History Main / FunctionalAddict

** What about Bubbles? I mean, sure, the guy had [[{{Understatement}} quite a run of bad luck]] as the series progressed, but on an average day, he functioned just fine. In spite of how much some police underestimated and even dismissed him, he provided invaluable information and aid on many occasions. In the meantime, he was adept at scrounging up enough money to pay for his drugs through some ingenious scams, good with math, and ran a modestly successful business from a shopping cart for a time.

Because DrugsAreBad, the world of fiction is famous for treating drug addicts as feeble, broken people living in disheveled apartments 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.

* ''TheWire'': [[CowboyCop Jimmy McNulty]] is a particularly believable example; hard-drinking and described by his best friend as "an emotional train-wreck of a human being", he clearly has many issues. While he is obviously alcohlic, it's not until season 5 that his alcoholism is explicitly called such (it mostly gets accepted as typical "cop" behaviour), but in a scene where the FBI are investigating [[spoiler: a fake serial killer McNulty has invented to gain access to funding that would otherwise be denied to less glamourous cases]]. The FBI only listens to a short piece of [[spoiler: "serial killer"]][[CreateYourOwnVillain McNulty]] talking, but they use it to nail his personality almost exactly, describing him as an arrogant, high-functioning alcoholic. [[WhatHaveIBecome McNulty]] is visibly shaken by how accurate they are, especially given that he was loudly proclaiming the inaccuracy of FBI profiles not a minute earlier.

* You could make the argument that just about every main character on ''M*A*S*H*'' is one of these. However, in one episode Margaret catches an old friend drinking during surgery and busts her. The withdrawal symptoms she goes through are...a bit disturbing.

** What about Bubbles? I mean, sure, the guy had [[{{Understatement}} quite a run of bad luck]] as the series progressed, but on an average day, he functioned just fine. In spite of how much some police underestimated and even dismissed him, he provided invaluable information and aid on many occasions. In the meantime, he was adept at scrounging up enough money to pay for his drugs through some ingenius scams, good with math, and ran a modestly successful business from a shopping cart for a time.

* You could make the argument that just about every main character on ''{{M*A*S*H*}}'' is one of these. However, in one episode Margaret catches an old friend drinking during surgery and busts her. The withdrawal symptoms she goes through are...a bit disturbing.

* You could make the argument that just about every main character on ''{{M*A*S*H*]]'' is one of these. However, in one episode Margaret catches an old friend drinking during surgery and busts her. The withdrawal symptoms she goes through are...a bit disturbing.

* ''WillAndGrace'': Karen's complete addiction to pills and alcohol is a RunningGag, but she is entirely functional and coherent in her daily life. Oddly, not [[LampshadedTrope lampshaded]] at all in the episode [[HypocriticalHumor where Will gets addicted]] to pain pills.

* By all evidence, James O. Incandenza, Jr., of DavidFosterWallace's ''InfiniteJest'' was one of these ([[DisfunctionJunction for the Incandenzas]])...until he became a straight-up alcoholic and ended up [[spoiler:baking his head in the family microwave]].

* ''LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'': [[TheScrappy A replacement ADA]] is eventually revealed as a functioning alcoholic. She's able to disguise her behavior by being a hardass, but eventually she gets so out of control that she's forced to take a breathalyzer test ''in the middle of a trial'' and is [[HumiliationConga subsequently disbarred]].

-> "Just cause you got the monkey off your back doesn't mean the circus has left town."
-> -- '''GeorgeCarlin'''

Because DrugsAreBad, the world of fiction is famous for treating drug addicts as feeble, broken people living in dishevelled apartments 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.

Because DrugsAreBad, the world of fiction is famous for treating drug addicts as feeble, broken people living in dishelved apartments 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.

* SherlockHolmes is a cocaine addict, but there was [[ValuesDissonance nothing wrong with it back in Victorian times]]. He apparently needs his fixes only when there aren't any interesting cases to solve.

Because DrugsAreBad, the world of fiction is famous for treating drug addicts as feeble, broken people living in dishelved apartments and constantly muttering to themselves. However, there has been a general trend lately towards portraying addicts in a more positive and more realitic 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.

This is a matter of TruthInTelevision, since a large majority of RealLife addicts fall under this category. However, while in RealLife these kinds of addicts can go their entire lives without ever becoming dysfunctional, fiction treats them as ticking time-bombs, slowly working to the one event that will send them over the edge. While crossing the line into dysfunctional territory definitely happens in RealLife as well, the key difference is that fictional sources treat this as inevitable.

It's common for none of the other characters in the work to [[DarkSecret even know]] that there is an issue...until [[ItGotWorse it gets worse]]. It is also commonly used as TheReveal for a particular character on a VerySpecialEpisode, where it is revealed they have been a functional addict throughout the series and are now coming to terms with it.

* ''{{House}}'': Dr. House bounces among functional, barely functional, and "holy-crap-I-need-a-fix-right-now".

* TheWire: [[CowboyCop Jimmy McNulty]] is a particularly believable example; hard-drinking and described by his best friend as "an emotional train-wreck of a human being", he clearly has many issues. While he is obviously alcohlic, it's not until season 5 that his alcoholism is explicitly called such (it mostly gets accepted as typical "cop" behaviour), but in a scene where the FBI are investigating [[spoiler: a fake serial killer McNulty has invented to gain access to funding that would otherwise be denied to less glamourous cases]]. The FBI only listens to a short piece of [[spoiler: "serial killer"]][[CreateYourOwnVillain McNulty]] talking, but they use it to nail his personality almost exactly, describing him as an arrogant, high-functioning alcoholic. [[WhatHaveIBecome McNulty]] is visibly shaken by how accurate they are, especially given that he was loudly proclaiming the inaccuracy of FBI profiles not a minute earlier.