In the United Kingdom, it’s estimated that 86 percent of people who access treatment for alcohol use experience mental health problems. Similarly, 70 percent of people in treatment for drug dependency also have a mental illness. For those people who report coexisting mental health difficulties, depressive and anxiety symptoms tend to be the most common.
In the United States, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) estimates that nearly half of those with a substance use disorder also had mental illness and vice versa. The two conditions contribute to each other: those on drugs can develop mental illness and those with mental illness may seek respite in drugs.
