Depression and drug abuse are a double-edged sword: depression can lead to drug abuse, and drug abuse can lead to depression. Many people in the United States today are clinically depressed and have not been diagnosed. There is a tendency to try to self-medicate undiagnosed depression through drugs and alcohol. Adolescents in particular will turn to medication as a way to ease their discomfort. 

Dr. Bradley S. Peterson from New-York Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital explains the dangerous spiral of teenagers treating their own depression through drug abuse. “Drug abuse interferes with the brain’s normal pruning and growth processes, hijacking them to create a brain that seeks out more of the drug.”  As the young brain develops, it begins to expect and need the medication to maintain a sense of equilibrium. In effect, these kids are training their brains to be addicted to the drugs and alcohol. 

The guilt of substance abuse, as well as the desperation when you discover that you have lost control of the situation, can drive a person more deeply into the depression that caused the problem in the first place. This vicious cycle can be really difficult to break out of without the help of doctors and psychologists.