McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
Addictions - your experiences?
Nicodemus Carpenter:
Sorry to necro this thread, but I have a specific problem relating to this topic.
Without going into too much detail, a character has been using drugs as a means of controlling my protagonist for the past couple of years. With the events of the story, that supply will be cut off, and she'll have to contend with something approximating heroin withdrawal. The addiction is important for later books in the series, but for now I need to know how to handle it. In this first book, my protagonist is a young teen, and while her physiology is somewhat more robust than human normal, the general rules still apply.
What I'm looking for are specific details about how much such a serious withdrawal would hamper someone mentally, emotionally, and physically over the course of a week or two. Getting more drugs is not a viable option, so she won't be having to battle temptation or anything, just the unavoidable symptoms. Her normal routine tends to include scrambles across rooftops at night, and sneaking into and out of places that most people consider inaccessible. What I'm trying to figure out is whether this will simply be more difficult, or flat out impossible.
Sir Huron Stone:
It'll be flat out impossible. I've seen people going through heroin withdrawl, and they just don't function. Vomiting, tremors, headaches, it's just not possible.
Nicodemus Carpenter:
Exactly. I've seen the same thing, but I've also heard some stories about addicts that manage to stay at their jobs during the process. I don't know if that was due to different constitutions, different levels of addiction, methadone therapy, or just plain lies.
OpticChaos:
there are medications and things that can help you deal with withdrawal but if your going cold turkey on an actual hardcore addiction, it will stop you dead.
I'm assuming that your character is going cold turkey so to make it true to life you need them to be literally writhing in pain almost constantly for a few weeks.
Fyrchick:
Withdrawing cold from a hardcore drinking problem can actually give you brain damage. Seizures are common, as are electrolyte imbalances which will bring heart rate issues, change in mentation (confusion and hallucination) and muscle cramping/coordination problems. It tends to last longer than other addictions because of the time it takes the body to process it out. There is also sleeplessness and hyperactivity that tends to come with meth/cocaine/stimulant withdrawal. But these have a very short half-life, which means a shorter withdrawal. Appetite effects are also bad, since the liver is connected to the digestive system. Drinkers tend to get pancreatitis as well, which can be debilitating by itself.
Medication addictions can also have some of the same withdrawal, but tend to last less than a week- if the person can last. People who do doctor/clinic supervised withdrawal have access to other resources to ease some of the symptoms.
Either way, its like having the hangover, the flu, and maybe feeling ike you got hit by a bus all at once- for at least a week.
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