The Queen's Gambit

From a very early age, Beth Harmon struggles with substance use as a way to manage the often intense anxiety and pressure she feels in her chess career and her daily life. In the Methuen orphanage, Beth and the other children receive small green pills twice a day. Beth—who has recently lost her mother and often feels isolated and unsafe at Metheun—immediately recognizes that the tranquilizers ease her anxiety and help her sleep. Soon she begins hoarding them and purposefully taking many at night. When new regulations prevent the orphanage from continuing to distribute the pills, Beth suffers from withdrawals and cannot sleep. When Jolene gives Beth a few extra pills, Beth is relieved, but only until they run out:

Jolene was not in the room, and she was desperate to see Jolene, to see if there were any more pills. Every now and then she touched her blouse pocket with the palm of her hand in a kind of superstitious hope that she would feel the little hard surface of a pill (29).

Beth mechanically and automatically searches for the pills, and she finds that she cannot concentrate on anything else. This is her first of many bouts with addiction in The Queen’s Gambit, and the first time that her need for substances overwhelms other aspects of her life.