I need some advice from my fellow players. My friend just fell off the wagon thanks to a quest...

Copperfield

Good afternoon. My name is Sir Copperfield and I come to you, my fellow Elder Scrolls Online players, for advice on a very serious issue. Here's the back story.

My friend Jonathan is a former abuser of cocaine. He's been clean now for 7 years. It's quite an accomplishment and we're all proud of him.

My friends and I take turns hanging out with him at least once per week. We show him that's there's more to life than drugs and it's worked beautifully over the years. This was my first time seeing Jonathan in a few months and I wanted to share with him one of my passions. Online gaming.

I invited him over to my place so he could watch me play Elder Scroll Online. I thought it would be a relaxing evening, and since I had quests I needed to get done, I considered it a perfect night for both of us. That was until I was given a quest that required me to steal some skooma from a villagers apartment...

I saw the look on Jonathan's face when he was reading the text from the npc. It's a look I've seen many times before. I knew instantly that he was feeling those urges again. I declined the mission from the npc and asked Jonathan if he would rather watch me pvp. He said no and made up some flimsy excuse to leave my apartment.

His girlfriend found him the next morning, high as a kite, and of course everyone is blaming me.

None of my friends will talk to me and I have no idea what to do. I've never felt so bad in my life.

twev

You know, if this is true, and that's all it took, that he was just one or two TV movie episodes or commercials from the same backslide.

Frail is frail, and it peels your fingers from reality for any reason available at the time.

ZiRM

crowfl56

I am truly sorry, but this is not your fault, so don't beat yourself up for this.

Sobriety is a day by day issue for all of us, (sober since Nov 3 1988) and still work on it daly.

Your friend really needed to go to a meeting or at least call his sponser, at least a close sober friend.

Alpha_Protocol

It hasn't been seven years...

Edit: even if it was, it wasn't your fault.

AbraCadabra

Was probably going to happen no matter what. You and your game play get to be the excuse.

kaze_mizuno_ESO

Um...no. It's not your fault, and it's seriously messed up if they're blaming you, and not the guy who actually, you know, did the cocaine. If that's really all it took, he was ready to crack and just needed an excuse.

I'm all for being sensitive to the plight of one's friends, but if, after being clean for 7 years, all it takes is one mention of a fictional drug to make him fall off the wagon, then he really sounds like he didn't want to be on the wagon that bad in the first place. He can't expect the entire world to just never use a particular word, group of words, or vague concept around him ever again.

rawne1980b16_ESO

Is this the same Copperfield from the SWTOR forums?

kewl

You should be there to support his efforts to stay clean. But you need to let a professional help him do the real work of overcoming addiction.

Copperfield

rawne1980b16_ESO wrote: »

Is this the same Copperfield from the SWTOR forums?

Yes.

I'm literally crying right now. I don't know how to make this right...

Aeradon

If this is for reals, don't blame yourself, really. You shouldn't blame yourself. If he's so easily influenced, he wouldn't have been clean for long. Plus the voice acting and dialogue are in no way better than real life temptations/imaginations. He could've been hiding the truth for seven years.

If this is just for fun, it's not funny.

ciannait

Copperfield wrote: »

rawne1980b16_ESO wrote: »

Is this the same Copperfield from the SWTOR forums?

Yes.

I'm literally crying right now. I don't know how to make this right...

It's not your job. I repeat, IT'S NOT YOUR JOB. The people who are blaming you are enabling him by letting him off the hook for his own actions. The only person who can help him or save him is himself.

RianaTheBosmer

Copperfield, this one isn't even funny. I'd ban you from the forums. To troll and make light of an addiction is very sad. Go back to the SWTOR forums.

BTW, reported. I know your troll posts only too well since I sub to SWTOR too.

Squishy

If all it took was him to read the quest, I doubt this one the first time in 7 years... He just was no caught in those 7 years...

Sonoshi

Troll.

Sir Copperfield is notorious in AD, for demanding that people keep all "strong" language out of zone chat for his seventeen year old niece who cries when people swear or mention sex at all, forcing him to stop playing the game entirely.

I couldn't even read the post all the way through, without rolling my eyes.

vyndral13preub18_ESO

On the good side, he should loose some weight. Since most online gamers are fat, this should work out well. It will also free up time for him for leveling and questing once his addiction cost him his job. When life gives you lemons, make lemonade my mom always tells me!

seanolan

Drugs are mentioned constantly, on tv, in news media, on the internet. If mention of a fictional drug was enough to tip him over the balance, he was one "This is your brain" commercial away from a relapse. I must confess, I do not actually believe your post at all, but I will not call you a liar, so if this story true, it isn't your fault.

This game has me killing thousands of humans on an hourly basis. I have, I confess, in the past, often had urges to kill stupid people. However, I have yet to kill a single stupid person. These urges are not caused by the game, nor actually increased by the game. Stupid people are mostly safe from me, despite the constant influx of death-dealing I see in the game.

Skooma doesn't exist. To make the leap from fake drug to real drug is absolutely scapegoat-creation, and failing to take responsibility for one's own actions.

Copperfield

RianaTheBosmer wrote: »

Copperfield, this one isn't even funny. I'd ban you from the forums. To troll and make light of an addiction is very sad. Go back to the SWTOR forums.

How dare you disrespect me like that.

I come to you all with an issue and this is how I get treated?

marchiggs_707b16_ESO

THIS GUY IS A PROFESSIONAL TROLL
you will no doubt at some point in you time in ESO have the unfortunate chance to meet him my suggestion IGNORE

Marika

I know it's difficult for you Copperfield , but it's not your fault . Remember that anything we want is in our willpower ( words of a shadow jedi )
If your friend really wanted to be clean, nothing would have made him do that. I personally smoke, not that much but still i feel the need . If i go to vist friends or someone doesn't want me to smoke next to them , i am fine. In Guild Wars 2 they have gambling , also in Star trek online , that would make someone addicted to gambling , stop into the first casino they see? The willpower and the real desire to do something good for you comes from your mind. i also can quote kavi Mizuno , he said it better than me .

seanolan

Copperfield wrote: »

RianaTheBosmer wrote: »

Copperfield, this one isn't even funny. I'd ban you from the forums. To troll and make light of an addiction is very sad. Go back to the SWTOR forums.

How dare you disrespect me like that.

I come to you all with an issue and this is how I get treated?

Frak, now I know you are a frakking troll. You're an afterdouche.

Copperfield

I want to thank everyone who has attempted to make me feel better. It has helped.

I'm going to try and call Jonathan later today.

Lumpy_Space_Elf

Hmm...the OP's name sounds familiar to me.

Ok, first I am just going to say if this is a troll post, it's pretty messed up.

IF it is real though, you can't blame yourself for someone else's problems, especially a problem so personal and destructive as a drug addiction. There is NO way dude went and got high simply b/c he read some quest text about stealing Skooma...yes, I recognize the parallels, but no. An actual relapse starts WAY before the person actually goes out, and gets high, like days, and sometimes weeks or months before. So you shouldn't blame yourself, and if you're friends are they are morons.

Again, if this you are trolling you really need to find something more productive to do with your time.

rawne1980b16_ESO

Would have worked better if you used a different name.

Some of us know what you are like and even if you did manage to make a serious post we couldn't treat it like one.

zeuseason

People live the way they want so let them die the way they want. Say goodbye and get back to the NPC that wants his skooma.

ciannait

Copperfield wrote: »

RianaTheBosmer wrote: »

Copperfield, this one isn't even funny. I'd ban you from the forums. To troll and make light of an addiction is very sad. Go back to the SWTOR forums.

How dare you disrespect me like that.

I come to you all with an issue and this is how I get treated?

*sigh*

All of your replies are to the people calling you a troll, not the people trying to give you advice (like me, stupidly) so this sort of cements it for me. It's obvious what you care more about in this thread and it's not your fictional "friend".

Addiction's touched my family. I tried to give some honest advice. I feel like an idiot now.

But, because I have seen addiction, I'd do it all again for the 0.000001% chance you're not a troll. Because I'm a hopeless optimist that way.

Good luck in becoming a productive member of the human race.

liquid_wolf

Drugs Drugs everywhere.

TV, Movies, Radio, and Games.

Sounds like he was trying to avoid EVERYTHING instead of building himself up to handle it.

Alpha_Protocol

Copperfield == illusionist

illusion == not real

not real == friend

friend == OP

OP, we're here for you. If this is your way of reaching out, we are here for you. Seriously.

If not, you're "friend" and your his girlfriend are crazy. You should stay away.

Creslian7

You obviously should not leave your skooma laying around the apartment as your ill gotten quest rewards have ruined another mans life. Try leaving your skooma in a bin labeled flour or sugar, and hope any friends that come to your house do not wish to bake.

It is obviously your fault, where else could he have gotten the skooma? If none of your other friends play ESO you are the only culprit!

Unless he got high on coke, then disregard everything I said except the part about skooma storage.

vyndral13preub18_ESO

He is a French Model.

Azarul

Can't believe you admitted to being the same copperfield from SwToR.