McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
Addictions - your experiences?
Starbeam:
One suggestion is to find Less than Zero, with RDJ, and watch that cause he's basically playing himself, which is a rich kid on drugs.
Snowleopard:
Another film to look at, it isn't about a chemical addiction but is about addiction is
The Gambler staring James Caan. It's based off a real person - so addicted to gambling
that even when given money to get clear - gambles it away.
Very, very powerful.
Fyrchick:
I think there are 2 parts to every addiction- the addict and his/her environment. This includes actual places as well as people, social standards and support.
I am not an addict, but I have a family that is pretty much all addicts of some sort. I also deal with addicts on a regular basis as part of my job.
I think Enj gave a very succinct but accurate 'flow chart' about the ritual of the addiction. There is always some kind of comfort in the routine of securing the 'high'. For cigarette smokers this is everything from buying and opening a pack of smokes, to getting one out, to lighting it, etc. For drinkers, there is the pouring of the drink, the first sip, etc. The substance becomes irrelevant. The most successful detox programs use some kind of behavior modification to supplant or break the ritual.
Addiction as a means of coping mechanism for people without any sort of emotional coping skills is common. Another component of the successful programs is intensive therapy to learn how to identify and then deal with the situations and emotions that send people back to the drug. Writing this for a character might mean some kind of internal dialog or whatever that happens to justify using. The the ritual of using. Then the post-use guilt/disappointment/disgust etc.
I would think that when writing an addicted character this would be an important part of the appeal of the 'substance'. From my own experience I have observed this many, many times. This also applies to the everything related to the addiction. For example, there is a woman in the town where I work who is a dedicated alcoholic. Every time she gets to the end of the month and runs out of money she then runs out of booze and smokes. Then she calls 911 because she is 'sick' and WANTS to go to detox. She does this on a monthy/bi-monthly basis. So her drinking has a ritual and then the loss of alcohol has a ritual.
As for environment that is a little more obvious. Is the character is a place where substance use and abuse is common or shameful? How much effort goes into getting and then using their drug? Does the character have an excuse "I'm in so much pain" "But I'm an addict" or is it a symptom of something else i.e. PTSD or other trauma? Are they addicted to the drug or the DRAMA that goes with using it? Because I have found that quite often people use the excuse of "I'm an addict" to excuse any behavior that is destructive. They live for the label and not the disease, if that makes sense.
The other environmental thing is enablers. If you spend any time at all with addicts and their 'families' (of any makeup) it is often RAPIDLY evident that the people around them allow it. They buy booze for them, drive them all over creation when they have a DUI license suspension, pay their court fees, cook for them, etc. There is no incentive to change. EVERY addict has an enabler, even if it is themselves.
As for feelings... how do you feel when you are thirsty? How do you know you are dehydrated? What do you do when you realize it? What about food? Sleep? The need is very physical, and your solution is 'obvious', right? Addictions create a false need, and then the physical clues to it just like sleep or thirst.
I can give you pages and pages of behaviors, events, stories, etc. about alcoholics. Everyone from super-high functioning to the passed out in a gutter naked in a foreign country to in jail alcoholics and pill poppers. If you want some drop me a PM! Honestly, the naked tazed man is hilarious. ::)
Another good movie.. Leaving Las Vegas.
Kali:
My addiction was milder, to cigarettes. Since it was a socially accepted addiction, it was insidious. What amazed me was how easy it was to smoke and how little I noticed when I was doing it. It would just... happen. One minute I'd be sitting there, reading a book, and the next minute there was a half-smoked cigarette between my fingers. I would have no memory of putting the book down, getting my cigarettes out of my purse, pulling one out, and lighting it. It was kinda creepy, actually.
It wasn't until I decided to quit that I realized how often it had happened, because there were no cigarettes to reach for. I'd get twitchy, itchy. I couldn't sit still, I *had* to go find a cigarette. One or two times, I even became that person who digs through ashtrays hoping to find one I hadn't smoked all the way down.
BobForPresident:
--- Quote from: Kali on June 07, 2011, 02:51:10 PM ---My addiction was milder, to cigarettes. Since it was a socially accepted addiction, it was insidious. What amazed me was how easy it was to smoke and how little I noticed when I was doing it. It would just... happen. One minute I'd be sitting there, reading a book, and the next minute there was a half-smoked cigarette between my fingers. I would have no memory of putting the book down, getting my cigarettes out of my purse, pulling one out, and lighting it. It was kinda creepy, actually.
It wasn't until I decided to quit that I realized how often it had happened, because there were no cigarettes to reach for. I'd get twitchy, itchy. I couldn't sit still, I *had* to go find a cigarette. One or two times, I even became that person who digs through ashtrays hoping to find one I hadn't smoked all the way down.
--- End quote ---
So, when you wanted a smoke, was it that you were feeling bad (twitchy and itchy) and knew that a cigarette would help? Or is it more akin to like, being hungry or thirsty?
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version