Do your habits change when your location changes?
After so many years of writing, it seems like the habit should be the habit, wherever you are. But it’s just not true – different places provoke different things and require different things.
I read recently that heroin addiction has a strong connection to place: while addicts who returned home after treatment had a fairly high likelihood of relapse, the people who became addicted in Vietnam during the war and quit as they returned were quite unlikely to relapse. The addiction had a location component, and since they were no longer in the place connected to the addiction, the drug lost its power over them.
I am writing this from my parents’ house – the place I’m most likely to be besides my own home. Here, my writing takes on a different habit, built over the times I’ve spent here. I need different triggers, different surroundings, and find my writing is different when I’m here.