Self-Medicated, what does it really mean?

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elf-Medicated, what does it really mean?

If you hear the expression “I self-medicate”, what does that mean to you?

I often hear this from others when I am sitting in a support group setting and who are dealing with events in their life that has disrupted their norm.

So what is the definition of self-medication? Does it have to be alcohol, drugs, and cigarettes? Or can it be something else such-as over sleeping, binge watching TV shows, movies or spending time reading through social media.

As someone that has experienced a significant loss in my family and without detailing the reason or how the loss occurred, I have used all the above and at various levels to find a way to cope with the different days and level of grief, anxiety and the depression I am experiencing.

In the process of self-medicating I have moved further away from the excessive use of alcohol and prescribed medications to help with my days and nights, instead I am burying myself in other non-social events.

For example I like staying inside the house and binge watching shows and when it is time that I should be out interacting with others, I convince myself that I can do that tomorrow.

Before the loss, I used to rework all my life’s problems before falling asleep and in the mornings I had no issues getting up and moving forward. Now, I have no problem falling asleep and I have difficulty dealing with the half-awake state and struggling with everything that is running through my thoughts and makes me not want to get up.

As for the Alcohol, I drank so much the first couple of years because it was how I could lose myself and eventually fall asleep. The next day I would feel physically lousy and have somewhat of a hangover. The medications that were meant to help me with the coping started making me so numb and I wasn’t sure that I was dealing with the grief and the side effects were no picnic either.

So I did recognize that both the alcohol and medication were not the answers, but there were days where the initial effect I felt when taking them to forget was helpful to me, but that feeling the next day was not anything I wished for.

So what is the answer? What have you done to cope with grief and loss? What is your mechanism to help you? What would you tell someone close to you on what to do?

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