Do you do this every time a major character leaves a show? Only, this seems very much like it was Jennifer Morrisons choice, and if that’s so, it should be respected. Also I’m not sure what you’re trying to say with those ratings, the season pilot didn’t even have Cameron in it.

What House had though was a full body addiction, something his body not only craved, but needed so that he didn’t get the withdrawal symptoms. This is totally different and is a problem he is no longer plagued with. Yes, he may, in his mind still crave the stuff, but he knows where that leads now and can fight it.

“they’d know that anyone whos anyone thats taken drugs is always addicted to them.”

I’ve known people who have been and are now no long addicted to drugs. And I’m talking stuff like herione or oxycontin. Granted, were they ever to take the stuff again, there’s a good chance they’d relapse, but the trick is simply not taking it again and most of the people I know have been perfectly able to lead happy lives without even hardly thinking about the stuff any more.

and id bet you if your friends were ever alone in a room with a bottle of vicodin the THOUGHT may pass through their heads. thats what i was trying to get at. any addict is always an addict no matter how long they have been sober for. once they even think about it its a struggle.

take cake.. if you ate cake every day and was forced to give it up because it makes your teeth hurt and someone sat you in a room with a big ol cake youd have a thought whether its “damn that looks tasty…..” or ” must not grab fork” your brain is still proccesing it because it will always be an ADDICTION…

how do i know this CUZ I WAS AN ADDICT.

Seriously, it was such a quick reference, if I’d coughed in that moment, I would have missed it, because they never went back to the topic again.

You’d think they would have concentrated on that a bit more, given how both those deaths affected him so strongly. (Plus, the death of his own father last season must have had some effect, whether or not House was willing to face it.) I hope they’ll continue to show House talking about these things in therapy, because they are key moments that contributed to House’s nightmare delusion, suffered in last season’s finale. Like Joshi pointed out, that doesn’t get fixed by a couple of anti-depressants and a few sessions in talk therapy. These things take time. I want them to address all these things that they set up last season, even if House resists at first, which would make sense given his difficult personality — you cannot change overnight, and some parts of your personality never change, even if the rest gets better and generally more happy/pleasant. House will never be a cheery person. It seems he’s always been a sarcastic, moody sort of guy. That is the foundation of his character. But that doesn’t mean he can’t evolve and become more well-rounded emotionally.

I’m curious to see where the writers are going with him this year. And now with this news about Jennifer’s character leaving, I’ll be very curious to see how they approach that, given that her character is married to Chase but he is staying on the show. Hmm.

Yeah, that’s why I noticed it too, I was trying to figure out which two colleagues (even though Amber was never technically a colleague, just a “Doctor Idol” contestant until she was voted off).

I really hope House continues to see the psychiatrist. I agree, their scenes together were great and House is by no means cured, so hopefully the rest of the next season will have little scenes of them having more sessions.

Bruce, I think I dwelled on it in the moment because I found myself wondering, “Two colleagues? Kutner’s one; who’s the other?” And it took me a couple of minutes before I remembered Amber (shame on me). *covers face* I’m an idiot.

But yes, it would have been nice if they’d explored that further in the episode. I thoroughly enjoyed House’s sessions with the doctor. I thought the two actors played off each other really well.

“But you’ve been abusing Vicodin for years. Never had delusions, never had trouble sleeping, never had any problems other than narcissism and anti-social behaviour, until two colleagues died.”

Essentially he was saying that Kutner dying was a huge problem in his life (one of many) that he never looked into, but instead hid it with Vicodin.

“they’d know that anyone whos anyone thats taken drugs is always addicted to them.”

I’ve known people who have been and are now no long addicted to drugs. And I’m talking stuff like herione or oxycontin. Granted, were they ever to take the stuff again, there’s a good chance they’d relapse, but the trick is simply not taking it again and most of the people I know have been perfectly able to lead happy lives without even hardly thinking about the stuff any more.

And remember, there are different kinds of addiction here. You say you know people whose eyes light up at the very mention of vicodin. That suggests they’re simply after the effects of it, not that their body craves it. That’s the same as mentioning chocolate to someone since people like the taste of chocolate, so they’ll crave it.

What House had though, was something very different, he’d taken Vicodin for so long that it was no longer about pain management anymore, but instead was to do with making his body feel normal. His body had adapted and become dependant so much on the vicodin that he’d experience extreme withdrawal symptoms if he didn’t take them and the only way to feel “normal” again was to take vicodin. At this point it was no longer a mental addiction, but a full addiction and that’s what the rehab process was meant to deal with, which it did.

As such, House is now free from his full blown addiction to Vicodin and while he may still crave it, he can function perfectly without it and won’t seek it out since he’d hit rock bottom with it and knows where that path leads, which is all any addict is after.

the VICODIN thing does bother me. But if the writers were intelligent (god willing it is fox after all…but they did do a second x-files movie so my faith in them has lapsed) they’d know that anyone whos anyone thats taken drugs is always addicted to them. I know people that have taken vicodin for a typical broken arm and a year down the line if you mention it their eyes light up. its hard to give up a good thing. and if house does get all shiny and happy the show will tank and end this year just like ER’s ratings PLUMMETED and so did the Xfiles after they got all cute and cuddly and less edgy and sexually explicit.

Then again, maybe that was their initial intent — to bring her back to the forefront — but when they sat down to actually write it, perhaps they found that ignoring her character all last season made things much more difficult in terms of reincorporating her. Or in terms of finding room for her as a character on the show when the other two female roles are already going to need the screen time (Thirteen with her illness, and Cuddy with… whatever they plan to do with her as an individual character and in her complex relationship with House).

I don’t know. It’s baffling, it really is.