Self Medicating ?Many People with Anxiety and Panic attacks are scared to take Medication from their doctor for treatment. I was one of them. I had a hard time thinking I needed a pill to feel normal. I was embarrassed by the thought of someone finding out I took medication for panic & anxiety. One of my biggest fears was “ What if they think I’m weak”? or “What if they think I’m crazy” ? So, I quickly decided not to do pills. Unfortunately, my decision wasn’t going to help control my panic. On a particularly bad episode, I grabbed one of my husbands beers and downed it as fast as I could. After, I thought WOW, this worked ( who needs pills )… I feel a little better. I can breath again. This, I came to find out is called “self medicating”. In my head I felt it was acceptable to drink a glass of wine or a beer to help calm me. I was doing what “ I” thought was more socially expectable. What "I" thought looked “normal”. But in reality I was making my panic worse and trying to take a negative action and make it a positive result. Many experts think drinking can cause more physical & mental anxiety. For example: If you are a person with anxiety and you were to drink to calm yourself one night. The next day your anxiety level could be much higher, than if you didn’t drink the night before. ( like I’ve said before… I would better be able to explain the why, if I was a Doc.. But alas, I am not ) I can only say, This is exactly how I felt. When I self medicated. I was lucky enough to nip this behavior in the butt before it became a life changing experience. Not to say, it didn’t do it’s damage ! I realized that if I needed to take something to help me calm down, it made more sense to get it from a licensed, well trained professional. Then to self prescribe a drink to myself. I realized taking a medication doesn’t make me weak or crazy. It make’s me self aware and responsible for my own positive well being. I’m in control of my healing and I’m taking positive action ! Do I think medication is the only thing to help panic & anxiety. NO WAY. There are plenty of wonderful all natural self helping techniques out there. But it doesn’t make me crazy or weak to know I need help and taking it ! Thank you for reading ! Mikyla I would love to hear any comments on this story ! Click  Contact us, E-mail your story or positive
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