Mar
25th
2013
I have a question... · 2:49pm Mar 25th, 2013
I'm getting a few people's opinion's on this.
(Incoming Copypasta:) Which pony, most realistically, would fall victim to a drug addiction? I have a friend who is a drug addict, and kind of tired of it, and they're gunna help me understand how a drug addiction makes them feel, then I'll expand it, and write a fic. I just didn't know what pony I should use.
Thanks in advance! 
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sidewayz2013 · 395 views
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I honestly have no idea :/
hold onto your butt. Massive comment incoming.
Hmmm, people get addicted to drugs for many different reasons, and there are many different kinds of drugs to get addicted to. As a Psychology major, here are my thoughts on the matter.
First off, when you say drugs, what exactly do you mean? Sure there are the usual drugs: Pot, Crack, LSD, Ect. But even those drugs need to be broken down into different categories (more on this later). But, Alcohol is also a drug, and in college there are lots of students that take ADHD medication (when they don't have ADHD themselves) to help them focus and study. And a person addicted to Acid, would have a different story than an alcoholic, or a person addicted to Ritalin.
Back to the "normal" drugs. Drugs can be broken down into three basic categories: depressants, stimulants, and hallucinogens. Depressants--like alcohol, weed, and most painkillers-- slow down the body. stimulants, like coffee, and Meth speed up the body. Hallucinogens, like LSD and mushrooms make you experience things that aren't there.
Now lets get into some of the basic reasoning behind substance abuse. Let's talk about the drugs that commonly aren't considered drugs first.
Alcohol. Alcohol is most commonly used for two reasons. A pain killer and a social lubricant. I'm not saying that "drinking to forget" doesn't happen, but it happens under special circumstances. Many manul laborers drink alcohol because their bodies hurt after a long day, and having a buzz takes the edge off the pain. Alcoholism can easily develop from this kind of self medication.
Alcoholism as a social lubricant develops a few different way. First off there are the party drinkers, I't not hard to picture the high school or college student who goes to all the parties, and always gets smashed. If I had to guess at their motivation I would say it could be for a few reasons. Maybe peer pressure, maybe they feel like this is the expected behavior, or maybe they have that reputation as the person you hang out with when you want to have a good time. Maybe they think that if they don't drink this way they will loose all their friends. They could also be using the parties as an escape from whatever is going on at home, and then the alcohol helps them to forget about their home problems. Maybe they just get caught up in the moment and tend to over drink when drink is around, and their just the kind of outgoing person who loves parties.
The second kind of social drinking is one I don't understand very well, but that I have some personal experience with. This alcoholic just always has a glass of (usually) wine in hand. Every time you see them. The person I'm thinking of is outgoing and does go to parties, well art shows and the like (not college parties, more social gatherings really), but they also always have a glass of wine when there at home reading, or doing whatever. This kind of alcoholic will go though three to five glasses of wine each night, social event or no. Saying that they drink for the social lubricant effect isn't really true, but I don't know a better term for it. My guess at their motivation for drinking is to escape some issue in their personal life, some stress-er, that they don't know how to outright fix, or are unwilling to fix for some reason. The insidious thing here is that they don't think they have a problem. There not drinking hard liquor, or drinking first thing in the morning, and they never get pass-out drunk.
Next drug. coffee and the study drugs (energy drinks too, now that I think about it) fall into the same categories for me. These are all mild stimulants, and they are all abused for the same reasons. They help you focus. Whether this means helping you to wake up and not fall asleep at work or whether it means pulling an all-nighter on exams week, these drugs fall into the same slot. Now because these drugs aren't strictly illegal doesn't make them less of drugs, or any less addicting. Like all drugs coffee and other study drugs can have withdrawal symptoms (stimulants tend to have the worst withdraw symptoms if I recall correctly) and the more you use the drug the more of a tolerance you build up and the more you need to use next time to get the same reaction. Pretty simple stuff, just don't write these off. That's all.
There are also performance enhancing drugs that don't fit easily into the three categories. I have no idea what steroids are, or what they do beyond helping to build muscle mass. And I have heard of athletes using various drugs to get various effects. I would think stimulants would be particularly effective, but I'm honestly not sure.
Now on to the "hard stuff." There are too many different drugs to cover here, so I will treat the three different categories as separate drugs (for the most part).
Depressants. We already talked about alcohol, and marijuana is frequently used for the same reasons as alcohol, not always, but let's not go there for now (too be honest I'm not the best person to talk about on marijuana). Another kind of depressant is what I will call here pain killers. One thing that sometimes happens is that when a person gets seriously hurt, and they go to the hospital, they are given very strong pain killers (Morphine, or Codeine are two of the stronger ones, but once upon a time they used heroin as a pain killer (at least I'm pretty sure it was heroin)). Over the course of their stay in the hospital they can become addicted to the pain killers. This is a way that a person who wouldn't normally get into drugs, would become deeply addicted. There are other, stronger depressants. I mentioned heroin a bit back, and there are others as well. I think these are usually taken for recreational reasons (more on this later).
Hallucinogens. Artists, and musicians sometimes take hallucinogens for creative reasons. Some cultures also take hallucinogens for religious or spiritual reasons. Hallucinogens are also often taken for recreational reasons (more on this later).
Stimulants. We already talked about study drugs, which are all stimulants. The stronger Stimulants like Meth and Cocaine have no "real" use that I know of beyond recreation, which I will talk about now.
Recreational drug use basically means for the lulz. This ties into the infamous "gateway" effect. I think what basically happens is you try a drug, think to yourself, "hay, this isn't so bad, I kind of like it. Why does this get such a terrible wrap?" and then you start using for fun. And then you get addicted. And then you develop a high tolerance for the drug and have to seek out stronger and stronger drugs to get the same feeling. This can happen to anyone, but it's more likely to happen to people who can easily afford drugs, or people who have a tough life and are using them as an escape.
TLDR
I wrote all that out for two reasons. The first was to give you some info to work with in your story. A lot of that is pretty basic stuff, but there is psychology stuff mixed in and hopefully you find it useful. The second reason was more subtle, I wrote all that out to show that there are lots of different kinds of drugs, and even more reasons for getting into them.
Thinking "Which pony, most realistically, would fall victim to a drug addiction?" is the wrong way to approach this. Anyone can become addicted to drugs under the right circumstances. How you should approach this is "What circumstances would lead to a pony becoming addicted to the drug I want to work with in this story? And which pony could those circumstances most easily be applied to?" Let me give you some examples.
I can see Twilight having an addiction to study drugs; it would fit pretty well with her pre S-3 anxiety problems.
I can see Rarity either using hallucinogens to spur forward inspiration, or being the second kind of social drinker, who always has a glass of wine.
I can see Pinkie being the first kind of social drinker, who over drinks at parties, and she then gets introduced to harder drugs at one party, and gets addicted. Any stimulant would work well.
I can see Dash trying to use performance enhancing drugs to get into the 'Bolts. I can also see her getting peer pressured into becoming a party drinker, and then gaining a reputation for it and feeling she needs to uphold that reputation or loose her popularity.
I can see Applejack drinking to take the edge off after a long days work. Or getting hurt on the farm and developing an addiction to painkillers in the hospital.
As for Fluttershy... the quiet ones always do the craziest shit. Lol, jk, I can't really picture her using, although you could very well use that to your advantage if you get the right story behind her addiction. Hallucinogens could be used to explain her shyness, or maybe she uses stimulants to stay up 24-7 to take care of all her animals.
My point is, Don't ask: which pony? Ask: what story? Anyone can become addicted to drugs, under the right circumstances. I'm always available if you want to bounce ideas off me or pick my brain. This sounds like it could be very interesting and I would like to see you do the best job with it possible.
Hmm, that's a tough question. To start, I can't really see Fluttershy or Applejack getting hooked on anything; after that, I guess it would depend on what kind of drugs you're talking about, and what the tone is. (I'm assuming you're planning on serious and 'realistic' rather than wacky comedy, right?) Pinkie would be the stereotypical 'obvious' choice (Because she's already high on meth all the time anyway, amirite? lol!!); Rainbow Dash might get hooked on steroids; I could see Rarity getting sucked into the seedy underbelly of high society; and I'm not sure about Twilight.
945691 Holy insight, Batman! That is really quite a lot of help, thank you VERY much! I think I'll just PM you, I don't wanna give away too much. Spoilers and all that jazz.
945962 Yea, those reasons are along the same lines as what other people pointed out. Thanks for your input!
946296 I'm glad you read it all, and I eagerly await your PM.
Depends on the drug. I've always felt that Applejack, Twilight, and rarity could easily become speed or coke heads, needing the stimulants to get work done, stay up late studying, etc. I can also see applejack becoming an alcoholic quite easily, coping with the death of her parents, Granny's failing health, and the responsibility of her sister thrust in her by both factors. Pinkie mseems like she would be into club drugs, E, Molly, perhaps a little coke here or there, but doesn't seem the type to be addicted to anything. Rarity might take shrooms or acid to expand her creative spectrum, or perhaps, like steve jobs, has already done so, and had some of her best ideas on them. Hallucinogens are not really something one gets addicted to, however, as the effect is greatly diminished as one does them frequently, draining one's reserves of seratonin x and y. Fluttershy I doubt would be addicted to anything...perhaps barbituates? Really, when it comes down to it, I feel like Twilight and AJ would be the MOST prone to addiction, for the aforementioned reasons. Hope this helps!