Life And Addiction In Samuel Coleridge's Depression

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Samuel Coleridge’s depression was the start of his terrible drug and alcohol addiction. Coleridge for years of his life traveled a lot to Malta and Sicily in Italy. One major reason as to why he did this was to hopefully help his health. While living in England he noticed it is always very damp and dreary there and so he figured if he moved to somewhere where the weather was more sunny and cheerful then his health would get better and cause him to cut down on his opium use. Sadly nothing could help Coleridge’s incredible addiction to opium. Not but a few years later he became so addicted to opium and laudanum that his whole entire life revolved around it. His addiction to opium in retrospect ruined his whole life. He was so addicted that he could not function through everyday life unless he was on this drug. During this very dark time period in his life he split up with his wife and had to go into the care of a doctor full time. These were just two of the many serious issues that were a cause of his addiction. Also since he drank many quarts of laudanum a week this resulted in him becoming very constipated as well as having to have almost daily enemas. While his drug addiction was ruining his whole life the only thing he could still do was write. He was dirt broke and was living in severe poverty. He was given the opportunity to write in a daily newspaper and he did this for quite some type to try and save up some money. As a matter of fact, he was so poor at one point that one of his close wealthy friends had to loan him a large sum of money just so that he could continue writing in the paper. As Coleridge was nearing his death he decided to move to Highgate Homes and live out the rest of his years. Coleridge’s ad...

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...dge took opium because he suffered from severe depression, Shelley took it for many other reasons. One reason he took opium was to just calm his nerves. He was a very jumpy person and since he was up to no good a lot of the time he would take it to calm him down. Another reason he took laudanum was when he took it he would question all of life’s reality’s in a sense. He became so addicted to opium at one point in his life that he started having full body spasms daily and terrifying dreams nightly. He was concerned about these affects the opium was having on his body so he went to see a doctor who told him he needs to stop taking the drugs
Dube 7 immediately. Obviously Shelley did not stop taking laudanum and actually tried to overdose to commit suicide. In the end, opium helped bring out the creativity in Shelley but also damaged his mental state of mind.

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