Alright, so these are my personal headcanons for Bob because I have experience with addiction recovery, dealing with the aftermath of drugs, bipolar disorder & borderline personality disorder and an abusive home-life. I'm a little bit frustrated with the infantilzing and uwu-fication of Bob.
This is by no means a "My way or the highway" list. These are personal headcanons. Take it or leave it as you want to
TW: Mentions of drugs, abuse, mental illness, implied nsfw, mentions of SI
Bob's skin isn't perfect and smooth. He picks at his skin (likely his face, arms, and nailbeds/cuticles) when he's bored, upset, or even when he's just not paying attention. He has track marks and old cuts from physical fights he's gotten into.
Bob is twitchy and nervous, but he isn't stupid. He notices things because of his experiences with his dad. He learns to differentiate the footsteps of the team, he watches their face for microexpressions, pays attention to body language while pretending he's not.
He's frustratingly independent and rarely asks for help. With his dad being an ass and his mom turning to drugs too, he had to learn to take care of himself really early. He won't ask for help until he's on the verge of a spiral because that's just what he knows.
Related to that one, he gets frustrated as hell when people force their help on him. He's not cruel by any means, he's just irritated and snappy, but it makes him want to break things, and his emotions are already unstable because of the recovery & withdrawals--add Void and Sentry to the mix and that's a recipe for disaster.
Listen, some drugs make you unbelievably horny and meth is one of them. He might not be a god in bed, but he's by no means inexperienced. He might be nervous the first couple of times because he's sober now and he hasn't been sober since middle school, but once he finds his rhythm, he gets more confident.
He hates being babied and treated like a child. Yes, he's sober now after so long and everything is bright and shiny and new. Yes, it's overwhelming and overstimulating, but the first time the team tries to baby him after they're not fighting/running for their lives, he's quick to remind them that he's more than capable of doing things on his own.
He's also scared to get close to people. Part of his guilt is turning on his previous friends by stealing from them to get his next fix. When you're hooked, you don't give a shit about who you're hurting as long as you're getting your fix. He holds the team at arm's length the best he can because he's worried about turning on them again.
HOWEVER, he's still clingy as hell though. He tends to follow Yelena around (not romantically. Neglected Shelter Dog Trauma Bond) because she's familiar, especially in new places with people he doesn't know. It's to keep himself grounded mostly.
I'm convinced that even if he did try to turn back to the drugs in a moment of relapse, because of the serum, it wouldn't work. His body metabolizes the drugs too fast for them to work. He's not-so-secretly grateful for this because it represents (for him) that he can heal a little easier.
Bob doesn't cook or bake. His meals typically consist of either A) instant ramen, boxed mac&cheese, and frozen dinners or doordash, or B) whatever the team is feeding everyone. He eats a fuckton because of his super soldier metabolism, but he doesn't have the energy or motivation to cook.
Another hc that I have is that while also representing his bipolar disorder, Void/Sentry also represents DID with Void being the traumaholder/persecutor and Sentry being mostly an insider but also acting as a manic protector for Bob.
Bob is a snarky little shit the more he's around people. I mean, he called Walker an asshole because Walker was being...well...an asshole while smirking when he got shoved into the wall. And then confronting Valentina as Sentry? I'm convinced he doesn't actually have any self-preservation and is actively looking for ways to get the adrenaline high
While he might not deal with the physical aspects of the addiction cravings as much, he still gets the emotional craving of wanting to use whenever something happens. It's sort of like when you've dealt with SI for long, and you know you're healing, but you still get that "I wouldn't have to deal with it if I weren't here" thoughts whenever something happens--major or minor
