Anecdotally: I developed a drinking problem in my first few years of work, which I used to deal with anxiety and depression as I failed to find my feet and seriously questioned dropping out of software development.

I was eventually diagnosed with ADHD (inattentive) and through treatment, experienced a complete life change.

I stopped drinking excessively, then almost completely. I never tried to address the problem directly, I just lost any desire to drink outside of a normal social context. Even then, I rarely have more than 2-3 in a night.

I'm on stimulants for treatment, but take breaks some weekends and over holidays. I've always been a coffee drinker, but now I'm conscious of how much I'm drawn to it for the positive effects I see.

I honestly think it was the only reason I got through university (before diagnosed / treated for ADHD). I was using caffeine in the same way I use my current medication, to fill the same gaps.

I don't want to comment on the effectiveness of self medication, or anything diagnosis related. I just find it interesting the correlation between certain personality types and the class of drugs they seem to be drawn to. I think it offers a lot of psychological insight we haven't really looked at in detail.

In general, it can sometimes be difficult to differentiate drug withdrawal from re-emergence of a pre-existing condition.

I have had the most success with vaping green crack at 210C. Oil concentrates also work, but I tend to overshoot the functional sweet spot and end up recreationally high.

Smoking was much harder to nail down. It worked occasionally, enough to justify buying the vape... But the vape is way better.