Compounding Addiction and Withdrawals

[leinton]

I was thinking about allomantic savants and how I have always felt that they are addicted to their metals and I realized that, who would be more addicted to metals than a compounder? I imagine that it wouldn't take too long for a tolerance to be built, and I'm pretty sure I remember Wax or Wayne talking about how dangerous it would have been for Miles to stop compounding, which makes it sound like he would have suffered withdrawal.

 

Withdrawals are essentially the opposite effect of the drug (alcholics become insomniacs, heroin users experience severe pain, etc etc), so what do you guys think the withdrawal effects of different metals would be? I feel like the Physical metals would all result in various physical inabilities, like muscles not working properly kind of thing, and gold would result in severe pain and a completely wrecked immune system.

 

 

[A Joe in the Bush]

Well, the Lord Ruler stopped compounding when he lost his metal minds, and aged a thousand years. So I think you're probably right.

[Shardmancer he/him]

We saw how bad Spook got from his addiction. He could not even sense regualr things anymore unless he was burning massive amounts. If he was not healed by Harmony I assume he would of lost his all sense.. sight,smell,touch,taste,hearing... essentially making him useless.

[Chrono she/her]

I think in the case of Miles, it would be dangerous for him to stop because now he can actually die. Imagine if he ran out of gold while he was fighting bandits. It would kill him almost instantly. People like Miles learn to take risks and to stop hesitating because they're practically invincible. If you take that away, the instincts of "Oh, I'm invincible, so that bullet won't kill me," are still in place. And there you go. Dead Miles.

[leinton]

I'm pretty sure there's a withdrawal feature though. Like if he were to stop compounding, suddenly he'd get really sick. Like the Lord Ruler started aging quickly.

[Pathfinder]

Steel compounders act like recovering coke addicts lol

[leinton]

Oh gods they would wouldn't they? That's terrifying to think about.

[Pathfinder]

This is probably not how it will work at all, but that would not be NEARLY as terrifying as a pewter compounder. Can we say Bob from Fight Club? lol

[Cstryon he/him]

His name was Robert Paulson *chant*.

I imagine it takes a savant to actually have "withdrawal" like ssymptoms . like what happened to spook, and TLR. But I don't imagine it would be similar to how our bodies become addicted. I'm an Emt, and work in behavioral health, so a good number of patients I see are addicts.

Here's how I understand it, say you abuse opiates, lots of them. Pretty soon your body stops making the natural pain killer we would normally make. So you stop using the opiates, and pretty soon, your body HURTS. So you don't just have the craving, your body literally doesn't work the same (like a savant). I think your body forgets how to function without your substance of choice, but with allomancy, I imagine that you don't actually jones for it.

Stimulants are like this. You abuse meth, you get wired, sometimes for days. You stop, you get tired (pewter dragging anyone?). The recovery is hydrate, sleep, eat. Physically, your body doesn't crave it, mentally, you don't know how to function without it.

So maybe it depends on the metal? Pewter and tin "addicts" would have an experience similar to stimulant addicts, physically your worn, you have to remember how to function without it again. Where as, gold or atium compounders / addicts actually have a physical withdrawal, a reversing of the benefits they have been gaining. Getting sick, or aging.

Anything can be behaviorally addicting, but only some of these actually makes you physically dependent.

[Pathfinder]

lol, but seriously I could see what happens to astronauts when they spend long periods of time in space happening to pewter compounders. Their muscles begin to atrophy or become too "elastic" from expanding and contracting to such great degrees that you lose all muscular control.

[Baine he/him]

You wouldn't Instantly die after stopping compounding because you're already perfectly healthy when you stop; Feruchemical gold health doesn't go away after you stop tapping it.

 

You would, of course, have to deal with no longer having Wolverine-level regeneration.

[Pathfinder]

Well this is all extrapolation upon what happened to the Lord Ruler, and what occurs to savants. For instance if you drink orange juice all the time, your body begins to get used to the influx of vitamin C. if you suddenly stop, you become SLIGHTLY more vulnerable to pathogens because your body began to rely on the influx of vitamin C. I would think the same would apply to gold compounding but more so. Remember when Wayne was storing health, his eyes were watery, and he was blowing his nose. So health doesn't only preclude physical wounds like cuts and breaks, but illness as well. If you suddenly stop compounding, I could see your whole immune system making one collective shout of This post has been reported for attempting to skirt the rules lol. 

 

edit: i apologize and did not realize that acronym was skirting the rules and would result in being reported

Edited May 23, 2014 by P4thf1nd3r

[leinton]

His name was Robert Paulson *chant*.

I imagine it takes a savant to actually have "withdrawal" like ssymptoms . like what happened to spook, and TLR. But I don't imagine it would be similar to how our bodies become addicted. I'm an Emt, and work in behavioral health, so a good number of patients I see are addicts.

Here's how I understand it, say you abuse opiates, lots of them. Pretty soon your body stops making the natural pain killer we would normally make. So you stop using the opiates, and pretty soon, your body HURTS. So you don't just have the craving, your body literally doesn't work the same (like a savant). I think your body forgets how to function without your substance of choice, but with allomancy, I imagine that you don't actually jones for it.

Stimulants are like this. You abuse meth, you get wired, sometimes for days. You stop, you get tired (pewter dragging anyone?). The recovery is hydrate, sleep, eat. Physically, your body doesn't crave it, mentally, you don't know how to function without it.

So maybe it depends on the metal? Pewter and tin "addicts" would have an experience similar to stimulant addicts, physically your worn, you have to remember how to function without it again. Where as, gold or atium compounders / addicts actually have a physical withdrawal, a reversing of the benefits they have been gaining. Getting sick, or aging.

Anything can be behaviorally addicting, but only some of these actually makes you physically dependent.

 

This is a good point. In order for something to be physically addicting, there has to be something happening that makes you need the drug in order to stay "healthy", which you find more in pain killers and depressants. 

 

So, health, age, and perhaps mental speed could be physically addicting?

[Cstryon he/him]

Health, age, physically enhancing powers I'd see as physically addicting.

Mental speed, I'd see the abuser just being depressed after, and needing to remember how to think again, same as amphetamine abuse. Though if you were a sparker, you'd probably already have learned to cope with your brain moving slow, since you have to deal with it when you're storing.

[PorridgeBrick he/him]

We are talking about Compounding here though, where storing is only needed for one single moment.

I can see Feruchemical cadmium and Feruchemical bendalloy as being pretty nasty for addiction. If you Compound long enough, would your body simply forgot how to breathe, your lung muscles atrophying until they're completely useless? And the same for your digestive system with Feruchemical bendalloy.