Trainspotting

How does the aesthetic quality of trainspotting depict ideological issues of youth and addiction.

Trainspotting depicts ideological issues of youth and addiction through its aesthetic quality in many ways. For example, in the “worst toilet in Scotland” scene where Renton dives into the toilet and fishes for the opium suppositories this is representative of the degrading and dehumanizing effects of heroin addiction. But once Renton is submerged in the toilet, he is exposed to the other side of drug use serenity, beauty and nirvana which is also reinforced by Renton sharing similarities with the baby out of the Nirvana album cover Nevermind in the mid-longshot of Renton swimming underwater where he is framed in a similar way as the baby which could either emphases the rock and roll side of drugs or how lost Renton is, also the blue tone adds to the whole serenity side of drug use , this all shows the whole rock and roll side of heroin addiction and how it makes the characters feel like rock and roll stars. The main four characters are often shown as album covers such as the Beatles abbey road when they are all in London with the wide shot of them crossing the road. Also in the "worst toilet in Scotland" scene Renton is quite literally throwing his life away for drugs.
The characters in trainspotting are not just addicted to heroin and drugs there are many other forms of harmful addictions/ activities shown to be like drug use for example sex in the film is shown to be a lot like drug use in the club scene where three characters Renton, Spud and Tommy all are having sex but like heroin use there is a come down for Renton its him finding out that the girl is under age, for Tommy its that he lost his sex tape and for Spud its that he could not hold his bowels together while asleep and has a accident. This shown in the opposite manner to the "worst toilet in Scotland" scene as they are shown the good side of it first through the sex but then all of a sudden the come down happens where as in the "worst toilet in Scotland" scene did it through the bad side of the addiction first but then shown the good side.

Another addiction shown in the film is through cigarettes and alcohol these addictions are shown in many scenes and most of the time they are shown in mid to long shots of them indulging in them and  are talking to Renton on how heroin is destroying his body while they are doing the exact same thing but in a more acceptable manner. The character that does this is Bigsby who often ends up getting violent when he partakes in drinking and smoking often acting that so called "rock star" life style that addictions are presented to give people in this film but unlike the other characters Bigsby looks down on them for heroin use and addiction but he does not understand he is the exact same as them but his form of escapism and addiction is widely accepted. Bigsby is also a lot worse than the other characters when i comes to addiction because of the violence he shows for no reason which shows his addiction to be worse than the heroin addicts 
Another thing the films treats like addiction is friendship in the later half of the film where Renton moves down to London and gets his life sorted Bigsby and sickboy both turn up looking for somewhere to live and they interfere with his life like a unhealthy drug habit would they mess with his work they also suck up all his savings sending him back into drugs but this time they are dealing the drugs not taking. Renton even talks about friendship like a drug experience with the non diegetic voice over "and just for a moment it felt really good like it meant something it doesn't last long" this shows that almost anything in the film can be and will be a addiction from drugs sex and alcohol to anything as normal as friendship. This can be shown through the mise en scene of Rentons apartment when Bigsby moves in his apartment ends up looking like the mother Superior in Scotland with rubbish and empty cigarette packages everywhere with a massive pile out side the front door showing Bigsbys addiction to them
In trainspotting Scotland is presented very different to how films at the time were all scots were seen as kilt wearing bagpipe players or highlanders fighting for freedom whereas trainspotting shows Scotland in a different light where they have their own culture and ideologies such as Rentons ideology and so on.