Ten Reasons Being a Werewolf Would Be Bad

Being a werewolf in fiction is fun, but in real life, it’s much harder and more stressful than most think. Becoming a legendary creature would bring with it a lot of practical, emotional, and social problems that would change every part of daily life. Despite the romanticization of the werewolf experience in popular culture, a closer examination reveals ten compelling reasons why living with this supernatural curse would be a nightmare.

The Top Ten Reasons List:

1. The physical pain of changing would be unimaginably awful. Every bone in your body would have to break, reshape, and reform every time you moved, which would cause pain that no medicine could help. You would have to go through this torture session multiple times a month, during which your jaw would stretch, your spine would lengthen, and your muscles would tear and rebuild.

   It wouldn’t be a quick change either; it could take anywhere from a few minutes to more than an hour of pure pain. Your skin would stretch and tear to fit your new shape, your teeth would push through swollen gums to become fangs, and your internal organs would move around in your body cavity. This trauma is like having multiple severe injuries at once, and you would have to endure it repeatedly for the rest of your life with no hope of it getting easier or less painful.

2. You would lose control of what you do and become a danger to everyone you care about. Your human mind would dissolve under the full moon, giving way to animal instincts focused on hunting and killing. The idea of awakening and discovering that you have harmed or killed your family, friends, or innocent strangers would be unbearable, causing you to be haunted every day.

   You might even remember bits and pieces of what you did as a wolf, which would mean you have to live with blurry memories of violence and bloodshed. Even if your conscious mind lost control, the knowledge of your body’s terrible actions would corrode your soul. You’d always wonder if you should avoid everyone, fearing that being near them could endanger them. This internal struggle would make every interaction with another person feel scary and make you doubt yourself.

3. It would be almost impossible for you to keep a normal job with all the time you take off each month. If you called in sick three to five days a month, any boss would quickly become suspicious. You were unable to explicitly state that you require time off due to transforming into a monster. Managing your finances would become challenging, and your career options would be limited.

   You’d have to confront the physical effects of transformation that could last for days, not just the absences. You might go to work with bruises that are difficult to see, move slowly because your bones just broke and healed, and be worn out from the energy it took to change forms. Your coworkers would see you getting better and worse each month, which would lead to awkward questions about your health, possible drug use, or other issues that would make you lie and feel more stressed and alone.

4. Your dietary needs would change a lot, and you would need to eat a lot of raw meat, which would make normal meals taste unpleasant or even disgusting. You’d have a challenging time keeping up the appearance of normal eating habits at family dinners and when you went out to eat because you always wanted fresh blood and uncooked meat. This change in appetite would also make your food costs go up a lot, since good meat is expensive and you would need a lot more of it than most people.

   These cravings would also have a very disturbing effect on your mind, making you question your humanity. You may experience salivation upon seeing a rare steak or feel an urge to hunt small animals, which could alarm the aspect of your mind that still retains human-like tendencies. Eating with others, a crucial aspect of human culture and bonding, would transform into a complex web of temptation and disgust. You would have to either stay away from social events altogether or spend them in misery while pretending to enjoy food that your changed biology now rejects.

5. To keep others safe, you would have to stay away from everyone else every full moon. To locate a safe place where you couldn’t escape and hurt anyone, you would need a lot of money to build a custom containment facility or a remote wilderness property. Getting yourself safely locked up every month, which might require a trusted accomplice who knows your secret, would make your life much more stressful and complicated.

   Getting ready for each full moon would become a tiring routine that takes up all of your time. You would need to fill your containment area with water, verify that the locks and restraints work, locate someone to let you go afterward, and plan for every possible scenario, including what happens if you get away. It would be challenging to relax or feel free if you had to pay for the upkeep of such a facility and regularly imprison yourself. The stress of both would always be there, affecting every part of your life.

   

6. In today’s world, having lycanthropy would make your senses much stronger, which would be too much to handle. You could hear conversations from blocks away, smell every unpleasant detail, and be more sensitive to sounds and lights than most people. Living in a city would be torture because the constant stream of sensory information would make it difficult to focus or find peace. You would either have to live in quiet areas or endure daily overstimulation.

   The sensory overload would be annoying and make daily tasks difficult. You’d know when your neighbors were fighting, smell what everyone around you had for lunch, and hear the constant hum of every device in your building, which would make a noise that never stops. Your enhanced hearing would wake you up with the smallest noise, making it difficult to sleep. Strong smells from food, cleaning products, and other shoppers would overwhelm you when you went grocery shopping. This constant overstimulation would likely cause chronic headaches, irritability, and a desire to be alone, isolating you from normal people.

7. Keeping such a big secret would really hurt your relationships. You’d either have to lie all the time to the people you care about, which would make you feel guilty and emotionally distant, or you’d have to tell them about your condition and risk being rejected, scared, or not believed. It would be very challenging to make deep, meaningful connections because of trust issues and communication problems. These circumstances would make you feel alone and isolated even when you were with other people.

   It would be challenging to be in a romantic relationship because intimacy requires honesty and vulnerability that you just couldn’t offer. You’d have to make up long stories to explain why you disappear every month, hide your strange eating habits, and explain away the physical signs of your changes. If you tell your partner the truth, they may not believe you or be scared, and they may feel they have to tell the police or run away. The basic dishonesty needed to keep the relationship going, or the enormous risk of being honest, would ruin any chance of a real connection and leave you alone all the time.

8. Repeatedly altering your physical appearance could cause you to appear older than your actual age. Your bones, muscles, and organs would constantly heal and become damaged, which would cause wear and tear that builds up over time and could lead to chronic pain and health problems. You would be putting your body through a lot of trauma on a regular basis, and the long-term effects would probably include arthritis, scarring of the tissues, and a weaker immune system.

   Doctors would have a challenging time treating you because they would see strange patterns in your health and physical condition. X-rays could reveal signs of repeatedly broken and healed bones. Blood tests may reveal unusual results associated with your supernatural body. And if you healed quickly, people might ask questions that you couldn’t answer honestly. You would need to avoid doctors as much as possible, which means that common health problems that could easily be treated might go untreated, potentially worsening the damage from your monthly transformations and significantly shortening your life, despite your supernatural healing powers.

9. Constant fear of discovery and its potential consequences would consume you. If the wrong people found out about your condition, you could become a target for scientists who want to study you, hunters who want to kill you, or governments that want to use you as a weapon. Maintaining complete secrecy would necessitate constant surveillance, a keen eye for detail, and a constant awareness that a single mistake could lead to your capture, exploitation, or even death.

   Paranoia would affect everything, from your home to your friends to your transformation evidence. You would constantly be vigilant for security cameras, witnesses, and tangible evidence that could reveal your identity. You’d be more afraid after each close call, and over time, you’d likely become more isolated and distrustful. Maintaining such complete secrecy would be exhausting, leaving you constantly on guard and unable to fully trust anyone.

10. Living with lycanthropy would have a terrible and never-ending effect on your mental health. The stress of keeping up such a massive lie, the depression from being alone, the anxiety about losing control, and the PTSD from the violent acts that happened during transformations would all have a tremendous effect on your mental health. You’d have to confront these enormous problems alone, which would probably worsen your mental health, since you couldn’t obtain the right therapy without telling someone your secret.

    It would be especially cruel to be unable to obtain mental health help when you really need it. You were unable to attend support groups, be truthful with a therapist, or even disclose to your friends what was truly troubling you. The trauma of years of changes, along with being alone and always being scared, would probably show up in ways that make your life worse, like abusing drugs, hurting yourself, or completely cutting yourself off from other people. If you don’t get the right care or talk about your experiences, your mental health will decline.

Conclusion

No amount of supernatural power or improved skills could compensate for the never-ending cycle of pain, loneliness, and fear caused by the werewolf’s curse. The romantic idea of becoming a powerful creature of the night quickly fades when faced with the harsh realities of monthly transformations, constant secrecy, and the terrible effects on every relationship and opportunity. Being a werewolf would not be an adventure or a gift; it would be a lonely, painful life that took away the simple pleasures and freedoms that make life worth living.

Reference

Franck, K., & George, S. (2019). Contemporary werewolves. Twenty-First-Century Gothic: An Edinburgh Companion, 144-5.

King, S. (1983). Cycle of the werewolf. Land of Enchantment.

King, S. (Writer), & Attias, D. (Director). (1985). Silver bullet [Film]. Paramount Pictures.

Lecouteux, C. (2021). Mysteries of the Werewolf: Shapeshifting, Magic, and Protection. Simon and Schuster.

Mann, C. I. (2020). The better to eat you with. Phases of the Moon, 132-157. https://doi.org/10.3366/edinburgh/9781474441117.003.000

Mann, C. I. (2020). Phases of the Moon: A Cultural History of the Werewolf Film. Edinburgh University Press.

Stebbins, M. A. (2017). The Werewolf: Past and Future (Doctoral dissertation, Virginia Tech).