Lifestyle-related personal habits, such as exercise, diet, and substance use, accounted for 13% of total responses on the causes of psychiatric disorders. Many responses across various groups expressed the idea that substance abuse and mental illness were heavily associated. Most of the participants believed that drug and/or alcohol abuse brought on depression, while others seemed to be aware of an interactive relationship between substance use and depression, with many stating that depression often preceded alcohol or drug use, which in turn exacerbated the tendency to depression. “For myself a lot of my depression was worsening by my self-medicating with the use of alcohol and drugs. It played a big part in my depression.”“I was depressed before I even started using drugs. So I was depressed first. Then as I began to use drugs I became even worse. Then I had to get on medication. When I stopped drugs, that’s when I started to feel much better.”“I’m self-medicating all the time, but I was depressed before.”
