Naivety

The following question if from a Teenreads.com interview with Nic Sheff regarding Tweak.

Question: This book deals with some very traumatic events in your past. What was the hardest thing to write about?

Nic Sheff: When I was reading over the manuscript, more than anything else I was just embarrassed about how naive and stupid I'd been. I was so young and confused, but I always thought I knew exactly what I was doing. Honestly, that was harder to write about than any of the trauma stuff.

At the moment in time, young Nic Sheff truly believed his decisions were the correct ones. Stealing from his family, prostituting himself, returning to previously disastrous relationships; he saw these as ways to improve his current situation. However, they overall brought more pain and hard times to his life. As a youthful person he never thought through the consequences of his often bold actions. In the long run they often contributed to the destruction of his life. Others can gain from Sheff’s mistakes to be young, but think wisely.

Relapse After Relapse

While reading Tweak, my brother asked me, “How is this unlike any other drug addict’s story? He’s in rehab. He’s out of rehab. All those stories are the same.” He was so far from correct I could hardly muster an answer at the time. But now I can explain exactly why this autobiography is different. Nic’s simple prose take a seemingly tired storyline and transform it into a fresh journey encompassed by the desire to change. Aware of his series of relapses, you can’t help but to believe each time he attempts to stay clean, it will be the last. He so deeply convinces you he is ready for change and those around him can finally trust him. However, each time he bluntly turns his life back around in an extremely negative way. Tweak is different because it is real. The emotion is real, the events are real, and the way Nic doesn’t hold a single thing back is real.

Co-Dependency

Age eleven was the first time Nic Sheff got “tweaked”. He tried alcohol for the first time and found an immediate attraction to it. The warm, enticing feeling of being thrown into a spiral of intoxication excited him. Early on he grew hungry for it; he needed it to feel sane. Methamphetamines seduced him in the same way. Nic became severely dependent on these substances to get through each day. This sort of co-dependency also translated into his social relationships, especially with his short-term girlfriend Lauren. They fully and completely invested themselves in each other. Nic felt the same sort of insanity without drugs as he did without Lauren. Was Nic’s substance abuse just a way to vent his dependency issues? Were all of his relationships this intense and unhealthy? Dig deeply into the plot of Tweak and discover all of these truths.