
The Diary of a Drug Fiend
A colder and lonelier account of the same movement from euphoria to dependence.
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by Mikhail Bulgakov
A young doctor records the progression from medical relief to euphoria, dependence, and total enslavement.
Told largely through a doctor’s journal, Bulgakov’s novella follows morphine use from relief and private exhilaration into isolation, deception, and ruin.
A rural doctor begins using morphine for relief and documents the drug’s steady possession of his work, relationships, and life.
The journal form makes dependence immediate, private, clinical, and increasingly desperate.


A colder and lonelier account of the same movement from euphoria to dependence.
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An artist’s nonfiction diary written during treatment for opium addiction.
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