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Why self medicate than seek professional help


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Why do people prefer to self medicate to help with stress, depression or emotional times in thier lives, than seek professional help? What comfort and bennifits is there in what they do to achieve their self medication?

 

Depends what you mean by self medication. This covers a very big area.

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Apart from on this forum, I've only heard it used as somewhat jokey way to describe taking drugs and, to a lesser extent, drinking booze to combat the blues.

 

I think that it is also used in a quite serious way to describe those of us who use our own initiative to handle our own problems, rather than visit the doctor at the first sign of a sneeze.

 

I think that it is a derogatory term used to belittle personal choice, which probably originates from the US.

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Apart from on this forum, I've only heard it used as somewhat jokey way to describe taking drugs and, to a lesser extent, drinking booze to combat the blues.

 

Self medication can mean medicinal herbs bought from herbalists like Holland & Barrett or online, self hypnosis or even meditation.

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With specific reference to mental illness I have in the past had two breakdowns caused by separate things entirely and ended up on tablets for a long time. I still have a predisposition to becoming depressed again and potentially ending up on tablets again. However after the last 'do' I decided enough was enough and it was time to take my life back and live it on my terms. Don't get me wrong still have days when I have to shut the world out but know myself and my body well enough to be able to divert most of the bad days. Not easy but achieveable. I choose to do this as the drugs left me with a very altered view of life which was totally unrealistic.

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Why do people prefer to self medicate to help with stress, depression or emotional times in thier lives, than seek professional help? What comfort and bennifits is there in what they do to achieve their self medication?

 

Do you care to offer an opinion on why some people prefer to 'self-medicate'? It is bad form to start a thread and then not participate in the discussion any further...

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I think that most of us have 'self medicated' at some time or other. It gives me a certain degree of illusory control when I choose to rely upon my own initiative to make myself feel better.

This is an interesting Interviewer, what you say about given you "illusory control". Do you feel if you was to seek proffesional help you would not be in control anymore?

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