When people get to Gazza's state??

woodoo

When people get to this state what can be done? I'm sure many people here have seen a friend or family member with serious alcohol problems get to the state he is in now. He won't have long left if something isn't done. I feel sorry for him. I'm sure he would like to be free of it all and happily sober but just doesn't seem to be able to.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4776338/Tragic-Paul-Gascoigne-on-video.html

Lots of people don't like the disease hypothesis. How else would you describe it? Mental illness? obsessive compulsion?

Omackeral

Thought this was another Israel bashing thread

Duckworth_Luas

It's the Israeli government, they never leave the poor chap alone!

Stained Class

I remember when he was a world class player.

Looking back, that was his problem really.

A very disturbed man thrust into the spotlight because he was good at playing Soccer.

Indulged at every turn because of it & spat out at the other end when his playing days were over.

He's only a year older than me & feels his life is over.

Very sad.

ejmaztec

I'm surprise he's lasted this long.

arybvtcw0eolkf

I remember when Gaza was a youngster... Don't they grow blow up so fast these days

Latchy

Stained Class wrote: »

A very disturbed man thrust into the spotlight because he was good at playing Soccer.

Indulged at every turn because of it & spat out at the other end when his playing days were over.

He's only a year older than me & feels his life is over.

Very sad.

That sums him up and if anything George Best dying the way he did could have been the wake up call for him .Very sad indeed .

Stained Class

Latchy wrote: »

That sums him up and if anything George Best dying the way he did could have been the wake up call for him .Very sad indeed .

I sometimes think the kind of attention he recieved from the media would have tested the mentality of the most sane & stable person.

A couple of years ago I read the book 'Gazza My Story' & it brought it home to me how disturbed he really was/ is.

A real lost soul.

NIMAN

He's on borrowed time.

woodoo

He seems obsessed with getting people to laugh at him too. Being the centre of attention and the joker.

He is a mess now.

Handsome Bob

It's hard to tell what comes first, the addiction or the mental health problem. It's different for each person. It's especially hard to judge in Gazza's case as while I think the drink obviously ruined his career, I don't think he was ever conditioned to handle the fame and pressure his talent brought him.

Stained Class

NIMAN wrote: »

He's on borrowed time.

S. De Sousa wrote: »

It's hard to tell what comes first, the addiction or the mental health problem. It's different for each person. It's especially hard to judge in Gazza's case as while I think the drink obviously ruined his career, I don't think he was ever conditioned to handle the fame and pressure his talent brought him.

From reading his book, I think he was a disturbed individual from almost day 1.

Personally, I'd never blame drink for anybody's downfall.

Most of us can have a drink & can overdo it sometimes, but yet carry on & have a normal life.

The question is, why did he drink so much in the first place?

Ruudi_Mentari

Gazza likes a laugh, a drink... cameraderie with the boys the archetypal clown I could only hope to be. You hear about life after football, or rather lack-of and gazza suffered alright -

his nervous system is destroyed from booze too. He's a mess...

Melion

Trust that ****ing rag to use a "story" like that to sell papers. Absolute scum is all they are.

Stained Class

Stained Class wrote: »

From reading his book, I think he was a disturbed individual from almost day 1.

Personally, I'd never blame drink for anybody's downfall.

Most of us can have a drink & can overdo it sometimes, but yet carry on & have a normal life.

The question is, why did he drink so much in the first place?

Well, some people have a greater predisposition to addiction than others, all things aren't equal when it comes to addictive substances.

The guy seems to have rather delicate mental health, which might have come either before or after the fame and the addiction. It's very sad he feels his life is over but if he can recover from the addiction and get the right help his life is salvageable.

scudzilla

Nope, i don't feel sorry for him in the slightest, he's had all the money in the world, been offered help countless times yet carried on drinking. Fcuk him, deserves all he gets

ArtyM

I find this story so very very sad.
I just don't get how damaged he seems to be - the guy is only 45 and was a highly functioning athlete up until the age of 30 odd.
There are rock stars out there that have lived the rockstar lifestyle for decades and never looked as bad as Gazza does now. He looks like an ill 80year old.
I did see a documentary on him once with Piers Morgan where he admitted to living on nothing but whiskey and cocaine for weeks on end, no food.
He has tried so many times to break his addictions, it really doesn't look like he is winning even the fights, never mind the war.
I wish him well

ArtyM

ArtyM wrote: »

I find this story so very very sad.
I just don't get how damaged he seems to be - the guy is only 45 and was a highly functioning athlete up until the age of 30 odd.
There are rock stars out there that have lived the rockstar lifestyle for decades and never looked as bad as Gazza does now. He looks like an ill 80year old.
I did see a documentary on him once with Piers Morgan where he admitted to living on nothing but whiskey and cocaine for weeks on end, no food.
He has tried so many times to break his addictions, it really doesn't look like he is winning even the fights, never mind the war.
I wish him well

Professionally he functioned well, but in his personal life he was known to be highly physically and mentally abusive to his then wife, and suffered from OCD to a crippling extent most of his adult life. I think I saw that same documentary (or one similar).

He seems to have started from a difficult place and wound up somewhere worse, rather than starting off from a place of normality.

Poor guy seems to have never had a chance, or been able to give himself one. Its very easy to say its all his own fault be nobody knows what goes on inside someone else.

Ruudi_Mentari

the state of Gazza is one thing but an actual State of Gazza?

Terrifying.. he'd probably employ Raül Moate as border control. Gazza's just nuts since birth I accept that

mewe

scudzilla wrote: »

Nope, i don't feel sorry for him in the slightest, he's had all the money in the world, been offered help countless times yet carried on drinking. Fcuk him, deserves all he gets

Thats the most ridiculous post i've seen since i joined boards!
You obviously haven't a clue about alcoholism so shouldn't be making stupid posts on the subject or about people who are suffering with it. Whats him having money or being offered help got to do with anything. Your post is simply daft.

dd972

You always have to be a bit skeptical with this sort of tabloid coverage, he was pissed and worse for wear like millions of people across the four nations on a Saturday night, the next day he'd have been sober again, it's just that when you see 'GAZZA NEAR THE END' in big black inch high letters they're usually just trying to sell their 'newspapers'.

PhlegmyMoses

ArtyM wrote: »

I find this story so very very sad.
I just don't get how damaged he seems to be - the guy is only 45 and was a highly functioning athlete up until the age of 30 odd.
There are rock stars out there that have lived the rockstar lifestyle for decades and never looked as bad as Gazza does now. He looks like an ill 80year old.
I did see a documentary on him once with Piers Morgan where he admitted to living on nothing but whiskey and cocaine for weeks on end, no food.
He has tried so many times to break his addictions, it really doesn't look like he is winning even the fights, never mind the war.
I wish him well

There is a difference between what a lot of these rock stars were doing and what Gazza was doing. Paul Merson was saying that when he moved to Middlesborough, he lived with Gazza for the first few months. He was saying that that they used to play this game where they'd keep taking sleeping pills and drinking copious amounts of spirits and whoever fell asleep first was the "loser". For a similar level of alcohol abuse in the rock and roll world, look at Ozzy Osbourne. He is probably where Gazza could be if he got his **** together - still alive but clearly affected by his past indiscretions.

scudzilla

mewe wrote: »

Thats the most ridiculous post i've seen since i joined boards!
You obviously haven't a clue about alcoholism so shouldn't be making stupid posts on the subject or about people who are suffering with it. Whats him having money or being offered help got to do with anything. Your post is simply daft.

i know plenty about alcoholism, the guy has had countless offers of help, could afford the best rehab clinics etc, but no, it was HIS CHOICE to continue to pour that crap down his neck, so tough titties

mattser

mewe wrote: »

Thats the most ridiculous post i've seen since i joined boards!
You obviously haven't a clue about alcoholism so shouldn't be making stupid posts on the subject or about people who are suffering with it. Whats him having money or being offered help got to do with anything. Your post is simply daft.

+1 mewe. His goal V Scotland will live long after us and him. I wish him well.

GRMA

Remember he showed up with the larger and the chicken during the Moat thing when your man went on a rampage?

PhlegmyMoses

scudzilla wrote: »

i know plenty about alcoholism, the guy has had countless offers of help, could afford the best rehab clinics etc, but no, it was HIS CHOICE to continue to pour that crap down his neck, so tough titties

He clearly has mental problems, though. Lee Sharpe tells a story about him playing for England that's hilarious but also kid of sad, if looked at in light of everything we know about him now:

"Gazza's nerves would start creeping in three days before a game. He'd get easily bored and restless and he was hyper. We were in this huge posh hotel in Hertfordshire, and he's going stir crazy. He's down stairs playing table tennis with the kids in the hotel, talking to anybody who will listen to him. Anyways, on the day of the match Graham taylor calls a players meeting at 11a.m. About 10.30a.m. Gazza goes down to the hotel kitchen and gets 3/4 loaves of bread. He walks out of the dining room and through a door that leads into the gardens, and down to a pond outside which had a resident family of ducks. He picks at the bread and starts feeding it to them in the pond. Then, he starts feeding them outside the pond and makes a trail of bread which leads back to the hotel. The Ducks leave the pond and begin to follow the trail. Gazza all the time laying the trail of bread. The Doorman at the hotel doesn't know what to make of this as Gazza leads the ducks through the main entrance with all the guests looking amazed at what they are seeing. He lays the trail up to the room where Taylor is about to begin his team talk. His jaw drops as in walks Gazza, still laying the bread trail and these ducks are following him round the table squaking and ****ting as they go. The lads are absolutely rolling over laughing at him and Taylor yells at him telling him to stop pissing around and get them out of the place. Gazza fumes at Taylor and says "these ****in' ducks are me mates right, leave 'em alone. Don't you be so nasty to them". The lads are in uproar and he eventually starts the bread trail back all the way back through the hotel and back down to the pond. When they get back down there, the ducks jump back in the pond. Gazza, wearing his full England tracksuit was not going to be outdone, so in he jumped with them - he didn't want to be without his new found friends! He's a lovely guy but totally ****ing barmy!"!

Doc Ruby

Alcohol is a painkiller, like most drugs. Lots of roads end in that cul de sac, many of them blameless, but the result is always the same at the finish. In his case I reckon he just doesn't want to look in the mirror anymore.

A quick primer for those who aren't aware:

• Alcohol destroys your ablity to reach REM sleep, this is why recovering alcoholics have such terrible nightmares
• Failing to reach REM sleep destroys your ability to remember things, leading to dementia in the long term
• Alcohol leaves permanent scarring on your internal organs
• Alcohol abuse can have enormous detrimental effects on your ablity to function with the rest of the world not to mention your health in an impressive variety of ways
• Drinking a bottle of wine a night is alcohol abuse
• Alcohol can be enjoyed responsibly, with friends and food, nine pints of beer in one sitting is abuse of the substance

Stained Class

Candie wrote: »

The guy seems to have rather delicate mental health, which might have come either before or after the fame and the addiction. It's very sad he feels his life is over but if he can recover from the addiction and get the right help his life is salvageable.

I find it sad that someone my age feels their life is over.

God, I lived in England in 1990 & He was the biggest thing in thing world at the time.

All these years later, I feel I have so much to live for & he doesn't.

It's really sad.

Lapin

scudzilla wrote: »

Nope, i don't feel sorry for him in the slightest, he's had all the money in the world, been offered help countless times yet carried on drinking. Fcuk him, deserves all he gets

Thats a very heartless thing to say. Would you say the same thing about Paul McGrath ?

It may be true that Gascoigne brought a lot of his problems upon himself but he has always been a vulnerable figure who was badly managed while in his prime.

He was one of the best and most charismatic footballers of his time and always wore his heart on his sleeve. He owes nothing to the game and football was all the better for having him around whether you followed his clubs/country or not.

I really hope what happened to him wouldn't occur with today's generation of players. People may complain that they are spoilt and mollycoddled. But I'd like to think that some of that over protection is bourne out of the clubs ensuring their players are being prepared for stability after retirement.

Where are all Gazza'a 'friends' and other hangers on now? Those who were happy to leech off his success when he was doing well. And where are the great clubs and country he brought so much to? Surely they owe him some support.

scudzilla

I feel very strongly against alcoholism, and anybody sucked into it, it's hit people close to me very hard. For someone who had chance after chance to get straight, and to carry on pouring it down his neck, i couldn't give a damn.

Heartless, maybe, realistic, most definitely

Lionel Messy

He should leave England. It's not the place for him. He should move to Morocco like Ringo Star did, less temptation.