Hi, guys! Basically, one of my character's younger siblings is a but a plot device (R.I.P.), and I have certain scenarios planned to stress out the main characters. The sibling in question is taking medication that has some intense side effects. Here are some symptoms/restrictions I was thinking of: cannot go swimming/operate machinery/drive/etc. experiences physical and mental fatigue going cold-turkey on the medication can be catastrophic gets drunk twice as fast psychoactive drugs like marijuana can induce a relapse What medication would produce the above effects? And, subsequently, what illness would the medication be taken for? Thanks so much!
Picking illness doesn't really work this way and these symptoms are incredibly specific. I don't think any illness makes you drunk as fast. The best thing you can do is look up illnesses and pick on to portrays accurately and work your story around it. Also be careful of your plot devices. You could step on a lot of toes if you do this poorly.
Actually, liver disease can do that. I'm confused if the question is about the disease or the intense side effects of the treatment. 1) cannot go swimming/operate machinery/drive/etc. 2) experiences physical and mental fatigue 3) going cold-turkey on the medication can be catastrophic 4) gets drunk twice as fast 5) psychoactive drugs like marijuana can induce a relapse Uncontrolled epilepsy could account for all of those between the disease itself (1,2,3,5) and a treatment for very severe uncontrolled epilepsy, phenobarbital (1,2,3,4).
some antidepressants have most of those as side effects in some people - the leaflet that came with my citalopram lists all of those as a 1:10,000 risk - fortunately Ive not had any except the no alcohol one
I agree with @GingerCoffee Uncontrolled epilepsy is a good fit, and what it doesn't cover the drugs used to treat it cover (all of them, phenobarbital, Topiramate, Diazepam, etc.). The only thing I'm unsure about is: What do you mean? A relapse of what? In this case I think you would mean seizures, but that's actually pretty unlikely in my experience. EDIT: Sorry for quoting you @GingerCoffee I meant to quote OP, wasn't paying attention.
Anything can trigger a seizure from blinking lights to drugs. The jury might be out on pot but there are anecdotal accounts. There are enough accounts a writer can certainly use it in a story, perhaps allude to it being unique to that character and not something that happens to all epileptics.
Fair enough. I was talking about personal experience (my own) and the people I know. I wasn't arguing it, I was asking for clarification from the OP.
Oxycodone? It's used for pain and is basically heroin light. It's extremely addictive and affects dopamine production, so going cold turkey can easily cause seizures. Driving is illegal and very difficult. Makes alcohol hit very hard and is extremely dangerous to mix.
Don't forget about the point that a person can suffer from multiple ailments. I know a woman who has Multiple Sclerosis, Transverse Myelitis, Chronic Fatigue, and she had a suspicious breast lump removed last summer.
Thanks for all of your suggestions, guys! And I edited my original post for clarification. I am looking for both medicine and illnesses, but the symptoms have to do with whatever it is interacting with the medicine, etc, so a bit of both, depending on the symptom. I'm sorry for the confusion! These symptoms are way too specific, especially to epilepsy, because I had that specific illness in mind. I'm considering moving away from it for personal reasons, so that's why I'm pitching the question here for more suggestions. But if it works, it works. I'll have to figure the whole personal part out myself. Thanks for bringing this to my attention! Can you please elaborate on it? I don't want to offend anyone, so this is good to know.
Simply that if one were to poorly portray the impact of an illness or use it in a way that is seen as exploitative some hurt feelings could transpire. If this happens you'd have a hard time recovering as an author. I recommend getting accounts from a variety of sources like forums, books, and medical texts. Also you can't entirely make the sick person out to be a villain. This seems like a story where your protagonist must learn to accept the illness and it's impact over time and go from selfish to less so. So kind of like Kana Imouto except they don't end up in an incest relationship. This is assuming they don't start that way.
Sounds like the dude is on some pretty heavy-duty painkillers, actually. It might not even have to be an illness, but a serious injury. A horrible, career-ending sporting injury, for instance. I took an 'arrow' to the knee in the army, dislocated my shoulder at a fire in the fire service and had a dentist have to remove a chunk of my jaw when one of my teeth went weird. Each time I ended up on some nasty cocktails of stuff that came with a lot of the side-effects you listed, with the notable exception of the 'cold turkey' thing. If the guy is American, though, then there's a possibility that he could be hooked on one of the opium-flavoured painkillers that seem to be really popular over there.
