How are depression and addiction connected?

How are depression and addiction connected?

Linda Hyder Ferry (Associate Professor, Preventive Medicine and Family Medicine, Loma Linda University School of Medicine) gives expert video advice on: Why is it so easy for some people to quit smoking and so hard for other's?; How are depression and addiction connected?; Why do I become depressed when I try to quit smoking? and more...

The brain is an amazing complex of pathways that communicate with each other about influences, thoughts, moods and emotions. When you use alcohol or a chemical that changes your mood and you do it repeatedly, daily to the point where you really like that change, and it feels better than the way you felt before, you set up a pathway in your addiction and reward center. When someone uses a chemical that is an upper, a stimulant, to their mood then they don't feel as sad, or low, or depressed, or irritable, or grumpy or miserable. That is how a lot of people describe depression - a lack of energy, and no interest in anything. If they use a chemical such as stimulants like amphetamines, crack cocaine, or nicotine, those stimulants really give a boost in the same chemicals that would cause depression. What happens here is you take your chemical, you feel good, you don't take your chemical, you sink down to the level of depression where you don't feel good at all. Some people think that is just withdrawal, but for a significant portion of smokers, maybe up to 25%, 30% percent of smokers, what they are doing is self-medicating a depression.