Does self-medicating for Depression ever work out okay?

[Trying2Iso]

By that i mean self-medicating with recreational drugs (ie alcohol, cannabis, opiates, cocaine, etc.)
I have depression, and in an IOP i went to i met a guy who wasn't on meds, he instead bought xanax, coke, weed, and ambiens on the street and dosed himself with them on a schedule. And he didn't do it to get high, he rationed it to last as a med, the coke and xanaxes throughout the day and ambiens at night

If you have heard a story of successful self-medication for depression, can you post it please

 

[C_Tripper]

Drug abusers are good at rationalizing their usage. I should know, I was excellent at it.

Anyway, I tried that, started when I saw 16. All it got me was a sizable opiate addiction, heroin dependency, a suboxone maintenance program, and the knowledge that I personally don't have the willpower to "self-medicate". Take from that what you will.

 

[sekio]

ADD -> TDS

Self medication with euphoriants almost always turns out to be a bad, bad idea.

 

[Maya]

ADD -> TDS

Self medication with euphoriants almost always turns out to be a bad, bad idea.

I agree with Sekio with this. Is there other alternatives you are willing to try instead of turning into euphoriants? Other activities you might be open into? Hobbies etc?

 

[mrflowers00]

it's a lose lose situation

 

[neversickanymore]

Drugs are for fun and should never be used to solve a problem.. it just doesn't ever work. If you a depressed then identify the thought processes you are using that are causing you depression. If you need help with this then CBT is where its at. Best of luck.. drugs dont change the world, just our perception of it, and we can do that by just changing our thoughts. Why are you choosing to be depressed?

 

[Vaya]

Drug abusers are good at rationalizing their usage. I should know, I was excellent at it.

Is this a quote from the Bible? It certainly struck me as Gospel

In all seriousness, though, you are absolutely right. OP, the person you met in IOP is in IOP for a reason. You mustn't overlook that.

In an acute sense, self-medicating with drugs may very well alleviate your depressive symptoms. In the long run, however, they will likely end up destroying the progress you're making towards working on them yourself - and it is you who ought to be addressing your depression, and not a series of illegally-obtained prescription and street drugs. When you zoom out and look at this guy's proposal objectively, it not only makes no sense, but represents the antithesis of the direction you ought to be going in.

Dealing with depression, OCD, anxiety, et al. is a matter of developing self-sufficiency mediated by appropriate coping mechanisms. I do not know why you're in IOP to begin with, but it sounds absolutely counterintuitive to self-medicate with the type of drugs that perhaps landed you in IOP in the first place. Taking drugs reinforces learned helplessness, and this is the very last thing it would appear you need to cater to at this time.

Mindfulness meditation, Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, and Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT) will do you a world of good at addressing your root difficulty, but without chemically altering your mind. Fortify your mind yourself, with the adjunct help of others. Chemicals can not, and do not, foster such proactive growth in us struggling human beings.

~ Vaya

 

[nuttynutskin]

Why are you choosing to be depressed?

No offense but people with clinical depression (like myself) don't exactly choose to be depressed. As far as self medication, in my case with alcohol at first it helped, but as it progressed it brought about a whole new host of problems. Plenty of people do it tho whether by choice or because they can't get the help they need. My case is/was kind of a combination.

 

[neversickanymore]

No offense taken.. the statement is meant to invoke thought and the realization that you have control over your thoughts and these to a large extent determine your mood.. It is meant to try and spark the realization that you can change you situation by changing your thoughts, not that you are choosing to be depressed, it is meant to start a realization that you have control over many causes of this and not that you are knowingly choosing to feel this way.

Why a Great Therapist Probably Beats a Great Antidepressant

Do CBT plus antidepressants work better in resistant depression? Lancet.Feb.2013

Cognitive therapy as good as antidepressants, effects last longer

CBT Effective in Antidepressant Nonresponders

Depression: Cognitive behavioral therapy better than antidepressants?

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

After over twenty years of buying into the bullshit that my social and generalized anxiety were the result of a brain imbalance that need and was treated by medication.. I realized that the reason my brain chemistry was in an imbalance was because my thoughts were causing the imbalance.. I altered my thoughts and now live medication free in a state almost free of anxiety.. all I had to do was change my thinking. I state that a person who is suffering is choosing to do that because I want them to realize that life is how we perceive it, or thoughts determine our perceptions, we control our thoughts, therefore we control how our life is and how we feel. I sate this out of a hope that people will realize that this is completely true. I hope that others can find the amazing healing and positive life changes in so many aspects especially depression, anxiety and Bi polar 2, that I have experienced.. I'm sorry if I came off like a ass, this was the last thing I intended. It is so hard to realize that we control our thoughts and need not be controlled by them and this is a way I try and help people realize this. I just want people to realize, take the time to change their thinking, and experience the amazing results I have.

After over twenty years of being miserable and seeking relief in alcohol, medications, and drugs.. and then realizing that I had the power the whole time i just want to try and make others realize this

 

[pirates_]

did it for years. no it doesnt.. it makes it worst

 

[nuttynutskin]

No offense taken.. the statement is meant to invoke thought and the realization that you have control over your thoughts and these to a large extent determine your mood.. It is meant to try and spark the realization that you can change you situation by changing your thoughts, not that you are choosing to be depressed, it is meant to start a realization that you have control over many causes of this and not that you are knowingly choosing to feel this way.

After over twenty years of buying into the bullshit that my social and generalized anxiety were the result of a brain imbalance that need and was treated by medication.. I realized that the reason my brain chemistry was in an imbalance was because my thoughts were causing the imbalance.. I altered my thoughts and now live medication free in a state almost free of anxiety.. all I had to do was change my thinking.

Well I guess one could argue if it's your brain chemistry changing your thoughts or your thoughts changing your brain chemistry.... Or both. There's been studies that particularly children who experience severe trauma actually develop different brain chemistry. But besides that, on the extreme end of the spectrum would you say someone with schizophrenia can just change there thinking and cure themselves?

I state that a person who is suffering is choosing to do that because I want them to realize that life is how we perceive it, or thoughts determine our perceptions, we control our thoughts, therefore we control how our life is and how we feel.

But someone with severe bipolar or schizophrenia can't control their thoughts. I mean that's one of the main symptoms, racing thoughts etc.

I sate this out of a hope that people will realize that this is completely true. I hope that others can find the amazing healing and positive life changes in so many aspects especially depression, anxiety and Bi polar 2, that I have experienced.. I'm sorry if I came off like a ass, this was the last thing I intended. It is so hard to realize that we control our thoughts and need not be controlled by them and this is a way I try and help people realize this. I just want people to realize, take the time to change their thinking, and experience the amazing results I have.

I don't think you came off as an ass and I know you're trying to help... I just disagree. Because like I said people with mental illness AREN'T in control of their thoughts. I'm not convinced that you can overcome moderate to severe mental illness with thought alone.

After over twenty years of being miserable and seeking relief in alcohol, medications, and drugs.. and then realizing that I had the power the whole time i just want to try and make others realize this

I'm glad it worked for you for sure, but I think every case is different. I mean obviously no one is the same in regards to anything really. I believe that some people can manage their symptoms of whatever they may have through good diet, exercise, therapy etc., but I'm not convinced in more severe cases that that's necessarily true.

 

[C_Tripper]

No offense but people with clinical depression (like myself) don't exactly choose to be depressed. As far as self medication, in my case with alcohol at first it helped, but as it progressed it brought about a whole new host of problems. Plenty of people do it tho whether by choice or because they can't get the help they need. My case is/was kind of a combination.

Hey man, I've got severe clinical depression as well. What neversick was trying to imply is a thinking pattern that CBT teaches.

CBT, exercise, a healthy sex life and being off heroin has put my depression into "remission" if you will. Any episode that starts to creep up on me, I can handle without medication now. It's powerful, and I'd highly suggest it to anyone who is struggling.

The only problem I found was that learning CBT *while* depressed was hard. I had to take SSRI's (which work very well for me) to beat the acute stage before I could learn how to deal with it using my own coping methods like CBT.

Is this a quote from the Bible? It certainly struck me as Gospel!

I have a number of sayings that I've come up with over the years, that oddly enough help keep me grounded and not slip back into where I used to be. This is one of them

 

[neversickanymore]

But someone with severe bipolar or schizophrenia can't control their thoughts. I mean that's one of the main symptoms, racing thoughts etc.

I feel that allot of what you say here is true.. the more severe the mental illness the harder it will be to do.. I did hint at this because when I stated the illness that I thought respond very well to changing ones thinking I listed depression, anxiety, and bipolar 2. I agree with you that a person trying to think their way "out" of a really high mania or a psycoses may be pretty hard if not impossible. It is my understanding that people with schizophrenia do respond to therapy. I dont think it alleviates their symptoms but can provide them with tools to help with deal with their troubles. I know that this is a difficult concept, at least it was for me nutty.. If you want to start or continue to explore this I would encourage you to begin to try and not judge any thing as good or bad. This of course is not easy as we have been programed to place this and other labels on everything in our lives since before we could even think. "how are you doing today" is a classic example. If you can stop judging things as bad then bad things disappear from your life.. I know it sounds insane but it works so well.. and really whats insane is making ourselves miserable by choosing to see all these bad things.

I think schizophrenics are the begining of a evolution in the human brain that will end up producing a brain where the unconscious and conscious are better able to communicate with each other and this schizophrenia is just this process slowly evolving through generations and transitioning to an end result that will likely be quite positive.

You are exactly right that brain chemistry affects thinking and thinking affects brain chemistry. If a person is depressed then it often causes depressive thinking. The depressive thinking will then cause more or deeper depression. But by identifying and implementing positive cognition and behavior we can work our way out of depression. If we begin to change our thinking it will change our brain chemistry. As our brain chemistry slants more positive because of the thinking it will promote more positive thinking and it gets easier and easier to do.

I have to watch both to much depressive thinking and to much positive thinking as I am Bipolar 2. If I get all feeling amazing and start flying to high then I will fly into Hypomania and that can lead to reckless behavior and other negative things. So I not only work on not judging things as bad but also not judging them as good. I also consciously monitor my moods.. If I start to get low I identify where I am thinking incorrectly to create this and prevent my brain chemistry from getting to depression orientated and thus causing a lasting depression. If I start getting to damn positive I check my self by examining where my thoughts have gotten me to positive and try and reign them in before my brain chemistry shifts to far positive and I slip into a strong hypomanic state.

So i guess what i do is that I am mind or thought surfing all the time and my goal is to keep myself right at the begining of hypomanic. The state where I am able to get allot of amazing things done and created, where i feel absolutely amazing but am able to sleep and am not doing anything gradiouse or reckless. Once and awhile I will allow myself to float a little higher if say for instance I need to pull of something amazing like a really fun date with a gorgeous woman or need to accomplish something really challenging.. but then i need to remember to reign it in, because as you stated nutty brain chemistry affects thoughts and behavior, so If I dont reign it isn't then I can get snowballing into heavy hypomania, and the same in the depressive thinking and depression. I dont see hopw a person cant be depressed if they always think depressive thoughts.. how can a person no be depressed if they are always doing depressing things.. so we need to change our thinking and behavior if we want to get out of depression.

NSFW:

 

[Vaya]

This is a thread with a TON of good discussion. I'm really impressed by all these posts... And felt compelled to pop in to encourage you all to never stop talking. Talking at this level produces threads like this one that I can't help but bookmark...

:D

 

[IXinX]

This came up on a search, was about to post something similar along the lines of "Anxiety, Bipolar, aging and self-medicating"

I was diagnosed as bipolar / cyclothyalmic with depressive tendencies after a year of psychotherapy with 2x psychiatrists. The first psychiatrist let me run the whole gamut of anti-depressants, anti-psychotics and a mood stabiliser (lithium) in the hope that she could help diagnose my 'existential angst' into something definitive and treatable.

I was using marijuana at this time. Really really potent high quality stuff that is ubiquitous in the city I grew up in. This was my self-medication and it made me feel more within myself, or grounded for want of a better word. It really sparked my imagination into something brilliant and my artistic creativity would flourish.

The second psychiatrist told me that if I didn't take Sodium Valproate or a mood stabiliser like it, I would either die by age 30 or think I'm jesus.

Fast forward nine years and I'm 30 now. Back in my home town again, back into the super strong hydroponics.
Some things have changed in my life:
I have a very stressful job which isn't working out as a whole company wide.
Openly accepted I like men sexually more than women.
Became depressed slowly yet surely. I wasn't doing my art anywhere near as much as I used to. I was abusing my body with laziness and languishing in my apartment. I would rarely leave except for work and occaisional shopping.

Well as of this October, I have started taking stimulant drugs again like MDMA, amphetamines, dexamphetamines recreationally only. I would be taking some to go out and dance to some of my favourite harsh hardcore rave music from a decade or so back. All well and good, having great times and such but right now even it feels like I am outside of myself, more and more often, further and further away from my body, from being grounded.

I know there is too much going on in my life (3 very trying, random events occured last week to me that were totally beyond my control) and I am having a difficult time juggling my stoner apathy with being an account manager which I'm struggling with. I keep on wanting to pack up my life here and go to Europe to explore my parent's heritage and country. It is just getting extremely difficult to hang in there (only 6 more months!).

I am experiencing attacks of vertigo at random times (usually after smoking) but more frequently when i'm sober. I often feel dissassociated from my body which for me is a telltale sign of an impending anxiety attack. THe anxiety attacks don't come though as I have my techniques to keep them at bay learnt over the years.
But yeah, i'm at a loss and I keep on thinking back to that 2nd psychiatrist and feeling that what he said coincides with the astrological event that is Saturn Returns (period of mass personal upheaval, contemplation and challenge) and I need to bolster my defences so to speak.

It's like I can feel the onslaught of my psyche coming over the horizon at times, far away indistinct but undeniable and waiting for a period to pounce and let everything fall apart.
I'm considering stopping the self-medicating with marijuana, switiching to passionflower extract as i tried this 2-3 weeks ago for a week at a time and it worked somewhat.
I'm also considering getting some psychopharmacological help, even though it goes against my whole ethos of living with mental illness.

Perhaps I should try sodium valproate. I just feel like i need something to fortify and strengthen my emotional thresholds, at least until I go overseas or until saturn returns!

 

[neversickanymore]

^ have you explored or considered lamictal ? Lamotrigine .............. Lamictal

 

[rammingstone422]

Bad idea. Not only do you have to be highly disciplined to administer highly addictive drugsto oneself. Benzodiazepines are used as a short term fix. Theyre not ment or designed for any long term treatment save for Pd/ anxiety. In my expirience. People who self medicate with mental disorders end up not only facilitating an addiction. They also improperly self medicate therefore excacberating their mental illness or speeding up the onset of illness. Dont be stupid. Get help and cherish your mind.

 

[tricomb]

it's a lose lose situation

No offense but people with clinical depression (like myself) don't exactly choose to be depressed. As far as self medication, in my case with alcohol at first it helped, but as it progressed it brought about a whole new host of problems. Plenty of people do it tho whether by choice or because they can't get the help they need. My case is/was kind of a combination.

This.

 

[puffj]

By that i mean self-medicating with recreational drugs (ie alcohol, cannabis, opiates, cocaine, etc.)
I have depression, and in an IOP i went to i met a guy who wasn't on meds, he instead bought xanax, coke, weed, and ambiens on the street and dosed himself with them on a schedule. And he didn't do it to get high, he rationedalized it to be meds, the coke and xanaxes throughout the day and ambiens at night

If you have heard a story of successful self-medication for depression, can you post it please

You're asking if using addictive substances to escape (note I said escape not help you work through depression) whatever is causing depression is a prudent choice, or one easily navigated?

In a word, no.

I'm sure a lot of people here started self-medicating with drugs and while their are some chippers and people who don't use drugs at all... you're on bluelight and the majority of us here are or at some point were addicts. A good amount no doubt started by self-medicating. Self medicating becomes a problem because eventually you will build tolerance to the effects of the drug which allow you to feel escape and dosage escalation begins. I'm sure someone will try to jump in and say "you can build tolerance to s/n/dri's too!" except that you're just dependent physically on them, the anti-depressive effect isn't something you build tolerance to... just like constipation is something you don't build tolerance to with opiates.

So again, no. Using uppers to get through the day (god forbid coke became a around the clock every 30 minutes dose...) and then downers to sleep isn't healthy. I've done it (not with coke but prescribed amphetamines) but it's not healthy and I certainly wouldn't do it on a regular basis nor would I do it to try to treat myself of some affliction which those drugs are not designed to treat nor can treat effectively since they provide relief through euphoria... not a health thing to get into the habit of doing substances that cause strong euphoria....

Any one want to share a story with this person about how they got into shooting h by trying to deal with their problems?

 

[puffj]

No offense taken.. the statement is meant to invoke thought and the realization that you have control over your thoughts and these to a large extent determine your mood.. It is meant to try and spark the realization that you can change you situation by changing your thoughts, not that you are choosing to be depressed, it is meant to start a realization that you have control over many causes of this and not that you are knowingly choosing to feel this way.



After over twenty years of buying into the bullshit that my social and generalized anxiety were the result of a brain imbalance that need and was treated by medication.. I realized that the reason my brain chemistry was in an imbalance was because my thoughts were causing the imbalance.. I altered my thoughts and now live medication free in a state almost free of anxiety.. all I had to do was change my thinking. I state that a person who is suffering is choosing to do that because I want them to realize that life is how we perceive it, or thoughts determine our perceptions, we control our thoughts, therefore we control how our life is and how we feel. I sate this out of a hope that people will realize that this is completely true. I hope that others can find the amazing healing and positive life changes in so many aspects especially depression, anxiety and Bi polar 2, that I have experienced.. I'm sorry if I came off like a ass, this was the last thing I intended. It is so hard to realize that we control our thoughts and need not be controlled by them and this is a way I try and help people realize this. I just want people to realize, take the time to change their thinking, and experience the amazing results I have.

After over twenty years of being miserable and seeking relief in alcohol, medications, and drugs.. and then realizing that I had the power the whole time i just want to try and make others realize this

I know you mean well but stop giving medical advice because it's abundantly clear that you don't know what you're talking about. CBT is NOT a first line treatment for clinical depression no matter how many times you google "CBT BETTER THAN ANTI DEPRESSANTS" and then post the resulting links here. In all clinical trials anti depressants work better than just therapy or CBT however the two together work better than either. You also don't seem to understand the difference between depression and what you had. Social phobias and anxieties can be overcome through exposure therapy without the use of drugs.... depression is in a whole different class. And people who have serious clinical depression cannot and do not choose to feel that way. In fact as you may know some become so distraught that they can't feel better no matter what they try that the end it.

You have control of your conscious thoughts, yes, and you can practice cbt or mindfulness or any other form of though observation/response but don't tell people they can become un-depressed by changing the way they think... that's stupid. When a family member dies you can't just choose to be happy about it.

As far as the medication recommendations go... like recommending Lamictal... you need to leave that to a doctor for obvious reasons.