Drugs and Addiction

What is a drug that one can be a Functional Addict on for an extended amount of time (we’re talking 10-13 years here). This character has a rich family so he doesn’t need to hold a 9 to 5 job, but he needs to be functioning enough to do company things a few times a week. It also needs to be a drug that doesn’t create any particularly severe health problems (and I’m not saying he can’t have a single freckle on his lung, it just can’t be a drug that would have realistically required him to get three heart transplants to still be alive).

He makes some really poor decisions before the story starts and I thought it would make a little more sense narrative-wise if it’s established his mind was drug addled at the time. He later gets spared by a character who has plenty of reasons to want him dead, but is spared. I was thinking it may be because he was going through withdrawal at the time and was in such bad shape they pitied him. (So it would also be fitting if withdrawal from this drug could lead to unpleasantness if small-ish amounts are not taken semi-daily)

We have a Psyhology thread.

Alcohol comes to mind.

^But would it be believable for him to be constantly drunk and him to function well enough that few people notice? People very close to him are aware of it, but it's not intended to be super obvious and I feel like alcoholism in a lot of cases can be fairly easy to spot (alcohol leaves a fairly recognizable smell and constantly keeping a flask at one's hip is a fairly noticeable warning sign to look for)

Than again I haven't delved super deeply into the topic so please correct me if I'm wrong.

edited 24th Jan '16 4:51:49 PM by TheMuse

Long-term alcohol abuse messes with your body pretty bad even when you aren't actively buzzed, drunk, hungover, or suffering from withdrawal.

It isn't always noticeable, even to those closest to you. My father was a secret drinker, taking periodic nips from a bottle he kept stashed away. One time, my mother and I both thought he was having a stroke, and called an ambulance. It turned out he was just dead drunk.

When we finally confronted him about it, we found a whole pile of empty bottles that he had hidden, rather than throw out with the regular trash where we might have seen them. Some drunks can be quite ingenious at concealing their addiction.

Then again, we probably didn't see it because we didn't want to acknowledge the ugly truth. Denial is more than just a river in Egypt, and alcoholism is an insidious thing.

Yet in spite of that, he was still able to function at an important job. He was an engineer for a utilities company, who oversaw the construction of nuclear power plants.

edited 24th Jan '16 6:14:38 PM by pwiegle

Certainly, if Hollywood celebrities are any indication, it's entirely possible to be addicted to alcohol and/or a whole host of different drugs and still remain highly functional and for their dependency to remain well hidden. There are a myriad of stories of actors/singers/etc coming forward and revealing how they struggled with drugs/alcohol/etc for years or even their entire careers.