Samuel Coleridge's depression was the beginning of his terrible addiction to drugs and alcohol. Coleridge for years of his life traveled extensively to Malta and Sicily in Italy. One of the main reasons he did this was to hopefully help his health. While living in England he noticed that it was always very humid and sad there and so he thought that if he moved to a place where the weather was sunnier and happier, his health would improve and it would force him to reduce his opium consumption. Unfortunately nothing could help Coleridge's incredible addiction to opium. Only a few years later he became so addicted to opium and laudanum that his entire life revolved around them. His opium addiction in retrospect ruined his entire life. He was so dependent that he could not function in everyday life unless he took this drug. During this very dark period in his life he separated from his wife and had to rely on the care of a doctor full time. These were just two of the many serious problems that were the cause of his addiction. Furthermore, since he drank many liters of laudanum a week, this caused him to become very constipated and he had to undergo enemas almost every day. While his drug addiction ruined his entire life, the only thing he could still do was write. He was broke and living in severe poverty. He was given the opportunity to write for a newspaper and did so for quite some time to try to save some money. As a matter of fact, at one point he was so poor that one of his richer friends had to lend him a large sum of money just so he could continue writing in the newspaper. As Coleridge was nearing death, he decided to move to Highgate Homes and live out the remainder of his years. Coleridge's advert... half the paper... Edge took opium because he suffered from severe depression, Shelley took it for many other reasons. One of the reasons he took opium was simply to calm his nerves. He was a very nervous person and since he had no good intentions, most of the time he used it to calm him down. Another reason he took laudanum was that when he took it, he sort of questioned the whole reality of life. At one point in his life he became so addicted to opium that he began having spasms throughout his body every day and terrifying dreams every night. He was concerned about the effects the opium was having on his body, so he went to a doctor who told him he needed to stop taking the drug Dube 7 immediately. Obviously Shelley didn't stop taking laudanum and instead tried to go to overdose to commit suicide. Ultimately, opium helped bring out Shelley's creativity, but it also damaged her state of mind.