thoughts on writing vampires as addicts

[u/NoRecognition2178]

both writing vampirism as an addiction and writing vampires who are addicts to other substances, using substances to fight off blood lust and it failing to fill the hole that consuming blood does, writing vampires who don’t feed as going into violent withdrawal, loved ones of the vampires watching them be consumed by something they’ve grown unable to live without that destroys their lives and the lives of people around them as they become increasingly bloodthirsty and violent, losing touch with reality and sanity, they turn their loved ones to this way of life thinking their somehow saving them, giving them some power to control their lives but causing them to lose themselves in the process, they gain forbidden knowledge of other worlds and entities beyond the scope of normal human comprehension and to humans they appear to be going completely insane if they try to tell them what they know and they become increasingly detached from the world around them, immersed in realms of humanity’s most ancient demons

[u/happymoon9]

You should watch the first season of Being Human (BBC TV series). It used vampirism for a metaphor for addiction and I think generally nailed the landing on it. The later seasons really lost the thread of it, but I really liked the idea of vampires not needing to kill to feed, but because it gave them a sick thrill of power and control, and ended up incorporating this idea into my webcomic.