Not quite. Again, speaking for Edward having heard from him. He was still getting work done, but he had a busy life, and at some point, he realized that he had written the equivalent of a good sized book about terrible things happening to children, none of it able to be published outside of this very small, very niche community. It wasn’t an addiction, it was just too easy to fall back on instead of things that could bring him actual benefit. A choice between paying but more difficult work, and quickly scratching an itch, it’s WAY too easy to make the easy choice. Like exercise vs more snacks and a good show.

The outlawing of cannibalism was actually a storytelling device when he was still going strong. A break may have been worked in there, but his last story was set after it.

There was no ultimatum of any kind, his priorities and how he felt it impacted his life changed, but it was entirely personal. His work wasn’t even suffering for it, he just took stock of how much time and energy he put in to something where the ENTIRE return on investment is a few comments. If he comes back, then that’s great. If not, like I expressed on the other thread, anyone who saved the Pastebin versions of his stories has his blessing to post them

Sorry if this came across more curt, Edward just basically expressed that he doesn’t love when people who know little to nothing about him aside from what he chooses to post on a site where privacy is CRITICALLY important to most of us post ideas that something is wrong or it was more than ‘burn out on gory porn writing’ that actually happened. Nothing is wrong, he is just exploring a new path in life :)