Self-medicating means using alcohol or drugs to manage emotional, mental or physical pain on your own, without a doctor involved. Self-medicating with alcohol is one of the most common versions: a few drinks to fall asleep, to stop the worrying, or to get through the anniversary of a death. The relief is quick. The cost usually comes later, because it tends to make the original problem worse and can lead to addiction.
Below you’ll find what it looks like, the signs to watch for, and how to get help that treats what’s underneath.
What Is Self-Medicating?
Most people who self-medicate don’t call it that. To them it’s unwinding, taking the edge off, getting through the week. The difference is the reason. Drinking with friends at a wedding is social. Drinking alone every night because you can’t stand how you feel is self-medicating.
MedlinePlus, from the National Library of Medicine, notes that people with mental health conditions may use alcohol or drugs to self-medicate, which is one reason mental illness and substance use disorders so often show up together.
What People Self-Medicate
People reach for alcohol or drugs to cope with all kinds of pain. These come up most often:
- Anxiety. Alcohol, marijuana or sedatives to quiet racing thoughts. Our post on drinking to cope with anxiety looks at this pattern closely.
- Depression: alcohol to numb sadness, or stimulants like cocaine to feel energy and pleasure again.
- Trauma and PTSD, where substances dull the memories, the nightmares or that feeling of always being on guard.
- Sleep problems (a nightcap, or pills to fall asleep).
- Grief and loss: drinking to get through the evenings after a death, divorce or job loss.
- Physical pain, managed with leftover pain pills or alcohol after an injury or with a chronic condition.
- Stress and burnout, when a drink or a pill is the only way to switch off after work.
Signs of Self-Medicating
Signs you might notice in yourself
- You drink or use mainly to change how you feel, not because you enjoy it.
- You reach for it at the same moments: after a fight, before bed, on bad days.
- Certain situations feel impossible without it.
- It takes more to get the same relief.
- Your mood is worse the next day, so you use again to feel better.
- You hide how much you’re using, or bristle when someone asks.
Signs others might notice
- Pulling away from friends, family or activities they used to enjoy
- Mood swings, irritability or low self-esteem
- Neglecting grooming, sleep or meals
- Slipping at work or school
- Running out of prescriptions early, or getting pills from more than one source
Why Self-Medicating Backfires
Self-medicating treats the symptom for a few hours and leaves the cause alone. Over time it usually does more damage than the problem it was supposed to fix.
It makes mental health symptoms worse
Alcohol is a depressant, and it often deepens depression. As it wears off, a lot of people feel more anxious than they did before the first drink. Stimulants can set off panic and paranoia. Sleep aids and alcohol both disrupt deep sleep, so you wake up less rested.
It can lead to dependence and addiction
Every time a substance brings relief, your brain learns to reach for it again. Tolerance builds. Stopping can bring withdrawal symptoms that feel a lot like the original problem. What started as a way to cope becomes a substance use disorder.
It hides what needs treatment
Depression, anxiety, trauma and chronic pain all have treatments that work. Self-medicating can mask symptoms just enough that people never get diagnosed. Or it muddies the diagnosis, because nobody can tell what’s caused by the substance and what was there first.
It carries real physical risks
Mixing alcohol with sedatives, sleep aids or opioid pain pills can slow breathing to dangerous levels. Pills from someone else, or off the street, add another risk: counterfeits that may contain fentanyl. Learn more about prescription drug addiction.
Self-Medicating vs. Taking Medication
Taking medication the way a doctor who knows your full history prescribed it isn’t self-medicating. Problems start when you take more than prescribed, take it for a different reason, mix it with alcohol, or use someone else’s. Not sure which side of the line you’re on? Ask your doctor, and be honest.
How to Stop Self-Medicating
- Name what you’re treating. Write down what you’re usually feeling right before you drink or use.
- Tell someone, whether that’s a doctor, counselor, pastor or trusted friend. You don’t need it all figured out first.
- Get a real assessment. A professional can look at both the substance use and the condition underneath.
- Don’t quit some substances alone. Stopping alcohol or benzodiazepines after heavy use can be dangerous and should be medically supervised.
- Replace it, don’t just remove it. Build new ways to handle the feeling, like therapy, exercise, better sleep habits, prayer and support groups.
If you’re having thoughts of harming yourself, call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline right away.
Treating the Cause at Covenant Hills
When someone has been self-medicating, treatment has to deal with the substance use and with what’s underneath it. Covenant Hills offers integrated co-occurring disorders treatment, including psychiatric care and medication management, in a residential setting in Orange County with Christian-based and traditional tracks. For a closer look at how that works, see our post on dual diagnosis with substance use disorder.
If you’ve been using alcohol or drugs to get through the day, call 800-662-2873 for a free, confidential assessment.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is self-medicating?
It’s using alcohol, drugs or someone else’s medication to manage emotional, mental or physical pain without medical guidance.
What are the signs of self-medicating?
Drinking or using mainly to change how you feel, needing it to cope with certain situations, using more over time, feeling worse the next day and hiding your use from others are all common signs.
Is self-medicating with alcohol an addiction?
Not always at first, but it can turn into one. Drinking regularly to cope builds tolerance and dependence, and many people with an alcohol use disorder started out drinking to manage stress, anxiety or sadness.
