Functioning addiction can hide depression behind a normal facade

Evidence

However, insofar as the selfmedication was successful, the overall behaviour of these dependent individuals could appear perfectly normal. This was a constant, from the bulimia of the early 1970s to internet abuse in the 1990s. — Alain Ehrenberg, The Weariness of the Self, 607

Categorization

• STORYSTEM: A portrait of the obsessive self-optimizer whose productive compulsion hides an unnameable void could anchor a contemporary novel; the everyday bulimia-to-internet-abuse arc is ready-made.
• XREF: connects to: Treatment response, not diagnosis, confirmed masked depression cases — Alain Ehrenberg, The Weariness of the Self: Diagnosing…, 642; Addicts choose addiction; the substance is an alibi for the drive — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 128; Young people’s sudden disconnection from networks produces clinically diagnosed addiction symptoms — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1422 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Addicts choose addiction; the substance is an alibi for the drive #expands (0.80) — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 128
• Perpetual self-pity becomes an addictive identity that resists all help #corroborates (0.75) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1807
• Young people’s sudden disconnection from networks produces clinically diagnosed addiction symptoms #exemplifies (0.72) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1422