Is Relapse Inevitable?

Or is it possible to stay sober for good?

Photo by Bruce Christianson on Unsplash

Chekhov's Addict

Have you ever noticed that when a TV show includes a recovered addict as a character, they always end up relapsing? There might be one or two exceptions to this rule, but for the most part, as soon as a sober character is introduced, the audience already knows to expect that eventually, the character will return to active addiction.

There are so many cases of this that I could never hope to list them all. However, the website TV Tropes has made an attempt, under the appropriately titled page “Off the Wagon.” Some notable examples include Babylon 5, Breaking Bad, The West Wing, Desperate Housewives, and Arrow. (And, of course, the trope shows up in other media like books and movies too.)