Functional Addict: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

Because [[Drugs Are Bad]], the world of fiction is famous for treating drug addicts as feeble, broken people living in disheveled apartments (or in a worst scenario, [[Crazy Homeless People|homeless]]) and constantly muttering to themselves. However, there has been a general trend lately towards portraying addicts in a more positive light. These drug users, with addictions just as serious, can lead very normal lives, at least to the strangers on the street. They can wake up in the morning, go to work, have a family, and interact socially without any noticeable problems, as long as they are getting their "fix" when necessary.

* In ''[[Cruelty]]'', Reis Northcotte's mother is definitely dysfunctional, but Reis himself fits the bill. The facade is beginning to crack, however.

* Despite his [[Never Live It Down|far more well-known breakdowns]], [[Iron Man|Tony Stark]] actually spent a lot of time beforehand as a ''functioning'' alcoholic. Of course, as typical of works of fiction, [[It Got Worse|that went downhill so steeply]] that he [[Despair Event Horizon|slammed straight into rock bottom]]. '''''[[Death Seeker|H]][[Heroic BSOD|a]][[Survivor Guilt|r]][[Drowning My Sorrows|d]]'''''. Granted, Tony's gone through [[Trauma Conga Line|a lot of awful shit]], so his descent into [[The Alcoholic|full-blown alcoholism]] wasn't unjustified.

== [[Film]] ==

* ''[[The Expendables]]'': Gunnar is heavily suggested to be a junkie (a heroin addiction, presumably, based on the typical understanding of the word "junkie", but his exact addiction is a mystery), which heavily clouds his sense of better judgment and seriously afflicts his personality, yet he was still able to take on Ying Yang, and would have beaten him in one-on-one combat had Barney not interfered.

* ''[[Ghosts of Mars]]'': Melanie Ballard (Natasha Henstridge) is a drug addict, but manages to hold down a job as a police officer.

* Played with in ''[[Dark Angel]].'' A flaw in Max's engineered genetics means she has [[wikipedia:Tryptophan|tryptophan]] deficiencies. Without ''large'' regular doses, she has crippling muscle spasms. Because of the state of America [[After the End]], the stuff is expensive and hard to come by - though not ''quite'' as much as the steady supplies of chocolate, milk, yogurt, red meat, eggs, fish, poultry, and/or peanuts she'd need to get by without supplements. Because she keeps her condition a secret from her friends, they think she's addicted to recreational drugs and throw away her pills before even confronting her. It comes across as kind of a dick move, though it doesn't help that she won't even explain herself even when they stage an intervention for her.

** Wait, she's dependent on ''tryptophan''? The one that causes depression and [[wikipedia:Pellagra|pellagra]] ([[Did Not Do the Research|no muscle spasms there]]) when deficient?

* Jesse from ''[[Breaking Bad]]'' starts out this way, mainly a pot smoker who occasionally dabbles in meth while still functioning close to normal, {{spoiler|at least until his girlfriend gets him hooked on heroin and he turns into a junkie}}

* Doctor Stephen Franklin on ''[[Babylon 5]]'' is addicted to Stims during the third season, having started on them in the second season to keep up with the crushing burden of running an understaffed hospital and dealing with the many crises that occur on the station. When he nearly [[My God, What Have I Done?|gets a patient killed]] due to being strung out from lack of rest and having dangerous amounts of the stuff in his system, {{spoiler|he tenders his resignation and goes on a [[Walking the Earth|walkabout]] to detox.}}