3 min read

Outside the Books: Plants VS Zombies, You VS Addictions

Addictions exist everywhere, and I'm sure all of you have consciously or subconsciously spent too much time on games, YouTube, or social media...

Crazy Dave | Heroes Wiki | Fandom

Imagine yourself as Crazy Dave fending off zombies, which are your addictions.

To stay in the game, you have to constantly upgrade your defence by planting your plants.

The sunflower generates sun to deploy plants.

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Sunflowers are sleep and nutrition in your life.

Sleep and nutrition create energy and are the baseline for tackling addictions. Only with sufficient energy can you progress on your other defences.

Peashooter is your main line of defence to kill off zombies.

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Peashooters are your sports and healthy hobbies.

Sports and healthy hobbies shape your identity and form a healthier way of obtaining pleasure, so you don't desire those addictions anymore.

Cherry Bomb is an expensive, one-time-use plant.

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Cherry Bombs are your willpower.

Willpower doesn't eliminate the deep down urge and holds off addictions only once or twice because it drains a lot of energy.

Walnut is a reliable barrier that holds off zombies for a long time.

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Walnuts are learning and knowledge, a more reliable and less energy draining barrier.

Once you learn about the downsides of your addictions, you can use logical reasoning to kill your urges. However, if learning is your only line of defence, you'll forget about them eventually, and addictions will break through.

Torchwood is a plant that boosts other plants and your defence, setting bullets of pea shooters on fire and dealing double damage.

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Torchwoods are your purpose and desire.

Find a purpose that sparks a vigorous flame inside you. Naturally, you'll have the motivation to plant more peashooters and deal more damage to your addictions.

An ice-shroom temporarily freezes and stuns all zombies on the map.

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Ice-shrooms are mindfulness.

Even if you have a strong desire to quit, your brain is still hardwired to go back to your addictions, i.e. you may instinctively open Youtube whenever you pick up your phone.

Mindfulness exercises like meditation cleanse your overstimulated brain and freezes your brain when you impulsively fall back into your addictions.

Plantern enables players to see through fogs and prepare defences in time.

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Planterns are your commitment.

As time goes on, you forget why you initially fought against your addictions and may think falling back into them just once is okay. At this stage, stay focused and consistently remind yourself why you initially made that decision.


Life goes on, and addictions become stronger and stronger. The only way for you to survive is to constantly upgrade your defences. Good luck, fellow Crazy Daves.