Hum, let me see, is it wise to self medicate or is it better to get prescription medicine from your doctor? I believe that when someone is highly stressed or depressed he needs some outside help to make wise decisions in regards to his health and well being.
Ultimately, I believe when someone is stressed they need to seek God for answers and help them to remain calm and help them make good rational decisions. But for some people they need physical help along with spiritual help.
Turning to drugs and alcohol are not the answer to life's problems. These things gives a person a false since of hope and helps them to make irrational decisions.
According to the Wikipedia encyclopedia: Self-medication is the use of drugs or self-soothing forms of behavior to treat a perceived or real malady. Self-medication is often referred to in the context of a person self-medicating, in order to alleviate their own distress or pain.
Some mental illness sufferers attempt to correct their illnesses by use of certain drugs. Depression is often self medicated with alcohol, tobacco, cannabis, or other mind-altering drug use. While this may provide immediate relief of some symptoms such as anxiety, it may evoke and/or exacerbate some symptoms of several kinds of mental illnesses that are already latently present, and may lead to addiction/dependence, among other side effects of long-term use of the drug.
Alcohol and sedative/hypnotic drugs, such as barbiturates (depresants or downers) and benzodiazepines (antianxiety drugs), are central nervous system (CNS) depressants, which produce feelings of relaxation, and sedation, while relieving feelings of depression and anxiety. Alcohol also lowers inhibitions, while benzodiazepines are anxiolytic. Though they are generally ineffective antidepressants, as most are short-acting, the rapid onset of alcohol and sedative/hypnotics softens rigid defenses and, in low to moderate doses, provides the illusion of relief from depressive affect and anxiety.
Self medicating with benzodiazepines or alcohol often make the symptoms of anxiety worse. Approximately half of patients attending mental health services for conditions including anxiety disorders such as panic disorder or social phobia are the result of alcohol or benzodiazepine dependence. Sometimes anxiety pre-existed alcohol or benzodiazepine dependence but the alcohol or benzodiazepine dependence act to keep the anxiety disorders going and often progressively making them worse.
Knowing all this information helps or should help people realize that when it comes to drugs it needs to be given with doctors orders so a person can get the right help needed with the right doses and the right type of medicine for the person's particular problem. Laymen or women do not have enough knowledge to make a rational decision to relieve the pain one is carrying on their own.
If things are too stressful, and at times we all have stresses, please seek counselling, doctors and ministers to help you cope with overwhelming issues and don't self medicate.
That is very good advice. Thank you
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