This article focuses on everyday coping habits and does not address addiction or substance use disorders. These are serious issues that often require professional care. If you or someone you know is struggling, confidential help is available at 1-800-662-HELP (4357) or at FindTreatment.gov, or by calling or texting 988 in a crisis.
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A lot of us are self-medicating without even realizing it. We're trying to cope with stress, anxiety, or pain, but we’re avoiding the healing we really need.
Most of us imagine self-medicating as something obvious—drugs, alcohol, something extreme. But for many of us, self-medicating doesn’t look dramatic at all. It looks...normal. Responsible, even. It might show up as:
- Scrolling just a little longer than we should
- Buying things we don’t really need
- Watching one more episode
We tell ourselves, “This is just how I relax. I’m fine.” But somewhere underneath it all, something still feels off.
Self-Medicating Quiets the Pain Without Facing It
At its core, self-medicating happens any time we try to manage our pain without actually facing it. It’s what we do when anxiety creeps in, when sadness feels too heavy, or when stress won’t let go—and instead of paying attention, we reach for something to quiet it.
Not forever. Just enough to get through today. And that’s exactly why it’s so easy to miss. Because it works…for a while.
Unexpected Ways We Self-Medicate
Many of the things we do to cope aren’t inherently bad. The problem is when they become the thing we run to instead of the thing that heals us. Here are some common ways we self-medicate that can be easy to miss—or dismiss:
- Doom scrolling: Endlessly scrolling news or social media so you don’t have to sit with your thoughts. It numbs anxiety for a moment, but leaves you more restless than before.
- Binge watching: Turning on show after show because silence feels uncomfortable. The noise becomes a shield from emotions you don’t want to feel.
- Impulse shopping: Buying things you don’t need for a quick sense of control or excitement. The rush fades fast, often followed by guilt or regret.
- Workaholism: Staying busy so you never slow down enough to feel what’s really going on inside. Productivity becomes a way to avoid pain.
- Over-exercising: Using workouts to outrun anxiety, shame, or anger rather than care for your body. What starts as discipline quietly turns into compulsion.
- Binge eating: Eating not because you’re hungry, but because you’re overwhelmed, lonely, or stressed.
- Pornography: An attempt to meet a real need for intimacy in an unhealthy way. Pornography may offer temporary escape, but it can slowly erode trust, connection, and hope.
- Alcohol or substance abuse: Something that “just takes the edge off”—but can easily spiral into an addiction.
If Self-Medicating Feels Like it Helps, Why Is it So Bad?
Self-medicating does help—for a moment. It lowers the volume, quiets anxiety, distracts from sadness, and gives momentary relief from the hurt you carry.
But it never fixes what is underneath. It’s like putting tape over a check engine light. The warning disappears, but the problem keeps growing. Over time, what once helped occasionally becomes something you start to rely on every day. And the original pain doesn’t shrink—it multiplies, and eventually it leaks into your relationships, your work, and even your faith.
How to Stop Medicating & Start Healing
Healing doesn’t start with fixing everything at once. It starts with honesty—the kind that simply tells the truth about what’s going on inside. Here’s where to start:
- Name what you reach for: What do you turn to when you feel overwhelmed, anxious, or lonely? If something consistently helps you avoid feeling instead of processing, that’s worth paying attention to.
- Get curious: Think about what you’re really trying to escape. Pain is often a signal, not an enemy. When you slow down enough to listen, your thoughts and emotions can point toward what really needs your attention.
- Stop hiding: What stays hidden grows stronger. What's brought into the light loses its power. Talk to a friend you trust, join a Group, or connect with a pastor or counselor. The first step toward healing is being seen.
- Invite God into your discomfort: God doesn’t shame you for struggling. He wants to meet you in it. Talk to him about what’s wrong and ask for his help.
There’s a Better Way
Self-medicating keeps us stuck in a loop of thinking, “I just need to get through today.” But God offers something more than survival—he offers healing.
Healing doesn’t always mean the pain disappears overnight. Sometimes it means God meets us right in the middle of it and begins to rebuild what’s been worn down or broken.
When we stop numbing the pain and start bringing it into the light—into time with God, into honest conversation—God does what only he can do: he restores hope, and he heals in ways we could never manufacture on our own.
You don’t have to fix yourself first. You don’t have to have all the answers. You just have to take one small step toward honesty and trust that God will meet you there.
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