It is said that alcoholics and drug addicts are “self-medicating” their anxiety, depression, trauma, stress, other mental disorders and “underlying issues” or “underlying causes of addiction” with drugs and alcohol. Some say these “underlying issues” directly cause substance use. Others may take a softer stance by viewing it as a choice, which you can only stop by acquiring new “coping skills” for these underlying issues. Either way, those who live under the belief that they’re stuck in this self-medicating trap want an answer as to how to get out of it.
There is a very simple answer: realize that drugs and alcohol do not work as medications for these problems.
They simply don’t act this way. If you can really understand this, you will not be motivated at all to use them as medication – no matter how bad your stress, anxiety, depression, and other problems get.
I wrote an article about this recently for tinybuddha.com. Check it out, and leave some comments: Overcoming the painful desires and beliefs that fuel addiction. Here’s an excerpt too:
The thing is, drugs and alcohol don’t medicate anything. But as long as you believe they are your medicine, you will feel deprived and suffer when you don’t have this medicine. The sooner you stop believing that they are medicine, the sooner this desire will go away.
The fact is, most of the emotional and behavioral experiences people have while using drugs and alcohol are subjectively created. They’re mostly an effect of expectancy. As a noted addiction researcher observed:
“Sometimes alcohol may be a relaxant (the martini after the hard day at the office) and sometimes it may act as a stimulant (the first drink at the party).” ~Norman Zinberg, Drug, Set, and Setting, 1986
Isn’t that a bit unbelievable? It’s a total contradiction and thus literally impossible. Stimulants and relaxants are total opposites. Yet, you probably know from your own experience or watching others that people can have both of these effects while drinking.
The key is to realize that these effects don’t come from the alcohol itself. They come from you.
The fact is that you don’t, in reality, need alcohol to relax, and you don’t need it to get wild at a party, because alcohol itself does neither of those things. If you want to relax, you can do it, with or without alcohol. Same goes for getting wild at a party.
And the same goes for the plethora of things we think drugs and alcohol do.
And it pays to think back to where you ever got the idea of self-medication from. Most people are just having fun when they start using substances and even when they progressive to heavy frequent use. We usually don’t even think in terms of self-medication until we learn to think that way from the recovery culture. It’s a construct that you’ve learned, which you can just as well unlearn.
Again, here’s the link to the full article: Overcoming the painful desires and beliefs that fuel addiction, by Steven Slate, at Tiny Buddha.
I have a 25 year old daughter who was once a drug addict and our way of helping her was to get her arrested and sent to jail. At one point my daughter though she could out smart the system and was placed back in jail for 30 days. After that my daughter wanted and was excepted to Drug Court and completed with strong ambition. However once freed another addiction appeared and that was alcohol and prescription pills. She would have horrible mood swings, were one day wounded her with a broke nose and a DWI. Does she stop the prescribed pills, no I get told she has panic attacks and that she had read the sites on the internet and nothing helps. As you know panic attacks are brought on my by yourself and can be controlled and certain prescribed medications may cause panic attacks.
I am so stressed out as a Mom and I have my own health to take care of, and I’m needing ways to be strong and not allow my daughter control me. Should I consult a Counselor or Psychologist?