The first chapters of Trainspotting give harsh insights into the strength of addiction and how hard it is to break a heroin habit. Mark’s failed attempt to become clean and the fact that he is desperate enough to dig through his own feces to regain the opium suppositories make the pull of addiction starkly clear. His putting up with Mike Forrester’s abusive behavior to get the drugs further drives this home: “Mikey baby is the man of the moment. As Sick Boy once said, doubtlessly paraphrasing some other fucker: nothing exists outside the moment” (17). In this drug-driven life, time doesn’t matter; instead, life happens between these “moments” of getting a fix.

Addiction’s vise-like grip also appears in Alison’s character, who provides a unique woman’s perspective amidst the many men around her. After she shoots up with the boys in Chapter 1, she proclaims the experience is better than sex: “[‘]That beats any meat injection…that beats any fuckin cock in the world…[’] Ali gasps, completely serious. It unnerves us tae the extent that ah feel ma ain genitals through ma troosers tae see if they’re still thair” (9). It’s an amusing and irreverent note that the men who lead lives governed by the chase for drugs over women feel unsettled by Alison’s reflection.

Although the characters all lead wildly unhealthy and dangerous lives, they are intriguingly still health-conscious in one respect: in the face of HIV/AIDS. This is seen when Johnny Swan jokingly tries to convince Sick Boy to share his “works:” “Sick Boy shakes his heid. […] [‘]Ah dinnae share needles or syringes. Ah’ve goat ma ain works here[’]” (9). Johnny backs down, telling Simon, “Yir wise men. Hygiene’s important […] Ken wee Goagsie? He’s goat AIDS now” (10).

This keen awareness of the dangers of the drug-driven lifestyle reoccurs with Mark’s musings in Chapter 2. Even high, he acknowledges that heroin will kill him eventually. And yet “it’s all okay, it’s all beautiful” (14) if he’s high. This scene develops Mark’s existential nihilistic leanings; though he knows he will be dead soon, his life is meaningless: only the high matters.