My problem was with both alcohol and pot. I was either stoned, drunk or both pretty much all of the time. I have also been on various drugs for depression (paxil, prozac, wellbutran, effexor, you name it...not all at the same time!) for about the last 3 years. The depression got so bad that last Dec 15th I tried to kill myself. I always wondered why, with all the meds I was taking that I felt so bad. The problem, of course, wasn't the meds, but the booze and pot. I finally cleaned up for good (I hope!!) on Feb 15th. I have been clean since then. While I still have my down periods, I have experienced nothing like it was when I was using. I've got a lot of not so good things going on in my life right now that would probably make anyone depressed, so I have to keep that in mind, but the complete hopelessness that I used to feel is gone. I don't know if this helps or not, but it has been my experience. I guess the thing I try to keep in mind as far as the depression goes is that there will be good and bad days, that is life. I had been trying to numb myself to that for so long that I have to keep that in mind in order to keep things in perspective. BTW you may also want to check out the depression/anxiety board.
Peace
Tyler