Intelligent people struggle with addiction. Their minds need more. More depth. More to disappear into. They have obsessions nobody around them shares. Philosophy. Literature. Astronomy. Documentaries. Quantum physics. Dostoevsky. Kant. Books, music, films, ideas they've gone so deep into that ordinary conversation starts to feel like small talk. And small talk feels like suffocation. So... they drink. Work until 2 am. Doomscroll until they feel nothing. Because there is a gap between who you are and the conversations available to you. And sometimes, that gap becomes unbearable. And it's one of the loneliest places a person can live.