#Addictive

[briabooknerd]

The Faerie Games

The Faerie Pawn

The Faerie Mates

The Faerie Wand

The Faerie Plague

Michelle Madow

[buffetlicious]

I don’t like the taste of fresh bananas but I won’t decline that piece of freshly baked banana bread or this deep-fried crispy Banana Chips. My sister’s friend got this homemade snack from his hometown in Malaysia. Unripe bananas are sliced into thin discs and dried before marinating in sugar and spices then deep-fried to a crisp. This addictive snack is crispy, sweet and lightly spicy that you will want to keep popping it into the mouth.

[bluerose777]

Shy sneezes are my kryptonite. The smallest display of need. Trying to hide it, deny it, but I notice every little detail. The change in your breath pattern. The furrow of your brows. The flare in your nostrils, twitch in the bridge of your nose, flush in your cheeks. I don't know who's more vulnerable, you or I, but I want to live in this delicious torture forever.

[ruminate88]

Haha 🤣 OR you watch a show too early, it’s got only 1 season and now you’re frustrated because you got invested into the characters and wanna know what happens next but can’t!!! Ahhhhh!!!

Also, since learning about emotional abuse, erm, I don’t wanna watch just any show. Like some of these shows are too creepy or scary 🫣 I don’t like shows that make me uncomfortable the whole time!!

I usually end up watching older sitcoms I’ve already seen… it’s rare that I find a new show but when I do, I get all in to it and watch it all at once. Not sure how to space out the episodes. I guess it’s my older addictive/obsessive personality traits I’ve been trying to change but it’s hard!!

[imbecominggayer]

How To Write Characters With Addiction

From @differentnighttale: "I am curious if you give advice about writing people with addictions for example substance. I have reasons my male MC does it. But how can I describe the addictions the MC has correctly."

In this post we are going to be talking about addiction! From alcoholism, substance abuse, nymphomania, to everything else that can be a possible addiction. This post will be all about making this realistic and complex :)

A) What Are The Benefits?, Make It Convincing

Grab a fucking piece of paper or whatever you have and just write a paragraph from your addict's perspective on the situation. Omit the bad stuff. Make it highly convincing. if you aren't thinking "hmm, understandable" after you've written and read it, you did it wrong.

What do they get out of it?

Why did they like it at first?

Are they calmer, more intensely concentrated, does it take the edge off?

Are they more confident?

Does it ease the sense of being fundamentally wrong or dull some other pain?

Is it fun to do something rebellious?

What made them like this thing so much they tried it again, and again, and again?

B) Think About The Consequences, And Ignore It

Oftentime, at least in my experience, people will continue with a bad habit if it means they don't have to be the one to think about the consequences.

The Consequences For Addiction Include:

Financial. Depending on what your character uses to get their fix and how much they use, they might be spending hundreds a week if they are a particularly aggressive user. People often steal money from their loved ones. Addiction also tends to get people fired. Write a scene where your drunk character gets fired for operating machinery. Have them be a burdenous sponge.

Social. It's common for addicts to lose their loved ones since it often gets to a point where it's impossible to care about these people despite how much you love them. Make love ones leave your character! And don't blame them

Physical. STDs, Overdose, Liver Failure, and a shit ton of other issues from the chronic to the fatal either cause, exacerbate, or are linked with addiction. Recovery can't automatically save your character so don't write that story.

Psychological. Being an addict isn't fun since you get to struggle with points 1, 2, and 3 all at the same time! Write about your character issues. Their lack of control. Their spiralling life.

Write all about your character's suffering. And then have them justify it. Make it convincing.

They need it. It's not their fault that this is the only that helps them! Everyone just doesn't get it. I'm trying to work on it, OK?! It'll all work out! They know that it's wrong but...

My most hated shit is when a character's arc is easy. They struggle with some things like a big dramatic argument with their wife, they cry a bit, and then they learn that "drugs are bad" so everything is fine :D

NO!!! Why don't you write about a friendship that doesn't get mended? A chronic illness they now have to pay huge medicine bills for? A fucked-up rap sheet that they can't escape?

And it's not because we want to punich addicts. It's because it doesn't matter if you care about addicts if you don't care about the messy shit!

It's easy to sympathize with an addict if you make them the most innocent victim who never hurts someone intentionally and who gets rid of the addiction in a second and never struggles with it ever again!

Do the hard shit. Make your readers sympathize with the unsympathetic asshole addict! Addicts aren't always good people! They can be dickbags. And they still deserve resources. Life isn't some kind of karma game where dickbags suffer and good people rise! Everyone deserves to not suffer!

Addiction is ultimately a disease. But it's a disease that can make someone you love into an absolutely unlikeable person. And this is coming from someone with an alcoholic dad <3 He does good things and bad things. I can sympathise with my dad and not let him walk all over me.

C) Withdrawal Is Leaving An Ex, Relapse Is Returning

Addiction is a motherfucker trying to leave. It's basically the equivalent of a clingy ex who keeps contacting you, asking for just one conversation, and the moment you so much as acknowledge them you are fucked.

And suffering the brunt of a clingy ex who won't take the hint tends to cause the same symptoms as withdrawal!

Obviously, withdrawal symptoms depend on what type of ex you have and what age you are and yada yada yada. Research for specificity :)

Withdrawal symptoms can include:

Headaches

Insomnia

Fatigue

Hallucinations

Seizures

Tremors

Cravings

etc.

BE AWARE: Relapses are when someone returns back to their drug if they were going cold turkey or going back to their original dose. Relapses can sometimes result in an overdose due to the fact that the brain has been weened off the substance and is now overwhelmed by the high dose.

Relapses often happen when a person makes the deliberate choice in order to stop these fucking nightmarish symptoms. To use the analogy of a clingy ex, you start talking to them in order to tell them to stop contacting.

Relapses can also happen through being in a setting where the behaviors associated with the addiction such as sex, gambling, drinking, substance use, and all manner of things are normalized.

This setting could be a party, a bar, or even a friend group.

Relapse is made more likely if someone is self-detoxing away from a support group or a doctor.

Writing about withdrawal and relapses are an important part in making a story feel more authentic. Just like with mental illness, people rarely learn the lesson and follow it perfectly. They make mistakes. Slip back into old habits. Do shitty things.

We aren't writing their suffering to punish them. We are doing it because you can't say you care if all you are willing to do is look at the easy parts.

D) Little Tidbits To Keep Track Off

This is the miscellanious things that didn't fit into their own boxes.

Friends!

Do they have friends who also have their addiction? How do they hang out? What are they like? How are their substance using friends different from their non-addict ones?

Slang!

Don't just look up slang for your substance of choice. You'll need to look at some first-hand accounts of addiction. Find an influence who has struggled with substance abuse in the past and see how they talk about it!

Variables!

Remember to keep their geographical location, socioeconomic status, time, and a host of other factors. If your character is a penniless alcoholic then it's unlikely they'll get their hands on some type of expensive gin. They'll probably use rubbing alcohol. Keep the price of your drug in mind.

A character's status will also impact their slang. No one unironically says doobie anymore.

A character's location will also impact how they get their shit and how other characters will react to that addiction.

A character's financial status also impacts how the consequences of their actions impact them. A low-income character wont be able to afford the same medication as a rich addict. They also won't have the same luxury for quality therapy, rehab, programs, time, anything really.

Look At The Addict And The Loved Ones

Try not the skew the reality of addiction to paint the addict as the victim and the loved ones as evil for not being forgiving and tolerant enough.

Keep sympathy for both the addict and the loved ones. Or drop sympathy for both of those characters.

E) RESOURCES

FDA and DEA online databases and drug resources

Social Networking Groups

Medical Journals

Local medical professionals, police, and medical examiners

The US national poison center

[howifeltabouthim]

The thing about anger—especially righteous anger—is how addictive it is. I didn't want to let go of it. I didn't want to calm down. I wanted to be furious . . .

Jenn Lyons, from The Ruin of Kings

[beautiful-contrast]

[dk-thrive]

There’s something hypnotic to aligning words, something addictive. That’s probably all there is to writing.

— Etel Adnan, Shifting the Silence (Nightboat Books, 2020)

[briabooknerd]

Golden star

Fallen star

Midnight star

Broken star

Burning star

Stolen star

Michelle Madow

[buffetlicious]

From the rustic kampong (term for village) in Malaysia came this packet of homemade Spicy Tapioca Chips. The tapioca (木薯) or cassava is hand-peeled and shaven into thin rounds then dried before frying in hot oil. Seasonings like sugar, salt and chilli powder are added to give it that savoury sweet, yet slightly spicy flavours. It is so addictive as you munch on one piece after another.

[8ballerzz]

I relapsed Friday can can’t tell if I should just lowkey give in and buy a bag or like try and stay off completely. Cause like if I were to get a bag I’d only do it on special occasion but that’s what I said last time 💀

[coffeexxcigarettes]

Warning

-

You should have warned me,

How easy it is to stand beside you.

How your laughter floats gently down to me,

Broken and stuck in the darkness.

The candle lit,

The key out,

The only solution.

But you are the cross many bear,

The church that holds the lost.

With care and light and love

And laughter

Laughter

Laughter

I'll drink the poison, I suppose,

If it gives me a chance at standing beside you

For a little longer.

It stains my lips,

And burns my throat,

In such an addicting way.

Another sip,

Let me hear that laugh.

One more day.

One more day.

One more..

x

[st4rrysam]

Stardew valley is sooo addicting. It's mostly me trying to marry sebastian, tho. I'm at 5 hearts after two days.

[imwendyandthisismyhouse]

let it stain the fresh bedsheets

and clot on baggy hoodies

let it sting in the shower

and the blood pool at my feet

remind me that i am human

remind me that i can break

i need the proof

[thecuriousgirl1]

Just one taste, and I’ll ruin you for everyone else. 😏🔥