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[[quoteright:272:[[ComicBook/UnkeptPromise https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/unkept_promise_addled_addict.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:272:"When I was sober, my family loved me. And my hat wasn't blue..."]]
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->''"I need morphine! Is it true that my eyes are like buttons? I feel gripes inside my belly, as if I am filled with straw."''
-->-- '''Catherina''', ''VideoGame/{{Pathologic}}''

When a drug addict is left a physical and mental wreck from their addiction to drugs or alcohol. The signs are typically what they would be in real life; their visage noticeably deteriorates, they are increasingly unreliable and regularly fail to meet obligations, are often visibly drunk or strung out and, if they are on drugs, may be associating with sketchy and often dangerous people, and are also prone to theft, scams, and scheming to acquire money to feed their habits. The decline is often documented as a way of showing DrugsAreBad and may be the focus of a VerySpecialEpisode. This is distinct from the FunctionalAddict (who is still capable of accomplishing the tasks of everyday life), but the FunctionalAddict may reach this state. In cynical works, this can be the endpoint of a DescentIntoAddiction character arc.

Also distinct from TheAlcoholic (where the character trait is simply that they are usually drunk), but there definitely can be overlap.

The LogicalExtreme is someone being killed by their addiction, often a LongLostUncleAesop so that none of the main cast needs to die. If they get support and have great HeroicWillpower, they may become a RecoveredAddict.

----
!!Examples:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
* In the ''Manga/BlackLagoon'' story arc involving [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Sayyaf Abu Sayyaf]], the Triad enlists as Revy and Rock's chauffeur to the US military base an assassin named Shenhua and a driver named Leigarch who is continuously snorting coke. A previous overdose resulted in frequent hallucinations, and between then and Shenhua's next appearance in the Greenback Jane arc, he apparently OD'd again and wrecked his brain to the point where he had to be institutionalized.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* In ''ComicBook/{{Cruelty}}'', Reis Northcotte's mother is implied to be this; certainly, she is a MissingMom due to her frequent arrests. His dad takes this to the LogicalExtreme, having [[DisappearedDad died of an overdose]]. [[spoiler:In the sequel, his mom dies as well.]]
* ''ComicBook/UnkeptPromise'' is a pro-temperance propaganda comic about the apparent dangers of alcohol, illustrating this with the story of a family man who immediately goes on a hard downward spiral after trying just one glass of booze. He forecloses on his house, loses his job, repeatedly ends up in the drunk tank, his family falls into poverty, and apparently his hat turns blue.
** The mere fact that it only took one sip for him to get hooked implies ([[UnintentionallyUnsympathetic without the comic's intention]]) that he had [[CantHoldHisLiquor very little self-control]] to begin with. In fact, one could say that, with a stressed life like his, he would have inevitably gotten addicted to something ''other'' than alcohol (e.g. [[MustHaveNicotine tobacco]], [[MustHaveCaffeine coffee]], [[BigEater food]], [[TheGamblingAddict gambling]], etc.).
* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1987'': A drug addict desperate for a high knocks a police officer out a window while trying to steal drugs. He doesn't even seem to know he just nearly murdered someone when Diana disarms him and rescues the cop, and the cop is furious -- her shoulder was injured because Diana was trying to help both of them and she sees the junkie as beyond help.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Strips]]
* In ''ComicStrip/BloomCounty'', Bill the Cat is the character most frequently stated to use drugs other than alcohol, tobacco, or [[ICantBelieveItsNotHeroin dandelions]], which helps explain why his average mood is practically brain-dead.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Fan Works]]
* ''Fanfic/CodexEquus'' has Moon Ray Vaughoof. Moon Ray's entry notes that he consumed so much drugs and alcohol that his judgement and music-playing were severely impeded, and he became [[AlcoholInducedIdiocy prone to making dumb choices]]. When he started having [[DreamingOfThingsToCome prophetic nightmares]] about himself drowning in water no matter how hard he tried to swim up, Moon Ray tried suppressing them with ''more'' alcohol, and he [[SelfFulfillingProphecy later collapsed and nearly died on tour as a result]]. Both doctors and Zebra musician Smooth Neck predicted he wouldn't live long to the age of forty (which came true, but in a different way) because of how much he damaged himself with his habits. Fortunately, Moon Ray's near-death experience motivated him to clean himself up and cut out all the toxic people in his life, including his wife at the time, Crystal Light, whom he divorced after discovering her unsavory traits. Meeting Velvet Heart, his fiancée [[spoiler:and later wife]], made him swear off alcohol and drugs completely, and he was a completely RecoveredAddict by the time of his death. His presence in the Fourth Age as an [[PhysicalGod Alicorn god]] implies he has been sober for ''over tens of thousands of years''.
* Yukari in the ''Manga/AzumangaDaioh'' fic ''Fanfic/{{Control}}'' becomes this after she starts injecting drugs. The first chapter starts with her arriving at Nyamo's house in the middle of the night, beaten up and oblivious to her surroundings.
* In ''Fanfic/{{Coping}}'', Sunset's addiction to over-the-counter drugs contrasts with the other characters' more stable usage of cigarettes and marijuana. Sunset's becoming more addicted. It's gotten to the point where even Twilight notices that something is wrong with her.
* ''Fanfic/DanganronpaParadiseLost'': [[spoiler:[[SmarmyHost Takeshi Tashiro]]]] turns out to be one, slowly deteriorating due to withdrawal as a result of being unable to get a drug fix during the [[DeadlyGame Killing Game]], and eventually killing someone once Monokuma threatens to reveal their status as such.
* In the ''Fanfic/EmpathTheLuckiestSmurf'' story "The New Shop In The Village", Empath in a dream sees that the Smurf Village has devolved into a drug-fueled SugarApocalypse and that most of the Smurfs and Smurfettes in it are all junkies that look like "the walking dead", all because smurfnip has been legalized.
* Happens to [[TroubledButCute Matt]] in the ''It Matters'' collection of ''Manga/DeathNote'' fanfictions, brought on by Mello's ({{Canon}}) decision to leave Wammy's House (and thus Matt) behind without bothering to say goodbye or make contact with him until the (also {{Canon}}) explosion. Matt began using drugs (opiates in particular), alcohol, and empty sex (as well as {{Self Harm}}ing) to cope with the pain of losing Mello. When they are reunited, he starts on a path to recovery by GoingColdTurkey. He is ''mostly'' successful, though he does fall OffTheWagon every now and again, which does put a strain on his marriage to Mello.
* In the ''Fanfic/LayingWasteToHalloween'', Annabeth becomes addicted to drugs, which have both physical and mental side effects. She has sores on her mouth from the drugs and she's started to disassociate and not be ''there''.
* ''Fanfic/OniGaShikuSeries'': [[spoiler:Musashi Midoriya]]'s father Hideo was a gambling-addicted drunkard. It got so bad that his wife abandoned him and their son once he got several thousand yen into debt, and [[spoiler:Musashi]] ran away from home shortly afterwards. Over ten years later, he has apparently cut down his drinking -- by [[spoiler:Musashi]]'s account he used to empty out bottles over the course of an evening but the last time he saw him he was nursing a single glass from start to finish -- but this did not improve his situation any. He was even more of an emotional wreck, more or less resigned to just dying whenever, and even deeper into debt, in severe trouble with the yakuza. [[spoiler:From Misashi's point of view, killing him was just putting the guy out of his misery; even if Musashi was messed up for life after it.]]
* In ''Fanfic/TheirBond'', [[spoiler:Link]] is a ShellShockedVeteran and former {{Child Soldier|s}} who took to [[TheAlcoholic alcohol]] and illegal potions to help calm his demons. After finding out about the drug usage, Impa considers him a danger to Zelda because [[spoiler:Link]] already holds too much power while sober, nevermind if he isn't in the right mind.
* Discussed in ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/42531735 Empty Arms]]''. Slade notes that [[VillainRespect Laurel has a sharp mind]], and that he's grateful she dulled it for the past few months with alcohol, giving everyone else cause to doubt her. After [[spoiler:arranging for him to arrested by the Australian government]], she throws this back in Oliver's face:
-->'''Oliver:''' He might tell them my identity when they question him. Sara’s, too.
-->'''Laurel:''' And what reason would they have to believe him? He’s been high on some drugs for half a decade. As you may recall, the word of an addict isn’t taken all that seriously.
* ''Fanfic/WhatItTakes'': It is indicated that if Quentin was drinking less, he'd be able to recognize that Darhk is a villain. It's also preventing him from doing his job effectively. In Chapter 9, he tries to draw his gun on Laurel (again), only for her to flatly state "You're too drunk to aim".
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* ''Film/TwelveHourShift'': Nurse Mandy is snorting drugs in the middle of her shift and resorts to ''[[OrganTheft stealing organs for a trafficking ring]]'' to finance her habit.
* ''Film/AdamAndPaul'' is about two homeless heroin addicts who have lost the ability to care about almost anything except their next fix. They'll do anything for it, including mugging a teenager with Down syndrome, who turns out not to have anything valuable. [[spoiler:When Adam overdoses, Paul takes what's left of the heroin from his jacket pocket.]]
* ''Film/Asylum1972Horror'': In "Lucy Comes to Stay", Barbara covertly swallows some yellow pills, apparently a medication she was once prescribed which she developed an addiction to. When Lucy catches her taking the pills, Barbara insists that she 'needs' them and begs Lucy to let her have "one more".
* Jim/the Waco Kid starts out with a bad case of the DT's in ''Film/BlazingSaddles'', [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KF6tRXpw00 at least on one side,]] although he gets over it fairly quickly.
* Lloyd from ''Film/BloodyMama'' is a morphine addict who seems more or less functional at first, but becomes increasingly dopey and out of it until [[spoiler:he OD's, becoming the first Barker to die]].
* ''Film/BoilingPoint2021'' chef Andy is dependant on alcohol and cocaine, while dealing with a divorce and the stress of running a restaurant, and [[spoiler:ends up dying from cocaine overdose]] after things go FromBadToWorse over the course of the night.
* ''Film/CitizenRuth'' has Ruth addicted to the petrol-based fumes of aerosol cans. She is found in an alley in a catatonic state by police, who identify her and arrest her for being wasted in public. While in the city jail, Ruth gets a handful of pro-life protesters as cellmates. They take pity on Ruth and discover that she's pregnant. Ruth shrewdly withholds some critical details, though: she's had four other children removed from her custody for being an unfit mother, and her current baby's father is a slumball john named Ricky.
* ''Film/TheConfirmation'': Drake turns out to be high on meth while he's helping Walt and Anthony look for the stolen tools and needlessly provokes conflict while taking them on all kinds of dead ends.
* Christopher Boyce gets his drug dealer acquaintance Daulton Lee to help him conduct US military and intelligence secrets to the Soviets in ''Film/TheFalconAndTheSnowman''. He runs into problems because Lee gets greedy, and also because Lee's own addiction to cocaine makes him careless.
* Tim from ''Film/FragmentOfFear'' is a RecoveredAddict who occasionally sees some of his old friends, including a miserable-looking junkie shooting up in an alley while curious teenager watch him from the street.
* ''Film/AGirlWalksHomeAloneAtNight'': Hossein is a heroin addict, though he does have a few lucid scenes.
* ''Film/JurassicCity'': Erika, one of the prisoners. She thinks she's hallucinating the dinosaurs and another time sees a giant bunny instead of one of them.
* In ''Film/{{Kongo}}'', Dr. Kingsland is a wild-eyed, twitchy, hollow shell of a drug addict, hooked on "bhang root". Kingsland says that he was actually sent to the Congo to fight drug addiction in the colony, but at some point, he "just stopped fighting."
* In ''Film/LittleLauraAndBigJohn'', very near the end of the film we see that the eponymous Laura has drunk herself stupid after [[spoiler:John's death]].
* Kyle and Dusty in ''Film/MethHead''. They struggled to find money and suffered some bad side effects from all the meth they snorted.
* ''Film/PrivateDetective62'': Whitey, the twitchy, constantly sniffing cocaine addict (this 1933 movie calls it "snow") who comes into the office of Hogan the sleazy private detective, desperate for money, and consequently does Hogan's slimier jobs. He murders Tony Bandor on Hogan's orders.
* In ''Film/PulpFiction'', Vincent Vega's cool, collected, impossible-to-faze exterior hides the fact that he is a heroin-addled moron who would have wound up getting himself killed a long time ago if it wasn't for [[HypercompetentSidekick Jules]] being there to continually rescue him from his own gorked-out stupidity. In fact, not having Jules around quickly results in [[spoiler:his death]].
* While all the main characters in ''Film/RequiemForADream'' have their lives destroyed by their drug addiction, for three of them it's the things they do in an attempt to feed their addictions rather than the effects of the drugs themselves that do them in (although Harry loses his arm to gangrene). The only one who suffers from this trope is poor Sara, who's rendered insensible by her diet pill addiction until she's institutionalised, forced to undergo electroshock therapy, and reduced to a withered, insane, near-catatonic ruin.
* ''Film/ThreeOnAMatch'': Vivian's degradation as she goes from society wife to companion of deadbeat loser Michael ends with her being addicted to heroin. She is gaunt, hollow-eyed, and twitchy when the kidnappers bring "Junior" to the hideout. Harve sees her compulsively rubbing her nose, mimics her nose-rubbing, and says "Uh oh!" Later Vivian goes through withdrawal.
* In ''Film/Traffic2000'', Caroline goes from straight-A student to crack whore after she is introduced to freebasing cocaine.
* The cast of ''Film/{{Trainspotting}}'' are a spectrum of relationship to heroin, where Begbie doesn't use at all, Sick Boy is able to start and stop using at will, Renton and Spud being more hopelessly addicted, while Tommy provides a DescentIntoAddiction arc. Sick Boy's girlfriend Allison bears the highest price for her addiction, when she finds her baby had died while everyone at the house had been too high to notice.
* Pink's drug use is implied to be one of the reasons why his wife cheated on him in ''Film/TheWall''. At one point, after he's engaged in a little ArtisticStimulation, she tries to speak to him, but he just looks at her like "daaahhhh..."
* ''Film/AWedding1978'': Regina has been addicted to heroin for almost twenty years and has clammy hands, a nervous and distant disposition, and a habit of getting lost in nostalgic tangents.
* ''Film/TheWrestler'': Randy abuses alcohol, cocaine and painkillers to function, but the addiction also screws up his attempts to hold steady employment and reconcile with his estranged daughter, as he goes on a binge the night before they were supposed to have dinner.
* ''Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast'': Past Charles Xavier is so far gone with his alcoholism and self-medication that he can't function without Hank [=McCoy=]'s help.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* Invoked in ''Literature/BlueCore''. The Anell house takes advantage of Void user's proclivity to addictive behavior, due to the inherent quirks of their affinity, to get their Ell sub-branch assassins strung out on drugs. In fact, the first of the Ells Shayma manages to wrest free of their evil grip is a man strung out on an extremely dangerous herb known as Heartroot, and can only think of where he's going to get his next fix. His handler ''actually hides'' the herb in question and then gives it back to him as "reward" for carrying out assassinations. Guiles is so addled, he has to be given the herb so he's clear-headed enough to ''attempt escaping capture'' when Nivir's royal guard, tipped off about an attempt on the entire royal family, comes at him.
* Tim Benzedrine in ''Literature/BoredOfTheRings''. In his more lucid moments, he readily admits that binging on drugs has destroyed his brain.
* By the time of ''Literature/{{Borrasca}} V'', the main character has become a complete wreck who's totally dependent on heroin as a way to escape the [[TraumaCongaLine physical and emotional pain of the first story]]. It's even [[InvokedTrope invoked:]] [[spoiler:Sam's father has been secretly paying off his dealer for the express purpose of keeping him drug-addled and docile.]]
* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'':
** Subverted by Mr. Tulip of ''Literature/TheTruth''. He's not addled because of ''drugs'' so much as because of all the ridiculous things he tries to ingest ''thinking'' they're drugs. Household cleaners, mostly.
--->'''Mr. Pin:''' Let's go through this again. Drugs equals chemicals, but, and please ''listen'' to this part, sheesh, ''chemicals do not equal drugs''!
** Played straight with Brick from ''Literature/{{Thud}}'', a homeless teenage troll who's usually buzzed out of his mind on Slab, Scrape, or whatever other FantasticDrug he's managed to get his hands on to provide a brief respite from [[TheWoobie his lonely, miserable existence]]. After he turns out to be a witness to a murder, Sergeant Detritus of the Watch takes him under his wing and helps him sober up.
* ''Literature/TheElenium'':
** Kragar, one of Martel's minions, is a none-too-bright alcoholic easily controlled with promises of his favorite wine. While the sequel series intially presented him as a FunctionalAddict who had been playing up his addiction, he soon lost his battle with the addiction and by the end of the books had lost his mind and was facing death to liver failure.
** King Wargun is said to have gone insane from drink between the two series and is locked in one wing of the palace at the beginning of the sequel, where he ultimately dies.
* In ''Literature/TheFirstLaw'' series, the LovableRogue mercenary leader Nicomo Cosca goes from a FunctionalAddict with a drinking problem to one of these by the end of ''Literature/RedCountry'', with a lot of description given to how much of a physical and mental wreck he has become. It also seems like as his alcoholism gets worse from novel to novel, he also declines morally, and is basically the BigBad of ''Literature/RedCountry''.
* In the ''Literature/{{Flashman}}'' series, Flashman's father, Buckley, ends up in this state, helped along by experiencing a financial collapse from bad investments. In the first novel of the series, he's a bad-tempered old rake with a drinking problem, and shortly after that, he's put in an asylum to be treated for the [=DTs=]. He appears as a POV character in the spin-off novel ''Black Ajax'' but doesn't really show up after that (except for mentions of his bad physical and mental health), and it is implied that his son basically left him there to rot.
* ''Literature/GoToSleepAJeffTheKillerRewrite'': Randy is an utter mess as an adult drug dealer. He looks aged and has ExhaustedEyebags from the harder drugs he's been taking, his dyed hair is unkempt with the natural roots growing back, and he's spent quite some time in jail.
* Father Kabani from ''Literature/HardToBeAGod'', alchemist, [[TheAlcoholic alcoholic]] and a total burnout. He started to [[DrowningMySorrows drown his sorrows]] after seeing too many of his inventions used for war and torture. By the time of the novel, he is a complete wreck.
* ''Literature/{{Hurog}}'': In ''Dragon Bones'', there is the protagonist's mother, who takes several drugs, and is almost always drugged. The fact that she's ''never'' quite there strongly implies that the drug abuse has affected her brain. [[spoiler:Close to the end, Ward uses his magical "find" ability to look for her... and doesn't find her, even when he finds her body.]]
* When we meet Seivarden in the ''Literature/ImperialRadch'' books, she's strung out on kef and effectively useless. She struggles with keeping clean for the rest of the series.
* In ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'', it's shown the One Ring can cause its bearers to get addicted to it due to its evil. The Gollum, once a Hobbit named Smeagol, has become a near-savage, hideous, addicted mess, no thanks to it. His addiction to the One Ring is something that drives him completely, and [[spoiler:he only destroys it by accident]].
* In ''Literature/{{Metaltown}}'', Colin's brother Hayden is addicted to alcohol and drugs, can't hold a job down or find places to stay, and is willing to betray those close to him to get a steady supply.
* In the backstory of ''Literature/PieceOfMyHeart'', Michelle fell in with a bad crowd and got addicted to drugs, in particular heroin, after giving up her baby son for adoption, resulting in her dropping out of college, moving around a lot and becoming distant from her mother. She was found dead of an overdose six months before her son's abduction. [[spoiler:Her best friend and neighbour Lindsay says that Michelle had actually [[RecoveredAddict been clean]] for nearly two years and was making good progress in turning her life around, so she doesn't believe she would've gone back to using and is convinced her death is suspicious. Due to her previous drug use, however, she was just dismissed as another dead junkie and the police didn't investigate thoroughly]].
* Bulwa of ''Literature/ShamanBlues''. He apparently tried to shut down his magic Sight with alcohol and drugs, and by the time Witkacy meets him, he's an insane beggar living in the gutters and babbling incoherently.
%%* Literature/SherlockHolmes is portrayed like this in some pastiches, most notably ''Literature/TheSevenPercentSolution''.
* Billy Bones of ''Literature/TreasureIsland'' is a former pirate who sees "[[PinkElephants the horrors]]" if he doesn't have rum. Over the early part of the story his health declines, and even after suffering a stroke and being advised by Dr. Livesey to stop drinking, he begs Jim for more rum and offers him gold. After receiving the BlackSpot, he suffers an apoplexy and drops dead before the other pirates can get to him.
* ''Literature/YouOnlyLiveTwice'': In this book, Literature/JamesBond is a wreck who can barely keep his job as a 00-agent, going off the rails after [[TheLostLenore Tracy's death]] in ''Literature/OnHerMajestysSecretService'' by [[DrowningMySorrows consuming a lot of booze]] and getting ''multiple hangovers'' on a daily basis.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* ''Series/{{Arrow}}'' Invoked in Season 2. Laurel is the only one to see through Sebastian Blood's VillainWithGoodPublicity act. Part of Blood's plan to discredit her is to expose her addiction problems. When everyone else learns of it, they (and even she) conclude her addiction is the only reason she thought this about him. Arguably inverted, as despite her addiction she was the only one to recognize that he ''was'' in fact a villain.
* Rodrigo Borgia takes vitriola (diethyl ether) for a good part series two ''Series/{{Borgia}}'' and suffers hallucinations and erratic behaviour, not a good state to be in whilst being pope.
* ''Series/ChappellesShow'': The recurring character Tyrone Biggums was a crackhead whose cocaine addiction made him willing to absolutely debase himself in every way possible so that he could get drugs. In one sketch, he goes on ''Series/FearFactor'' and is absolutely unfazed by the show's challenges, much to the host Creator/JoeRogan's shock, since they were far from the most disgusting things he'd ever done.
* ''Series/TheConfessionsOfFrannieLangton'': Frannie is addicted to laudanum, like her mistress/girlfriend Marguerite. This explains why she had slept through Marguerite's parents murders without stirring. It's shown Marguerite had increasingly used a lot of laudanum, before long getting Frannie to as well, for coping with everything they suffered and this made her increasingly debilitated.
* Ellie Rooney on the short-lived show ''Series/EZStreets'' is a barely functioning heroin addict.
* ''Series/TheFirstLady'': Betty Ford is increasingly affected by her drinking and pill use, having panic attacks that scare her family or flubbing her words in a public speech. Finally they stage an intervention to get her help.
* ''Series/{{Hightown}}'': Many characters, including one sad example with the mother of a young baby, are very seriously affected due to their alcohol or drug abuse. Jackie herself commits DUI and gets into a car accident. She gets into trouble with the law over it, threatening her career, though usually she's a FunctionalAddict.
* In ''Series/{{House}}'', Dr. House starts having a mental breakdown over his Vicodin addiction [[spoiler:causing him to suffer hallucinations of Amber (Wilson's girlfriend whose death he inadvertently contributed to) and, at the end of season 5, Kutner (who committed suicide and whose death helped trigger the hallucinations).]]
* While many students from ''Series/ElInternadoLasCumbres'' dabble in drugs/alcohol, Eva takes the cake at the school. She is seen huffing spray and by her own description, has a whole pharmacy in her mattress. She is so dependent on pills that at one point, she implores Adèle for assistance because she is no longer able to convince the school doctor to issue her any kind of downers.
* ''Series/MiamiVice'' has quite a few, but the worst is probably Yvonne from "Too Much, Too Late," who lets her dealer rape her adolescent daughter in exchange for crack.
* Dolores Mayo, the interim civilian aide played by Creator/LolaGlaudini on ''Series/NYPDBlue'', just seemed shy at first. Then it was revealed she was using heroin. Then she went downhill very fast.
* ''Franchise/StarTrek'':
** ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'': We have the Jem'Hadar, a race of artificially-grown alien soldiers for the Dominion who are genetically engineered to be addicted to a narcotic called Ketracil White, as a means of ensuring their loyalty to the Founders. Jem'Hadar who go without Ketracil White for too long lose their ability to cloak themselves and risk going into cardiac arrest or going on a berserk rampage.
** ''Series/StarTrekPicard'': We learn more about Raffi's backstory in "[[Recap/StarTrekPicardS1E05StardustCityRag Stardust City Rag]]". When she falls prey to drug addiction after she's fired from Starfleet, she ends up neglecting her son and her husband to such a high degree that they kick her out of the house, which is why we see her living alone in a hovel in her introductory scene.
* ''Series/TheWire'':
** Bubbles has been a homeless heroin addict for years, surviving by collecting junk metal, selling stolen goods and running low level scams. His protege Johnny lacks Bubbles' survival instincts and winds up dead of an overdose in Hamsterdam, and Bubbles' himself reaches his personal rock bottom after his attempt to kill a guy who robs him every day ends up killing his new young protege Sherrod.
** Detective Jimmy [=McNulty=] is an alcoholic and a serial philanderer, which lead to his wife filing for separation, and later divorce. After a brief stint of more sober life in season four, his return to Homicide paired with drastic budget cuts leads to him falling off the wagon spectacularly over season five, DrinkingOnDuty, cheating on his new girlfriend, and deciding to fake a serial killer to get the police department more funds.
** We see the DescentToAddiction play out with Dukie, who after losing contact with Michael, soon becomes homeless and is introduced to Heroin, and is last seen asking his old teacher Roland Pryzbylewski for money "to take the GED exam", a transparent lie Prez sees through.
* ''Series/WithoutATrace'''s Martin Fitzgerald's behavior gets increasingly erratic as he develops an addiction to painkillers, culminating in him nearly getting himself, his partner, and the VictimOfTheWeek killed. His partner, a recovering alcoholic himself [[note]] and with a father and brother who are drug addicts [[/note]], doesn't buy his feeble excuses--"I know what an addict looks like". Several months later, having gotten his act together, it's Martin's turn to notice the signs of addiction in a suspect--"I know a junkie when I see one."
* In 1996, Natalie from ''Series/{{Yellowjackets}}'' drinks and uses drugs but is also an athlete. When she first appears in the pilot episode, set in the current day, she's about to exit rehab (paid by her former teammate Taissa) and not for the first time. When another teammate forcibly prevents her from using cocaine, she resorts to snorting the residue that fell on the carpet.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Music]]
* Music/{{Afroman}}'s "Because I Got High" is a comedy song in which the singer lists off all the ways he screwed up his life because, instead of taking responsibility, he chose to [[TheStoner smoke weed]] instead.
-->''I messed up my entire life because I got high\\
I lost my kids and wife because I got high\\
Now I'm sleeping on the sidewalk and I know why\\
(Why, man?)\\
Because I got high, because I got high, because I got high''
* "How Low" and "Trash unreal" by ''Music/AgainstMe''. "How Low" is a DayInTheLife of a alcoholic and cocaine addict, who swears he's going to change his ways, but every day ends up back where he started. "Trash Unreal" is about a party girl whose lifestyle spirals into fulltime addiction.
-->You're getting mixed up with the wrong guys\\
You're getting messed up on the wrong drugs\\
Sometimes the party takes you places\\
That you didn't really plan on goin'\\
When people see the track marks on her arms\\
She knows what they're thinking
* Music/CBlock: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5dWnsTTyII "So Strung Out"]]. The narrator is addicted to cocaine and considers suicide.
* Music/DannyBrown's "Party All the Time" (which [[SequelSong is very likely about the girl from "Nosebleeds"]]) chronicles the downward spiral of a HardDrinkingPartyGirl as she becomes less and less able to control her substance usage, shifts to harder and harder drugs, drops out of college, and begins prostituting herself to fund her habit.
* "Pilot Jones" and "Crack Rock" by Music/FrankOcean. "Pilot Jones" is about a [[TheStoner a stoner]] who can't stay sober, while "Crack Rock" is about a crack addict who has fallen out with his family and loved ones
-->You're shuckin' and jivin', stealin' and robbin'\\
To get the fixin' that you're itchin' for\\
Your family stopped inviting you to things\\
Won't let you hold their infant\\
You used to get a little cut-up from time to time\\
But the freaks ain't tryin' to sleep with cracky
* "The Wolf" by SIAMES is about three addicts being tirelessly chased by wolves who symbolize their respective vices and are hellbent on catching them to show that they can't avoid the consequences of their actions.
* Quite a few characters in the songs of Music/TownesVanZandt, including "Waiting 'Round To Die" and "White Freight Liner Blues". Sadly, a case of WriteWhatYouKnow.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theatre]]
* The appropriately named Blowpipe in Jim Cartwright's ''Theatre/{{Road}}''.
* In ''Theatre/JasperInDeadland'', Jasper father is a drug addict who's life has clearly been ruined by the addiction. In the song "The Killing", Jasper implies that his father is just waiting to die.
-->''He's a human after a killing''\\
''Filling his days with hope to score.''\\
''Choking back, 'til life gets more thrilling,''\\
''Chilling his drinks, knowing not who for.''
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* The protagonist of ''VideoGame/DiscoElysium'' starts the game after having drunk so much and having snorted so much speed that he has amnesia about who he really is. He's also deranged ([[HelpfulHallucination sometimes usefully]]) and suicidal as the result of his own addictions, and it's stated that the alcohol has mangled his body so much that he's a major risk for a heart attack for normal exertions, such as [[CriticalExistenceFailure sitting in an uncomfortable chair or turning on the lights while hungover]]. He finds that his behaviour under the influence has caused him to wreck his police car, lose his badge, pawn off his gun and make all of his coworkers loathe him so much that they assigned him on a case as an insult to the other department involved.
* ''Franchise/{{Fallout}}'':
** ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'':
*** The Fiends, a gang of raiders who are defined by their drug-fueled insanity. A member of First Recon even mentions that she feels bad for them since, unlike the Legion, she feels that they're not entirely lucid and aware of their surroundings.
*** ''Old World Blues'' has [[spoiler:Dr. Mobius]], who regularly abuses drugs such as Mentats and Psycho, which furthers his mental degradation to the point of making him senile. [[spoiler:He uses the Psycho to give himself the edge to threaten the other members of the Think Tank since he's normally incredibly docile]].
*** Vera Keyes, the starlet who Sinclair fell for in ''Dead Money'' had a long-running Med-X (painkiller) addiction. This made her susceptible to blackmail by Dean Domino. As the War drew closer, she became more addled, having a glazed look that even construction workers deduced was due to addiction, then needing Super Stimpaks to take the edge off. She eventually required an Auto-doc to be installed in her room exclusively for her use. Unbeknownst to her but known by Sinclair, Vera was terminally ill. When we find her, she is surrounded by Med-X needles, implying death by overdose.
** ''VideoGame/Fallout4'': Cait, who is on the fast lane to becoming one due to her addiction to Psycho, which makes her unstable and eventually causes her to start coughing up blood.
* In ''VideoGame/FarCry5'', Bliss is a powerfully psychoactive drug that, in addition to its euphoric effects, can be used to condition and brainwash people. While even moderate exposure can be recovered from, long-term, severe addicts are little more than zombies, their higher functions seeming to be completely gone.
* Levi in ''VideoGame/FearAndHungerTermina'' became addicted to heroin due to his traumatic experiences in the Second Great War. In-game, the withdrawal significantly penalizes his combat stats, and recruiting him on Day 1 requires the player to give him some heroin to stave it off.
* The painkiller Joy plays a fairly large role in ''VideoGame/{{Lisa}}''; the protagonist, Brad, along with several recruitable party members, suffer from Joy Withdrawal. When suffering withdrawal, the character's stats tank and they are practically useless until the withdrawal is gone. You can even make your other characters Joy addicts by giving them some of the drug.
* In ''VideoGame/Psychonauts2'', Bob Zanotto has become this as a result of a series of tragic events in his life overwhelmed him to the point of driving him to seclusion and heavy drinking, turning a once gentle and kind man into a self-destructive mood swinger. Raz has to go into his mind and fight the manifestations of his alcoholism and tragedies of his life[[spoiler:, including the death of his mother, the seeming death of his lover, and his firing by his nephew from the Psychonauts organization]] in order to make him face his inner demons.
* ''VideoGame/ReKuroi'': [[spoiler:Ether medicine is highly addictive and can give the user magic powers. However, the medicine can drive them mad and turn them into monsters. Worse yet, if the user doesn't keep taking it, they'll run out of ether, lose their powers, and go blind. In Act 11, Asha betrays Kaito and steals the Black Pearl shard in the hopes that it can provide an alternate ether supply to her.]]
* In ''VideoGame/TheSims3'', you can make a Sim this by assigning them the Absent-Minded, Inappropriate, Insane, or Unstable traits (or all of the above) along with the Party Animal trait, and/or assigning them those traits and having them do nothing but drink, eat, eat/burn herbs, consume potions with negative effects, [=WooHoo=] with anyone and everyone, play video games nonstop, or otherwise engage in an addictive behavior.
* ''VideoGame/WeHappyFew'' is set in Wellington Wells, an entire ''town'' of these. Taking [[FantasticDrug Joy]] to live in a state of constant euphoria and forget the [[NoodleIncident Very Bad Thing]] is mandatory, and townspeople react [[BerserkButton very badly]] to non-addicts, or "Downers". This has caused the entire town to begin crumbling at the seams, as everyone is too high on Joy to even notice obvious problems like broken systems, paperwork backlog, and food supply running out.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Animation]]
* The narrator of ''WebAnimation/TheresAManInTheWoods'' ends up becoming addicted to alcohol and cocaine after [[spoiler:he gets fired from his job, with the ending heavily implying that he's about to [[WouldHurtAChild kill the child who got him fired]]]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* The Stomach Guy in ''Webcomic/AwfulHospital'' is an {{Animate Body Part|s}} in the throes of a [[http://www.bogleech.com/awfulhospital/052.html debilitating addiction to stomach pills]], to the extent that it's [[http://www.bogleech.com/awfulhospital/file-stomach.png slowly overriding his mind]]. It leaves him [[http://www.bogleech.com/awfulhospital/460.html barely recognizable and almost completely non-verbal]].
* In ''Webcomic/ClockworkGame'', Johann Maelzel becomes an alcoholic [[http://www.clockwork-comics.com/2013/06/13/im-well-sir/ and is shown clearly suffering from it.]]
* Izzy's mother in ''Webcomic/EnnuiGo''. She thinks she's ''[[Myth/CelticMythology The Morrigan]]'', for Christ's sake.
* ''Webcomic/GurralTheSmasher'': [[BioweaponBeast Bioengineered alien gladiator]] Gurral is addicted to Impervium, a rare mineral that had a mutagenic effect on him, turning him into a fifty-meter-tall heavily-armored behemoth.
* Gamzee Makara from ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'' is a rare case where this is portrayed as a ''good'' thing: his sopor slime addiction leaves him too addled to remember that he's actually AxCrazy and a devoted follower of this setting's ReligionOfEvil. When he finally runs out of slime and sobers up, he starts killing people in artistic fashion.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* ''Website/SCPFoundation'': SCP-1481 is a genie who is utterly useless at granting wishes because he is perpetually stoned out of his mind and addicted to practically every recreational drug imaginable. He typically alternates between begging for more drugs and conjuring up food to satisfy his own munchies (when asked why he doesn't just conjure up drugs for himself too, he broke down in tears, apparently having never thought of this before). During one of his drug-fueled incoherent ramblings, he reveals that [[BenevolentGenie he just wants to grant wishes and make people happy]], but can't, because some {{Jerkass}} wished him into his current state, and then made a ''second'' wish to make the first wish ''irreversible'', purely ForTheEvulz.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Videos]]
* On the ''WebVideo/DreamSMP'', Schlatt's addiction to [[TheAlcoholic alcohol]], protein powder, and anabolic steroids took a heavy toll on his health, both physical and mental, [[spoiler:and likely caused the heart attack or stroke that [[KilledOffForReal took his final canon life]].]]
* The character of Sugar in ''WebVideo/HotBikiniBeans'' is a once upon a time math teacher who is reduced to a Meth-addict trying to scrape by.
* ''Series/TheCallOfWarr'': Upon finding a jar of orange pills in the train station, Killsin's instinct is to steal them and pretend they don't exist... while scarfing down as many as he can, in every scene he's in. As soon as episode two, he's already almost dead from an overdose, and it's implied the pills may be messing with his mind as well. Not that he cares, as he continues to take them, despite warnings.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Arcane}}'': In the deepest pit of what will one day be [[WretchedHive Zaun]], a colony of addicts to Shimmer live in rags and beg for money. [[spoiler:The incentive of more Shimmer drives Huck, who otherwise wanted to help Vi to repay Vander, to sell her location out to Silco.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/BoJackHorseman'':
** Sarah Lynn is a great example from a TV show about a horse. Her drug addiction spawned from a TraumaCongaLine including the burden of being a [[FormerChildStar child star]] who'd once had dreams outside of that realm, a [[TeenIdol sensation]] [[ThatSoundsFamiliar pop princess]] who was left isolated, strongly implied [[PaedoHunt inappropriate contact]] with her stepfather, [[AntiAdvice horrible advice]] from [=BoJack=] whom she looked to as a [[ParentalSubstitute father figure]] in light of her unexplained DisappearedDad, etc., etc., etc. By the time she was 30, she had become the typical starlet case–druggie whom no one cared for anymore. [[spoiler:She died at only 31 years old after nine months of sobriety due to a heroin overdose.]]
--->'''[=BoJack=]:''' Well you should... not... do that. [contact one of the billion people who ''will'' let her party at their house]\\
'''Sarah Lynn:''' Oh, I know. I know, but I can, so I will. I'm at a point in my life where I don't have to "grow as a person" or "rise to an occasion," so I can just keep surrounding myself with sycophants and enablers until I die tragically young.\\
'''[=BoJack=]:''' Wh-what?\\
'''Sarah Lynn:''' Yeah, it's pretty much too late for me.
** Season 5 sees [=BoJack=] himself get hooked on opiates after a stunt goes wrong and, rather than allow him time to recover fully, is pressured back onto the set of ''Philbert'' to keep filming the first season. This leads to him [[spoiler:driving into traffic when he runs out of his medication in the hopes of getting more at the hospital]] and, in the penultimate episode of the season, [[spoiler:''strangling his costar'' because he could no longer discern between reality and fiction. And the finale reveals he has ''no'' memory of what he'd done, only finding out after watching the footage]].
* ''WesternAnimation/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteers'': "[[Recap/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteersS2E1MindPollution Mind Pollution]]" involves Skumm making and dealing a drug called "Bliss." Befitting its DrugsAreBad message, it portrays all addicts who get any significant screen time as pretty messed up (to say the least).
** Linka's cousin Boris starts out as a charming teenager but has undergone a DescentIntoAddiction offscreen by the time he appears. His father is worried about him; he calls Linka (his favorite cousin) names after she tries to take his drugs away and tells Skumm that he'll steal her power ring in exchange for more. When Skumm tells him to bring Linka instead, he balks, but the threat of being cut off leads him to drug Linka with contaminated food. Ultimately, he overdoses and dies on screen.
** Linka herself goes from a driven young woman to a haggard mess who only cares about getting her next fix. When Gi tries to keep her from taking another pill, Linka attempts to blow her off the roof of the Capitol building (which is luckily circumvented by the cloudiness of her mind in a drugged state). She only manages to yank herself out of it after seeing her cousin overdose and ends the episode in withdrawal.
** The background Bliss addicts are perfectly willing to do anything Skumm asks to keep taking the drug, from giving him everything of value that they have to attacking a group of teenagers.
* Dr. Rockzo, the deranged "[[VillainousHarlequin Rock-and-Roll Clown]]" from ''WesternAnimation/{{Metalocalypse}}'', has cocaine addiction as one of his primary character traits. He was once a [[FamedInStory famous rock star]], but has since deteriorated into a drug-addicted mess.
[[/folder]]
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