Categories of self-medication
I’ve been compiling sources and articles about dealing with bad moods, self-medicating, etc for a while and today I started trying to organize them into a bit of a hierarchy.
Here’s what I’ve got so far:
- Mentally avoid or replace the mood
- Recall someone/something that you enjoy and daydream about it
- Listen to some music that you like
- List things you’re grateful for
- Affirm your goals
- Think of less fortunate people
- Mentally address the mood
- Focus on what you’ve been ignoring
- Stay in the present
- Recognize you’re not alone
- Decode your mood (figure out what exactly is causing it)
- List why the bad cause of your mood is possibly good for your life
- Forgive others / abolish blame
- Physically avoid or replace the mood
- Get some exercise
- Take a break and have a cup of tea
- Go somewhere that you enjoy
- Take a hike
- Shop
- Watch a young child play
- Sing your favorite song
- Talk to people you trust
- Make something creative
- Eat / Consume
- Chocolate
- Alcohol
- Caffeine
- Junk food
- Do something nice
- Take a bath
- Play with a pet
- Avoid people who put you in a bad mood
- Get a massage
- Change your body posture
- Practice smiling
- Sit in the sun
- Get a hug
- Physically address the mood
- Meditate
- Experience the mood fully
- Catch your breath
- Get some sleep
- Wait
- Calm down
- Take a daily vitamin
- Let it all out
- Cry
- Scream
Thoughts? Additions, edits, improvements? Do these things actually work in practice? Are some more effective than others? Though some might be effective, might they also seem repulsive at the time of a bad mood?
Wouldn’t it be cool to have some kind of personally-tailored self-medication tree that you could use in times of duress, and then afterwards see which methods are actually most effective at improving your mood?
July 18th, 2009 at 7:54 pm
What do you think of this very basic break-down of different kinds of self-medication? http://bit.ly/LFFpR #fb
July 19th, 2009 at 1:34 am
Very interesting concept. I think I would pull alcohol out of Eat/Consume and pair it instead with marijuana (and possibly other mind-altering drugs) in it’s own section. I think the release from junk food or chocolate is very different from that of alcohol and other drugs. Caffeine is somewhere in between.
Very cool though. I appreciate what you’re doing.
July 19th, 2009 at 6:19 am
I like that there is no discernible judgement made on the various chooses available. They are presented as all just choices, which they are. I would tend not to think of choices that amount to being more aware and present as self-medication but maybe that’s just semantics. True that meditation will change your chemistry but in a way that the body can sustain.
I would add make choices that help you get your needs met to physically replace or avoid mood.
I see why Saskia thinks you are cool!
July 19th, 2009 at 9:16 am
All these seem to be ways of escaping the mood, would experiencing the mood fully not fit in the spirit of this exercise?
It’s a natural part of existence to be brought face to face with negativity.
I guess I’ve always seen it a lot like gambling. There’s a lot of methods and strategies for making money while gambling, but the bottom line is that sooner or later you’re not going to win. The best thing to do is to learn how to enjoy the losing.
July 19th, 2009 at 6:41 pm
@Benjamin – I think that “stay in the present”, “decode your mood”, and “catch your breath” were trying to get at the idea of facing your mood. I should add meditation and “experience the mood” to the list just to be more explicit though. I like the comment about enjoying “losing”… really it’s about enjoying what’s happening, whether it happens to be winning or losing, right?