Stephen King Addiction Vs Addiction

On the surface, obsession and addiction can appear to be synonymous, but in reality, the two are distinctly different from one another. The reason the two are different is simple: an obsession is compulsion based on fear while addiction is compulsion based on desire/pleasure. [HOOK] Generally, obsession tends to be more mentally demanding and have irrational motives, such as believing that if you don’t brush your hair with three strokes on each side of your head all of your will hair fall out. On the other hand, an addiction gravitates more towards the physical and physiological desire for something or someone, as well as fantasizing about the substance, action, or person. This does not go without saying that a person cannot suffer from a combination

If you look at The Shining by Stephen King, Jack Torrance became an alcoholic in his young adult life and saw a need for it during any situation. During one night of drinking, his young son, Danny, made him mad and he then accidently broke his son’s arm because there was nothing being done about his alcoholism. That night became a defining moment in his family’s life, he continued to drink and almost lost his entire family because of his addiction. Luckily, he stopped because he was so terrified of a car ride/accident that happened one of the nights after he had been drinking with a friend, if this hadn’t happened his wife would have most likely divorced him. Every day, Jack’s wife, Wendy, looked and could not forget what he had done to their innocent son because of alcohol and his anger issues. Jack had only one friend – who was also an alcoholic – and had no social life because alcohol had driven him away from everyone and everything else; his job included. This addiction destroyed his life in the end and his family barely made it out alive. Another example of the effects of addiction, is Mary Tyrone’s addiction to morphine in Long Day’s Journey into Night by Eugene O’Neill. Her addiction tore apart her family for over a decade and treatment barely helped, granted that was back when less was known about addiction. People that struggle with addiction are often all alone because their addiction has driven people away and then they use the substance even more because of