Self-Medicating Depression, Anxiety, and Stress

 

What is self-medicating?

In these times of great anxiety and distress, many of us are turning to substances to try to change the way that we feel. You might use food to give your mood a boost or alleviate boredom. You might smoke a joint to help you relax, or have a drink or two before going out to settle your nerves and ease any social anxiety. Or perhaps you turn to Xanax or Valium to help you sleep, ADHD medications to keep you focused during the day, or prescription painkillers to numb the grief and stress you’re experiencing at the moment?

When you use alcohol or drugs in this way to manage symptoms of a mental health issue, it’s known as “self-medicating”. You may be aware that you have a mental health problem but don’t know any healthier ways to cope. Or your condition could be undiagnosed and you simply use alcohol or drugs to cope with a specific symptom or situation. During the coronavirus pandemic and the resultant lockdowns and economic difficulties, for example, many of us have been self-medicating stress, worry, and depression as our old lives have largely disappeared and the future remains so uncertain.

While self-medicating may offer some relief in the short-term, over time it only exacerbates your problems. Whether you turn to alcohol, illegal drugs, or prescription medications (or even food or cigarettes), regular self-medication can lead to addiction, a worsening of mood disorders, and increased health problems. It can also damage your relationships at home, work, and school.

But you’re not powerless. By better understanding the reasons why and when you self-medicate, you can find healthier and more effective ways of coping with your problems and improving your overall mood and well-being.

Why people self-medicate

We all feel down, worried, and out of balance from time to time in response to life’s struggles and setbacks. But when feelings of hopelessness, fear, anger, sadness, or overwhelming stress start to interfere with how you function in daily life, it can be a sign that you need help for an underlying condition. Instead of seeking treatment, though, it can be tempting to try to cope on your own in the simplest way possible: by reaching for a drink or popping a pill.

In this age of coronavirus and widespread financial and social turmoil, many of us have tried to self-medicate our angst as the world seems to lurch from one crisis to another. With aspects of our lives still not back to normal—and the constant threat that things will get worse again—many of us are struggling to find healthy ways to cope with difficult emotions, stress, and uncertainty.

Other people turn to substances to cope with unpleasant memories or feelings stemming from the past, such as unresolved traumatic incidents. Others use alcohol or drugs to face situations that frighten them or to stay focused on tasks throughout the day.

Just as the reasons for seeking comfort in drugs or alcohol vary according to the individual, so too can the methods of self-medicating.

Forms of self-medication

Alcohol tends to be the most common method of self-medication—as well as the most commonly abused substance—since it’s so widely available. It may be used to self-medicate stress as well as depression and anxiety, even though beer, wine, and liquor are all depressants and will therefore only make symptoms worse.

Prescription drugs, including opioid pain killers, ADHD medication, and anti-anxiety medication are also widely available. Their uses can range from numbing pain or relaxation to increasing focus and energy.

Recreational drugs, such as marijuana, cannabis, or stimulants like cocaine and amphetamines are used to manage uncomfortable emotions, situations, and memories. Their use can lead to drug abuse and addiction.

Food can be used by emotional eaters to self-medicate unpleasant feelings and deal with stress, anxiety, or depression. Since most people crave foods high in sugar, calories, and unhealthy fat, emotional eating can play havoc with your waistline as well as your mood.

Nicotine contained in cigarettes and other tobacco products helps some people focus, although in the long-run tends to make symptoms of ADHD worse and can make it harder to quit smoking.

Signs that you’re self-medicating

It’s not always easy to identify when you’re self-medicating. After all, drinking alcohol is a socially acceptable part of many cultures, prescription medications can be found in most bathroom cabinets, and even recreational drugs such as marijuana are now legal or easy to obtain in a lot of places.

To understand if you’re self-medicating, it’s necessary to examine your motives for drinking or taking drugs—as well as the impact it’s having on your life. For example, are you popping a pain pill because your back is hurting or because you’ve had a stressful day at work and you want to change how you feel? Are you having a drink to be sociable with friends or complement a meal—or are you trying to improve your mood or feel less anxious?

Signs that you may be self-medicating include:

1. You turn to alcohol or drugs when you’re feeling anxious, stressed, or depressed. Many of us have used substances to cope with occasional bad news, such as the loss of a job or the breakup of a relationship. But if you’re regularly drinking or using drugs to cope with stress, relieve boredom, improve how you feel, or to steel yourself for a social engagement, for example, then there’s a strong possibility you’re self-medicating.
2. Drugs and alcohol make you feel even worse. Drugs and alcohol tend to be temporary fixes. Once the numbing effects have worn off, you’ll likely feel even worse. Self-medicating can impact how well you sleep, deplete your energy levels, and lower your immune system, making you more susceptible to illnesses. Your mood and emotional well-being will also suffer as you get trapped in a downward spiral of worsening mood and increased substance use.
3. It takes more and more self-medicating to gain relief. Where once it took just one or two drinks to ease your anxiety or de-stress at the end of the day, now it takes three, four, or even more. Having an increased tolerance means that you need more alcohol or drugs to experience the same effects. As you continue to self-medicate, your tolerance will continue to increase—as will the problems caused by your increasing substance use. You can only break the cycle by finding healthier ways to deal with your problems.
4. Your problems are multiplying. You started drinking to cope with stress, for example, but now you’ve got health, relationship, and financial problems to cope with as well. And the stress is even worse. The more you self-medicate, the more problems it creates in your life.
5. You worry when you don’t have access to drugs or alcohol. Do you worry how you’ll cope with a social situation where alcohol won’t be available? Do you start to get anxious when your prescription runs out? Do you get restless waiting for payday so you can afford to restock the drinks cabinet or call your dealer? The more uncomfortable you get at the thought of being separated from your substance of choice, the more likely it is that you’re self-medicating.
6. Your friends and family are worried about your substance use. Have people who care about you expressed their concern that you seem to be drinking more than usual? Or perhaps they’ve noted the changes in your personality, behavior, or social life? Substance abuse can affect those around you just as much as it affects you. It’s easy to dismiss others’ concerns or pretend that everything’s okay. But it takes great strength to listen to your loved ones’ fears and recognize when your substance use has become a problem.