[samurai7694]

Big post:

I can only speak from personal experience that weed combined with my problems just made me care less about doing what I needed to do at my worst point in life so it was better that I went cold turkey until I resolved my big issues. Otherwise, it would just cause me to be under the influence and leak out my negativity to others. Keeping in mind what Raeko typed, everyone has different experiences in general so I'm just speaking for myself. Being in a better point of my life now compared to the past, casual drinking/smoking (assuming not in excess and not with complete strangers) is fine with me. In any case, it's very important to first resolve problems that can be fixed and let go of things that can't be helped. This can take some time.

I am inexperienced with alcohol abuse so I have not much to say here. I think I lucked out in a way, seeing how destructive it was for certain family members of mine and because of that I never resorted to drinking to cope with things. I have, however, heard about and seen from people how bad alcohol withdrawal can be. I lost someone who drank even while they had stomach cancer and it was not pretty.

What personally worked for me when I had my worst days of depression without the use of drugs or comfort of other people is having learned to love myself. I would recall back some good memories, gathering as many as possible and taking note of it. Even small things such as remembering my favorite TV shows/cartoons and then scouting episodes of them online somewhere via stream or Netflix/Hulu or any other option. This made me feel comfortable and also feel a sense of care for myself in a way. The more the merrier: combining the available free time to watch episodes along with my favorite snack or favorite smoothie or anything really. Maybe get back in touch with old friends or turn on an old game console that's been collecting dust for a while. I could also suggest listening back to your favorite music. The idea here being nostalgia and digging deep into your mind to sort of go backwards in time and embracing things about you. Loving myself more and more every day with these solo activities have helped me feel significantly less lonely. Bonus points if those activities are also productive like exercising as one example.