#tw picking

nervous habits

In big shot era the more phone calls he take the more he can feel strings tightening around his hands and ankles. And though he’s not exactly sure what they are at first he doesn’t like the way they feel. They’re invisible for the most part — maybe sometimes he sees a shimmer of green, but it’s nothing he can see for long enough to make a big deal out of.

But he can still feel them and they’re annoying and sometimes itchy and they make him anxious and he swears he’s going insane about them and he can’t let anyone know about that or else no-one would take him seriously…!

So he develops a picking habit. Mostly around his wrists, but there are occasional times where he’ll pic at his ankles if they’re within reaching distance at a moment of time.

It gets so bad that he has no more contour feathers on his wrists in most places, and he knows it’s going to be obvious to someone at some point.

So he starts wearing gloves and watches more often, claiming to Tenna and others that he’s just a big shot doing big shot things and he’s so stylish and wearing the Next Big Thing, etc.

hot shit do i feel enlightened bc audhd House makes so much sense to me!!! he surrounds himself with chaos and novelty and stimulation but still adheres to things that don't change-- his apartment, when he lives in it, it always set up the same way. it's mentioned he's had the same guitar for many years, as well as numerous medical texts. He uses his same red mug all the time at the hospital (he has a designated hospital mug. it lives at the hospital and he only uses it at the hospital). he is very adamant about his office space-- it only changes drastically for him in season 8. just before he leaves. he and Wilson have a fun schedule-- bowling nights, poker nights, etc-- and he does spontaneous stuff all the time, but he orchestrates it. he enacts enrichment time for his fellows and Wilson. he canonically spaces out during/stops processing conversations all the time because he's thinking. he will forget to do basic things while on cases, and there's that one episode where he stays up all night because he's cooking something. he is the king of "shit i forgot to eat. i forgot to shower and pee. i forgot--"

while im thinking of eating!! he has that bad hunger recognition. he will forgo eating for days for cases, fixations, pain levels. he usually eats off of wilson's plate anyways, and i think wilson mainly eats because he's made it part of routine, and that if he forgets to eat house definitely forgets to eat, and that usually ends badly. i dont think house has any specific avoidances but he does usually go for pizza, or anything wilson's made. he likes fries.

the adhd bit makes him more prone to addiction (it's a real thing) and he does show those behaviors (vicodin, alcohol). he has to have either the puzzles or the substances, taking him off both fucked with him a lot (mayfield and afterwards). in prison he got managed doses of vicodin, and he was getting antsy and desperate for the challenge of a good case towards the end of that arc. he all but jumps on that heat allergy guy, risking his chances of parole multiple times to try and get close. side note, did y'all see his equation scribblings on the wall by his bunk? hes so silly

ive also been thinking like. we see very large-scale self destructive behaviors from nearly everyone in the show but we don't see a lot of self-regulation outside of house's stimming so that means i get to make up my own and project onto wilson.

Picking at myself be I cannnn

Why can’t I stop???