Alcoholism Symptoms - Abuse or Dependence?

Often the signs of alcohol abuse are very similar to alcoholism symptoms, yet ultimately, these two conditions are unique. While alcohol abuse is an unhealthy pattern of drinking that can cause physical and emotional harm, alcoholism is a physical dependency on alcohol. Alcohol abuse can be overcome. Alcoholism is a chronic degenerative disease that can be treated, though not cured.

What are the differences between alcohol abuse symptoms and alcoholism symptoms? When does abuse become dependency? Are most people even aware of the difference? Dynamic new addictions research shows that many people search online for answers to these questions and more.

Are People Looking for Symptoms/Signs of an Alcoholic or Something Else?

Innovative technology recently analyzed thousands of phrases used in conjunction with searches for “signs of an alcoholic/alcoholism symptoms” to determine if online users distinguish between abuse and alcoholism.

While “signs of an alcoholic” registered in 18th spot (3,825 occurrences/year), “alcohol detox” (23,794) placed first in the search frequency research results. The generality of this term, however, doesn't provide much insight. Further analysis shows that 9,186 inquiries were specific to “alcohol abuse”, as compared to 11,265 searches for “alcoholism symptoms”. Most queries within the top ten also referenced “alcoholism” and “symptoms” in various ways.

Alcoholism Symptoms - Prevalent Search Topics - Graph 1

(Continued on Graph 3 at the bottom of this page)

Top 30 two and three word combinations

	estimated searches/year across all search engines
	2,000		25,000
alcohol detox	23794
signs of alcoholism	17993
alcohol withdrawal	14578
symptoms of alcohol	14366
detox symptom	13688
alcohol detox symptom	13688
alcoholism symptoms	11265
alcohol withdrawal symptoms	10899
alcohol abuse	9186
alcohol poisoning	9077
detox symptoms	8343
alcohol detox symptoms	8269
signs of alcohol	8052
symptoms of alcoholism	7459
alcoholism signs	6765
alcoholic symptoms	4172
alcohol withdrawl	3870
signs of an alcoholic	3825
symptoms of alcohol poisoning	3788
symptoms of alcohol withdrawal	3521
signs of alcohol abuse	3032
signs of alcohol poisoning	2998
symptoms of an alcoholic	2997
alcohol addiction	2957
symptoms of alcohol abuse	2866
alcohol abuse symptoms	2406
alcoholism physical symptom	2342
alcoholism sign	2278
alcohol poisoning symptoms	2255
symptoms of alcohol withdrawl	2020
	2,000		25,000

Signs of Alcoholism

Other than “alcohol detox” and “alcohol withdrawal”, the general theme of this study focused on searches for “alcoholism symptoms”. In the issue of abuse versus alcoholism, it seems that many people use the term “alcoholism” as a general reference to the condition of alcohol misuse.

Graph 2 shows the individual words that occur with the most frequency. The top five are “symptoms” (79,496), “alcohol” (72,347), “alcoholism” (54,966), “signs” (45,584) and “detox” (23,879). Specific terms of interest that round out the top 21 include “women” (1,834), “allergy” (1,296) and “liver” (848).

Alcoholism Symptoms - Prevalent Words and Concepts Study - Graph 2

Top 100 words used in alcoholism symptoms searches
(Top 1000 can be found at Top 100 alcoholism symptoms exact phrases and top 1,000 concepts/words - Graph 5)

	estimated searches/year across all search engines
	0		82,000
symptoms	79476
alcohol	72347
alcoholism	54966
signs	45584
detox	23879
symptom	16595
alcoholic	15688
withdrawal	15329
abuse	9242
poisoning	9114
physical	6076
sign	5376
withdrawl	3871
warning	3419
addiction	2997
description	1845
women	1834
alcoholics	1584
allergy	1296
early	940
liver	848
fetal	687
syndrome	657
advanced	653
adult	565
withdraw	564
children	553
disease	428
stage	403
late	386
teen	369
condition	294
drug	278
withdrawel	277
relapse	258
poison	249
damage	226
drugs	196
failure	183
used	182
treatment	173
first	149
problem	148
allergies	122
body	116
odor	116
detoxification	114
due	109
hepatitis	104
problems	91
overdose	91
when	85
taken	82
ranitidine	82
spouse	73
what	68
dont	55
non	50
beers	49
anonymous	49
drinking	47
living	37
person	36
sheet	32
family	29
facts	21
chronic	19
diabetes	19
dependancy	18
affect	18
anger	18
recovering	17
12	16
causes	16
print	15
from	14
beverage	14
pictures	14
equilibrium	13
medical	13
male	13
infertility	12
being	12
australia	12
anonimous	12
cholesterol	12
total	12
duration	12
exposure	12
child	12
danger	12
calculate	12
vital	12
health	12
behavior	11
tobacco	10
final	10
intolerance	9
dying	9
disorder	9
drink	9
bipolar	9
visual	9
	0		82,000

Advanced Addictions Research from a Montreal Drug and Alcohol Rehab Center

In the study comparing the terms used to search for alcoholism symptoms and alcohol abuse symptoms online, the preference seems to be a reference to “alcoholism” in general; although the term “symptoms” is found in combination with a wide variety of terms. This finding has been garnered through new intensive addictions research sponsored by USDR, a progressive Montreal, Quebec, Canada drug and alcohol rehab center. For data and analysis on related addictions topics, visit other pages on this site.

Alcoholism Symptoms - Prevalent Search Topics, Continued - Graph 3

Top 31 - 101 two and three word combinations
(Top 30 are in Graph 1 above)

	estimated searches/year across all search engines
	100		2100
alcohol sign	1974
alcohol signs	1849
signs of alcohol addiction	1838
description of alcohol	1836
alcoholism in women	1834
symptoms of alcohol detox	1830
alcohol withdrawl symptoms	1777
alcoholic signs	1692
symptoms alcoholism	1678
physical symptoms of alcoholism	1669
alcohol allergy	1296
signs of alcoholic	1187
addiction symptoms	1106
alcohol addiction symptoms	1096
early signs of alcoholism	936
alcohol allergy symptoms	924
warning signs of alcoholism	830
alcoholism physical symptoms	830
alcoholism signs symptoms	827
alcoholism warning signs	825
alcohol abuse signs	761
fetal alcohol	687
alcohol syndrome	657
fetal alcohol syndrome	657
sign of alcoholism	630
advanced alcoholism	629
symptoms of advanced alcoholism	629
alcoholism withdrawal	610
alcohol symptoms	610
symptoms of alcoholic	588
physical signs of alcoholism	578
alcohol withdraw	562
alcoholic liver	559
alcohol withdraw symptoms	556
children of alcoholics	553
alcoholism physical signs	552
alcoholics symptoms	552
adult children of alcoholics	552
fetal alcohol syndrome symptoms	469
alcoholism withdrawal symptoms	464
alcoholic liver disease	410
symptoms of alcoholics	389
symptoms of teen alcoholism	369
teen alcoholism	369
symptoms alcohol allergy	368
late stage alcoholism symptoms	368
late stage alcoholism	368
alcoholism signs and symptoms	368
alcohol withdrawel symptoms	277
alcohol withdrawel	277
alcoholism warning sign	276
alcohol poison	249
drug alcohol signs	237
drug alcohol	237
relapse alcohol	182
symptoms relapse alcohol	182
alcoholism sign and symptom	164
alcoholism more condition symptoms	158
alcohol liver	150
alcohol problem	148
alcohol liver damage symptoms	146
alcoholic liver failure	146
alcoholism withdrawal symptom	146
first signs of alcoholism	146
alcohol liver damage	146
signs of alcohol withdrawal	146
symptoms of alcohol poison	146
alcohol allergies	122
alcohol detoxification	114
alcohol detoxification symptoms	113
detoxification symptoms	113
	100		2100