. This isn't the first time that anonymous internet search data has been used for such a purpose. A similar approach has also been used to predict later medical events such as cases of influenza, adverse effects from medications and even the onset of certain cancers.

In the study done by those doctors at the University of Columbia, 12000 people in the USA who use the Bing search engine between November 2016 and July 2017 were selected. Firstly, the scientist filtered the searches for those who mentioned Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) along with additional searches for a medical symptom or condition to identify which symptoms most predicted searching for information about getting help with alcohol addiction. To maintain quality, they only accepted online rehab search queries as genuinely predictive of seeking information about help with alcohol addiction if the probability of that search exceeded the likelihood of the same search being made by all of the other Bing users in the USA.


Their goal was to identify a specific list of symptoms that most motivated people to seek treatment information about alcohol addiction help. Their findings highlighted 6 common symptoms that remained consistent throughout 30-days prior to seeking help. The six common symptoms are as follows:

• Anxiety

• Blister

• Blurred vision

• Itch

• Swelling

• Tinnitus (ringing in ears)


The results

The results suggest that search queries about non-severe and common medical symptoms indicate that they are important in motivating individuals towards seeking information about the help with alcohol addiction and the AA 12-step program. The scientists said that a possible mechanism underlying this motivation could be that of social embarrassment associated with a number of these symptoms. For example, blisters, itching, swelling and even anxiety may be seen to others as being socially unacceptable. The added that social conformity has been shown previously to motivate people to consume alcohol.


They mentioned that another primary limitation of this study was that they were unable to follow up on the search behaviour of these people to find out if they actually attended an AA 12-step program or not. The one thing that this study does highlight is that people who are concerned about the drinking who also experience common medical symptoms will search the internet privately for help with potential alcohol addiction. Whether they're actually motivated enough to attend an AA meeting remains to be investigated. A previous study published in the American journal of epidemiology has shown that people with alcohol disorders who perceive social stigma in the community are less likely to attend alcohol treatment services.


So what are the alternative options for getting help with alcohol addiction for people who would feel too socially awkward to enrol upon an AA 12-step program? Well, with high-quality video internet streaming as good as it is nowadays, you may not even need to leave the comfort and privacy of your home to get the help that you require. Online rehab offers you an opportunity to deal with your addiction privately and no one else needs to know about your problem.


If you think that you may be suffering from alcohol addiction, why not schedule a FREE online video chat to find out how Online Rehab can help.



Comments


bottom of page