Self Medication

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jjstar
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01 Nov 2007, 2:37 pm

OregonBecky wrote:

jjstar wrote:

I use a variant of substances to control my edginess. There's not one cure-all pill that will do what my body needs to calm, relax and be at ease. I try to steer away from prescription anything - but still will ocassionally dose on anti-depressant and an anti-anxiety. Other than that - I drink red wine, take B complex, vit C, chromium picolonate, magnesium, Rescue Remedy and other herbs. I also found that doing hard physical work outside really helps. OMG. I was really surprised at that. I'm a big advocate for medical marijuana. I just got a shoulder bag with a tiny pot leaf for a label. Very cute.

There are a lot of positive stories in the internet about the benifits of marijuana for some AS people. Yeah, I know already know that you can abuse pot. One can overdo anything.

I'm 48 and got stoned 2x in my life.

These days I toke 3 puffs on a pipe and call it a day. In the wrong mind-set, (escapism, depression) it can do very bad things to the psyche. If a person is more up than down - is using it consciously and with spirit at the helm to enhance their perception - that's key. Otherwise, why do it? Getting goofy and silly seems counter-productive to allowing the mind/body to just relax in quiet.

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sarahstilettos
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01 Nov 2007, 3:05 pm

ChelseaOcean wrote:

sarahstilettos wrote:

OregonBecky wrote:

Society approves of prescription drugs that you take everyday and have side effects and future unknown problems, some serious.

Self medication involves substances where the side effects are usually very well known. I think I'd feel safer with the self medication on the whole. It would be better under a doctor's care where the doctor prescribed, for example, one bottle of beer taken after dinner or something. Then you'd be monitored and more aware of how and when you're using. But doctors don't do that. They had out prescriptions for expensive new drugs.

The side effects of alcohol may be better known than for prescription drugs, but that doesn't make them any better. Alcohol stops you holding down a job, it stops you having healthy relationships and friendships. It cuts hours out of your day and stops you being productive. It has serious effects on your immune system so you end up with really annoying low level illnesses practically all the time. You feel permanently tired, headachey and sick. It vastly worsens depression and mood swings. Illegal drugs do the same thing but times a hundred.

Sorry to seem a bit patronising but I tried self medicating with alcohol and came to the conclusion it didn't work, due to all of the above.

It depends on how much you use, though. Not everyone who ever drinks any alcohol is unable to hold a job or have healthy relationships or friendships or be productive and is constantly sick and tired. Drinking *some* alcohol *occasionally* can actually *improve* many of those things for most people.

It's just like anything else. If you take two Tylenols for an occasional headache, that was the right thing to do and it makes your headache go away. If you take a dozen Tylenols every day, you're going to cause yourself serious problems.

Just because someone self-medicates with alcohol doesn't necessarily mean they're drinking so much as to cause the things you describe, the same way that just because someone self-medicates with Tylenol doesn't necessarily mean they're taking dozens every day. It just means that under certain circumstances, having some alcohol (or Tylenol) helps them.

From what I've observed of everyone I know who drinks in a healthy way, they manage it because they're not using it to self medicate anything and could live perfectly well without it, they just like a drink occassionally. This can't be described as self medication. If you're saying you use it to self medicate then you're defining it as an unhealthy relationship because you've defined it as a need. If you have that need to self medicate then you probably have problems that make it difficult for you to have just that one glass.

I think there's a huge difference between having a drink to relax a little and using drink to try to cure severe social anxiety. I think if you have Aspergers the latter is far more likely to be what you're doing, and it spirals.

jjstar
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01 Nov 2007, 3:12 pm

sarahstilettos wrote:

Ooh. I so disagree with this sentiment. If you drink a cup of coffee in the morning, you're self-medicating. If you smoke a cigarette, down a Red Bull or have a cup of tea with 3 tablespoons of sugar, you're getting a fix and self-medicating. Make no mistake about it. All substances that alter the body's chemistry and effect the way one feels - consumed - is self-medication, though nobody would readily fess up to that. *What? ME? A sugar junkie? Neverrrrrrr!*

<chuckle> <sigh> ah the absurdity of it all.

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sarahstilettos
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01 Nov 2007, 3:18 pm

jjstar wrote:

sarahstilettos wrote:

Oh but I agree about caffeine and all that. But when my friends get drunk they do it because its fun, not because they need to. If you're medicating yourself you're using a substance to try to solve a problem. Thats what this thread is about, at least, isn't it? How people have used various substances to ease the problems their aspergers causes them. I don't think having a glass of wine for fun or eating sweets to get a sugar high is what we're talking about.

jjstar
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01 Nov 2007, 3:28 pm

sarahstilettos wrote:

jjstar wrote:

sarahstilettos wrote:

Re Alcohol>:
Of course they need to. Alcohol is *the great inhibition eradicator*. It becomes a habitual ritual, that puts fear in a back recess of the mind. *Drink and get loose*. *Drop your guard*. *Forget your social anxieties*. *Fears about not being good enough, hot enough, rich enough, smart enough, funny enough.* They need to drink because without alcohol, there's no *fun*. It fills the empty spaces inside and it's a way to forget the sadness and desperation - if only for the duration of a party.

Re Self-Medication>:

Self-medication can take many forms. It doesn't necessarily have to end up with someone puking their guts out on the Bowery or with a hyperdermic needle up their testicles. It can be as subtle as downing coke after coke, getting buzzed from a joint, or moving up the spectrum to using video games to induce trance-like states and zoning out to reality, to the full-blown out substance addiction where the usage is heavy, daily and functionality has decreased to minimum.

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Last edited by jjstar on 01 Nov 2007, 3:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.

mmaestro
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01 Nov 2007, 3:36 pm

Sarahstillettos, I think some of us are using different definitions of self-medicate. To run with the Tylenol example, I don't need to get rid of that headache. I could manage to get by with the headache. But frankly, why should I suffer when there's an easily available drug that'll take that suffering away. Similarly, I drink alcohol in part because it mitigates certain sensory issues. Now, I only get those issues in certain places. I don't need to have a constant fix of alcohol to get through life, but I do like to go out on occasion with friends, and when I do, then alcohol makes socialising easier. Am I using it to self medicate something? Absolutely, but I could manage without it, it would just be uncomfortable, and I see no need to live with that discomfort.
The thing to bear in mind is that, as with any drug, you do need to take care not to overdo it, and keep an eye on your intake. With alcohol especially, it's not a drug that you want to be using constantly, definitely not all day every day, and ideally not every evening. You monitor your intake, and make sure it doesn't get out of hand.

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Liverbird
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01 Nov 2007, 3:42 pm

mmaestro wrote:

Wow, I had no idea that I would cause such controversy! I seriously was just thinking about my need to have a coke 6 times a day in order to slow my thinking down enough to be bearable to others. But, of course, as per usual with WP it went off on a thread that I never in a billion years would have predicted. I was just wondering how others manage to "look normal" so to speak. Now, I'm not regretting it, I've been enjoying reading the various ways that we cope. I agree with mmaesto's assessment. This was the spirit of the original post. What helps you to cope in a world of NTs who seem hell bent to cause us to feel insane.

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OregonBecky
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01 Nov 2007, 3:48 pm

I rarely drink because I gain weight so easily and alcohol is the worst but the few times that I drink alcohol is to calm myself down at night if I feel too edgy. So I use it as medicine but I don't abuse it and I don't need very much.

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01 Nov 2007, 4:12 pm

Kateyjane wrote:

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Liverbird
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01 Nov 2007, 9:42 pm

What does bearable to others mean?
What does manage to *look normal* so to speak mean?

If something is wrong with the way you feel, that just means it needs to looked at and not masked with anything or covered up. That just spells disaster in the long run.[/quote]

JJ...you're looking at it wrong. "Bearable to others..." means that usually my brain works so fast that it's hard for other people to keep up with me and the connections that my brain makes. Caffeine seems to slow me down a little and make it easier for me to make more logical jumps in thinking. The leaps in connections that our brains work is very exhausting to NTs.

"Managing to look normal" means that we all have moments from time to time that we actually manage to not look so AS and look more NT at least to NTs (they are notoriously not very observant).

I certainly don't think that there is anything wrong with the way that I feel. I really was just wondering how others get through their days. I was sitting in a meeting this morning resisting the very strong urge to jump up in the middle and scream at the top of my lungs because I was so completely oversensitized that I couldn't even sit still. My normal things weren't working and it was kinna nice to read about how others cope when faced with similar situations. It was the social story idea....I don't know how to cope so tell me a social story to help me deal.

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