Shelby Anderson's cannabis dependence

Shelby Anderson's cannabis dependence is one strand of her wider struggle with the effects of trauma, not a problem the story presents as resolved by a single conversation or moment of comfort. Cannabis appears both as a repeated means of coping and as a source of craving: Shelby wants to stop, but finds abstaining difficult. The narrative places this dependence alongside self-harm and disordered eating, while showing her attempting to speak about her experience and remain connected to others.

Context and disclosure

When Shelby tells a friend about the consequences of what happened to her, she names self-harm, an eating disorder, and cannabis use together. She also says she has received psychological care in Los Angeles and is now seeing a colleague of her former psychologist. The account makes the cannabis use part of a broader pattern of distress, while establishing that Shelby has professional support; it does not specify when her use began or reduce the other effects of trauma to the dependence.

Use and craving

Cannabis is visible in Shelby's everyday life as well as in her account of her difficulties. Namjoon encounters her holding a joint between her fingers after leaving Jungkook's room, and later, at a lakeside in Ellensburg Forest, she sits alone with a joint between her lips, taking a few puffs. Even after discussing what happened in Los Angeles with Dorcas, Shelby still feels weighed down by it. The scene connects her use with distress that remains present despite disclosure, without suggesting that smoking has lifted that burden.

Shelby explicitly acknowledges the difficulty of stopping: she wants to quit cannabis, but withdrawal cravings return when she stays away from it. This detail distinguishes dependence from casual use in the story. Her wish to stop is real, yet wanting to quit does not by itself remove the physical pull of the habit.

Shared struggle and relationship

At the lake, Shelby and Jungkook recognize a parallel between their ways of trying to escape what troubles them. Jungkook arrives with a nearly empty bottle of Jack Daniel's after using the punching bag at Ares Garden has failed to settle his anger. Shelby observes that alcohol is not a good way to deal with what is eating at them; he points out that drugs are no better. She agrees, while acknowledging how difficult it is to stop. The exchange gives her dependence a relational context: neither character is positioned as an easy judge of the other's coping, and their recognition of the problem does not erase either one's cravings.

The scene also preserves the difference between their circumstances. Shelby is smoking cannabis while Jungkook is drinking, and the narrative describes the temptation and withdrawal associated with both. Their shared awareness creates a moment of mutual recognition, not evidence that Shelby has quit or that their conversation constitutes treatment.

Narrative significance

The dependence recurs in concrete, ordinary gestures—a joint held in the dormitory and smoking alone beside the lake—while Shelby continues to carry the emotional weight of her past. Set beside her self-harm, eating disorder, and ongoing psychological care, cannabis use marks the persistence and complexity of her distress. The story allows Shelby to name the wish to stop and the difficulty of doing so at the same time; it offers neither a quick cure nor a claim that support alone ends the craving.