The Addiction of Morphing

[RainOfBlood]

Did Tobias abuse the morphing power he received as a form of escapism, succumbing to the addiction of being free of his problems, if only temporarily, as a drug addict uses drugs to do the same? Does morphing into a creature, such as a dolphin or a hawk, give the same kind of sense of elation as a temporary high? Is Tobias' arc throughout the series based on dealing with the repercussions of this "addiction"?

And would Tobias have succumbed to another form of addiction later in life if there had been no alien war to fight?

[Chad32]

He definitely used it as an escape from his current life, without really knowing the consequences of that choice. That's why he went a bit suicidal in book 3. Notably, it was Marco that kept him from splatting against the glass roof with hit home run swing. I don't think anything else is made of his baseball skills in the rest of the series. Eventually he overcame it, to the point that the only reason he'd go back to being Human again was Rachel. Even then, it could be iffy.

[RainOfBlood]

Such a lively discussion we have here, lol. Yes, I do believe that morphing, though initially unpleasant, is a skill that can be abused and lead to escapism that is ultimately destructive to the user. Far more people would abuse it for evil rather than for good, sad to say.

[Chad32]

technically anything can be abused, even if it's a basic need for survival.

I think I missed my chance to pretend it was about morphine addiction, instead of morphing addiction. Yes, very serious.

[NothingFromSomething]

I wouldn't really call it an addiction as such, though.  Tobias probably wouldn't have "accidentally-kinda-on-purpose" got himself trapped if his home life wasn't so awful, it wasn't so much the morphing/animal-life itself that was the draw, it was just the freedom of flying was exciting and it was an "out" of his neglected existence as a kid.

[RainOfBlood]

Intuition tells me that this need for escapism in Tobias was going to turn to a dark course if the yeerk war had never happened. He displays the common traits of a dependent user. If he had made it as a grown up, he would have been like Keanu reeves but blonder.

[NothingFromSomething]

Whaaa?  Come on now, there's nothing in the books to suggest Tobias is prone to becoming an addict.

[NateSean]

I wouldn't really call it an addiction as such, though. 

Addiction is the symptom of a mental illness that can take many forms. The reason why it's hard to diagnose is that addictions are often unique to the individual as a certain AE reality show has shown us. But I agree that whether it's safe to say that Tobias was an addict is a matter of conjecture, because an addict can be from any walk of life. By definition, I would say that Rachel was more of an addict than Tobias and she had a fairly stable life compared to Tobias.

You also have to remember that Tobias' very first plan of action was to "blow up the Yeerk Pool". He's also a guy who decided it was a wise course of action to commit genocide based on little more than a fourteen year-old's limited understanding of the fossil record, without consulting the others.

So I don't believe he was an addict, but I do believe the morphing in Tobias' case was tantamount to a form of self-harm brought on by an inability to cope with the reality he was forced to live in. Had he not turned to morphing as his form of escape, I feel like he would have either wound up in the Sharing as Back to Before predicted, or worse. And by worse, I mean, in his desperation he might end up hurting someone else.

[NothingFromSomething]

Where the hell was Tobias "mentally ill"?  There's nothing pointing to that in the series.  At all.

The "blow up the Yeerk pool" thing, I'm assuming you're referring to book #1, Jake asking him what he's thinking of for a plan or whatever?  That's more of an instinctive bravado "let's get 'em!" emotional thing, after what they saw at the construction site.  He wasn't that way on the whole, throughout the series, that was a brief moment of a scared freaked-out kid lashing out due to being upset.  They all did it through the series.

Tobias was never going to end up in The Sharing, for god's sake.  I don't get where this running-away-from-a-neglectful-uncle-and-aunt situation, shoved away to the other every few months because they didn't give a crap, equates to him somehow "not being able to deal with reality".  It was a dumb thing to do, but it's not even specifically laid out in the books that he did do it on purpose, it's sort of left up in the air with the getting-trapped thing.  He wasn't "addicted" to being a hawk, he either a) just thought it was a better situation than he was living in at the time (which, hey, is probably true), or b) he really did just lose track of the time in the pool and it wasn't by choice.

All we ever get in the books is that Tobias is "quiet', "a dreamer".  And that shopping malls "give him the creeps".  Not that he somehow has trouble dealing with people in general (his interactions with the other kids destroy that, he's easily more social among the group than both Marco and Rachel).  Not that he'd lost touch with reality.  Not that he was addicted to the cube tech or that he was prone to hooking up with the Yeerks as a willing enabler because he thought humans sucked.

Sorry, this stuff just pisses me off.  There's zippo in the books supporting this stuff, it's total tangent thinking.  You might as well be saying Marco's a misogynist because he's always picking on Rachel, or Rachel was a sociopath.  It's taking personality traits individually and blowing them up into full-on personality disorders, which is absolutely goddamn ridiculous.

[darthdakka]

Where the hell was Tobias "mentally ill"?  There's nothing pointing to that in the series.  At all.

The "blow up the Yeerk pool" thing, I'm assuming you're referring to book #1, Jake asking him what he's thinking of for a plan or whatever?  That's more of an instinctive bravado "let's get 'em!" emotional thing, after what they saw at the construction site.  He wasn't that way on the whole, throughout the series, that was a brief moment of a scared freaked-out kid lashing out due to being upset.  They all did it through the series.

Tobias was never going to end up in The Sharing, for god's sake.  I don't get where this running-away-from-a-neglectful-uncle-and-aunt situation, shoved away to the other every few months because they didn't give a crap, equates to him somehow "not being able to deal with reality".  It was a dumb thing to do, but it's not even specifically laid out in the books that he did do it on purpose, it's sort of left up in the air with the getting-trapped thing.  He wasn't "addicted" to being a hawk, he either a) just thought it was a better situation than he was living in at the time (which, hey, is probably true), or b) he really did just lose track of the time in the pool and it wasn't by choice.

All we ever get in the books is that Tobias is "quiet', "a dreamer".  And that shopping malls "give him the creeps".  Not that he somehow has trouble dealing with people in general (his interactions with the other kids destroy that, he's easily more social among the group than both Marco and Rachel).  Not that he'd lost touch with reality.  Not that he was addicted to the cube tech or that he was prone to hooking up with the Yeerks as a willing enabler because he thought humans sucked.

Sorry, this stuff just pisses me off.  There's zippo in the books supporting this stuff, it's total tangent thinking.  You might as well be saying Marco's a misogynist because he's always picking on Rachel, or Rachel was a sociopath.  It's taking personality traits individually and blowing them up into full-on personality disorders, which is absolutely goddamn ridiculous.

Not to nitpick or anything, but Tobias does end up joining the Sharing in Megamorphs #4: Back to Before

[NothingFromSomething]

Which is an alternate reality book.  Alternate.

[NateSean]

Where the hell was Tobias "mentally ill"?  There's nothing pointing to that in the series.  At all.

I never said Tobias was mentally ill. I said "addiction" is a symptom of mental illness. I even went on to agree with you that I did not believe that Tobias was addicted to morphing according to the definition of addiction.

As to his inability to cope with reality, I'm also sorry if you are taking that out of context for whatever reason. The fact is that Tobias has a pretty crappy reality. He is forced to live with family that does not care for him on top of being bullied in school. The fact that he sees morphing as a way out of that situation is a clear sign that he lacked the ability to see the consequences of such an action. Every one of them was told by Elfangor what would happen if they stayed over the two-hour limit. Jake even reminded Tobias of that fact the first time he saw Tobias in hawk morph. In spite of this, Tobias' poor judgment, IE morphing before they were even in the Yeerk pool, a situation they had no realistic way to plan for beyond the initial entry into the pool, led to his being permanently trapped as a hawk.

We can call it whatever we like. Again, I don't agree that Tobias was "addicted" to morphing, but I do believe that he made a bad decision based on poor coping skills. You can get as angry as you like when you hear the sound of hoof beats and someone tells you that it's a horse approaching and not a zebra. But being angry on someone's behalf does not that absolve that person of responsibility for their actions.

[NothingFromSomething]

The addiction being a mental illness thing is an oversimplification.  In some cases it's the cause, yeah, but there are other contributing factors, self-destructive people in general, thrill-seekers who engage in it too long and go down the rabbit hole, gateway drugs and longtime bad habits getting out of control, hell, even people that just genuinely enjoy it and don't want to get out of it.  There are plenty of germinating factors in someone starting to abuse substances, ask anyone who works in rehab.  One-size-fits-all mentalities, dangerous they be, says Yoda.

Your thing about Tobias and his hatred of his own reality all hinges on whether he intended to get trapped.  That's not even close to clear.  He knew the risks and consequences, grasped them as well as any of the other kids.  He was just the one who had to actually deal with them outside of the theoretical, the potential outcome became his daily life.  Irresponsibility?  Sure.  He's a 13 year old kid.  Making smart decisions isn't exactly what teenagers are known for.  Mental illness, though?  Incapability of grasping reality, not able to comprehend or manage risk and consequences?  Grasping at straws, big-time.

Poor coping skills is...ehh, too.  He adapted pretty damn well on the whole to both their new reality in terms of now being in a war, everything changing dramatically, and in general terms to being stuck 24/7 as a hawk.  As well as anyone could reasonably be expected to.  There's a difference between Tobias' home-life being extremely s**tty and him somehow being either distanced from or unable to accept reality. 

As for the responsibility thing, of course it was his responsibility.  But he was 13, and 13 year olds screw up from time to time.  About minor things, about major things.  Completely mentally healthy ones.  All the time.  People seem to automatically equate the guy being unpopular at school and having an awful version of what passes for a family as him being somehow "troubled".  Neither of those things are exactly his fault, and once the group gets to know each other halfway-decently by a few books in, he's one of the more social and amiable of the whole crew.  Probably second only to Cassie for god's sake.

And, hey, he's not even particularly one of my favorite characters of the group.  This sort of assessment of the guy's pretty out-there, though, unsubstantiated conclusions are pretty much the major factor in what's wrong with the world right now.