The Adventures of the Functioning Addict
"But consider! Count the cost! Your brain may, as you say, be roused and excited, but it is a pathological and morbid process, which involves increased know, too, what a black reaction comes upon you. Surely the game is hardly worth the candle. Why should you, for a mere passing pleasure, risk the loss of those great powers with which you have been endowed?” (Doyle) Dr. Watson pleads with his longtime friend and colleague, Sherlock Holmes. Did you know throughout all those amazing adventures of Sherlock Holmes, he is what some consider a “functioning addict”? What is a "functioning addict"? How it is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s, Sherlock Holmes, London's very own eccentric detective of Baker Street, is a drug addict? Addiction has many negative contexts, yet there are so many addictions made publicly famous, like Sherlock …show more content…
This kind of effectiveness does not seem like what most people would consider to be a drug addict. However, Sherlock Holmes was a drug addict. He seemed to still operate with highly developed set of deductive skills to solve interesting cases but remained under the influence of a substance. Holmes was stated in his series to experiment with morphine and opium but his drug of choice was cocaine. Throughout four novels and over 50 short stories, he continued his battle with drug use. In “Sign of the Four” and “A Scandal in Bohemia”, his drug use because a topic of interest. Sherlock Holmes amazes us all as he solves cases with not much more than reasoning. Though he did so with an addiction which never seemed to interfere with his talents. The very definition of a “functioning addict” is what Doyle’s character portrayed. The detective became an infamous icon and has been recreated among many decades of media, always including his flaws of addiction as well. In fact, a “functioning addict” is not only a real thing but also very