Gazza stripped

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

No, I'd be well pissed off. But that doesn't mean I can't have compassion for his illness. He didn't choose to be an addict.

[bobb]

If somebody did drink a bottle of scotch, wake themselves up by smashing a nice big line of coke down then jump into a high powered car and drive the streets looking for mischief (has Gascoigne actually done that?), nobody is suggesting they should be pardoned for that behaviour on account of any illness they suffer. They would almost certainly end up in prison for doing that where they can undertake a program of rehabilitation.

Could just hang them though I suppose....

[Jaded]

Will you still be full of compassion if it's someone you know who gets killed by a drunk, drugged up, out of control driver of a BMW? Or if it's you yourself that gets knocked of your bike because he's off his face in a 4x4 at 9 o' clock in the morning?

Gazza did all that 

[clifftaylor]

Is it really necessary to write that sort of behaviour down to illness, surely there comes a point when even the most compassionate of souls has to stand up and ask for someone to stand up and take some responsibility for their actions?

Do you not think that he is very obviously ill??

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

Will you still be full of compassion if it's someone you know who gets killed by a drunk, drugged up, out of control driver of a BMW? Or if it's you yourself that gets knocked of your bike because he's off his face in a 4x4 at 9 o' clock in the morning?

Gazza did all that 

You'd think I'd remember being knocked off my bike at 9am by an off-his-face Geordie footballer. Maybe I was off my face too.

[Biggsy]

Gazza had/has problems with his mental health in addition to alcoholism, so it's doubly difficult for him to manage his life, I expect.

[Peter]

I've had an alcoholic in my family and at least one with severe mental problems.  I love them all.  Their behaviour was and is exasperating and infuriating by turns.  But they are part of my family and they are ill.  Paul Gascoigne is also part of a family.  A family that lauded him when he was better at something than anyone else in that family: the great British public.  There is now an element of that family that wants to discard him.  Well, I'm glad I'm not in their family. 

Peter

[LEE]

Gazza's been identified as having Tourette's Syndrome, OCD and Bi-Polar disorder (apart from being an alcoholic and bulemic).

When I heard him speaking about his problems he thinks is started at 10, after witnessing the death of his friend in a traffic accident.

I suspect that the last time he slept properly was the day before the accident.  He's an insomniac also.

He's clearly an extremely troubled person and, like thousands of alcoholics, doesn't drink for pleasure (in the same way that Heroin addicts aren't doing it for pleasure any more).

By saying "let him rot, it's his own fault" and suchlike, you're saying the same thing to every person trapped in a deadly addiction.

I think people need to ask themselves whether it's because he's a bit of a chavvy footballer that it's OK that he just f***s off and dies. 

It's the story of a poor kid with mental health issues, suddenly given a king's ransom at 21 years old and told he was "The Greatest" by everyone around him. 

Sudden wealth and global fame rarely cured mental health issues.

[Domestique]

Its easy to say you should never stop loving an alcoholic, keep giving them another chance etc.
People have their own lives to live as well, as hard as that sounds. For some alcoholics that might even be the moment when they realise they have to get help.
There is no one answer thats right for all.

[caerau]

Gazza's been identified as having Tourette's Syndrome, OCD and Bi-Polar disorder (apart from being an alcoholic and bulemic).

When I heard him speaking about his problems he thinks is started at 10, after witnessing the death of his friend in a traffic accident.

I suspect that the last time he slept properly was the day before the accident.  He's an insomniac also.

He's clearly an extremely troubled person and, like thousands of alcoholics, doesn't drink for pleasure (in the same way that Heroin addicts aren't doing it for pleasure any more).

By saying "let him rot, it's his own fault" and suchlike, you're saying the same thing to every person trapped in a deadly addiction.

I think people need to ask themselves whether it's because he's a bit of a chavvy footballer that it's OK that he just f***s off and dies. 

It's the story of a poor kid with mental health issues, suddenly given a king's ransom at 21 years old and told he was "The Greatest" by everyone around him. 

Sudden wealth and global fame rarely cured mental health issues.

Where is the round of applause emoticon?  I suppose    will have to do although it's a bit smiley for this topic.

My father drank himself to death - it was an appalling thing to watch and horrible to be so impotent to stop it.  I also have an aunt with bipolar who is currently going down with alcoholic dementia.  Most people with bipolar disorder are also alcoholics I believe.  I suspect my sister is heading the same way.
Some of the posters above can be very glad that they do not have to watch some of their loved ones go through such horrendous problems.  Ignorance is bliss.
It's also true that more people survive cancer than alcoholism.

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

Its easy to say you should never stop loving an alcoholic, keep giving them another chance etc.
People have their own lives to live as well, as hard as that sounds. For some alcoholics that might even be the moment when they realise they have to get help.
There is no one answer thats right for all.

Of course not, but nobody here is his friends and family, worn down by years of trying to help him. Remarks such as

Why not just let the c**t die?

and

If Gascoigne's going the same way then the OP is right and he'd be doing us all a favour by getting it over and done with sooner rather than later

and

A single penny wasted on that man is a penny too much

aren't coming from loving despair.

[Specializta]

I recently heard a story that his sole liquid intake for a period of several weeks had been neat scotch ...

Must be true then 

Well it is a quote straight from Gascoigne's own mouth 

'My solution was drink and cocaine. I went loopy...The worst one was when I went four months without food or water – not even water – and four bottles of whisky a day. I went to about nine stone.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2059032/Paul-Gascoigne-lived-cocaine-whisky-months.html#axzz2KcGk6dhw

Although I doubt it's true, I don't think it'd be possible to live for four months on that regime.

[bobb]

Which is why it is so obviously untrue!  Back at ya!

[LEE]

Which is why it is so obviously untrue!  Back at ya!

It can't be untrue, it's from the Daily Mail's Showbiz section.

Are you accusing the Daily Mail's prestigious Showbiz section of printing trivial, exaggerated and even made-up, stories (usually about Victoria Beckham's pants) ? 

Back at ya!

[Specializta]

Well they've trumped that anyway with his habits this time round. Daily, 2 bottles of Gin, 15 cans of Stella, 30 Vallies. Shooting his coke straight in probably helps, less wasteage.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2277902/Paul-Gascoigne-drinking-litres-gin-day-injecting-cocaine.html

[LEE]

I'm not sure the Daily Mail's Sport section can be trusted as much as their Showbiz section. They aren't prepared to do the same long hours of investigative journalism.

[cuddy duck]

there comes a point when even the most compassionate of souls has to stand up and ask for someone to stand up...

Standing room only.

[Hot Flatus]

You want to keep a careful eye on this fellow, Cuddy.

Looks like he might try to usurp your position of man most likely to drown in a sea of his own metaphor

[Specializta]

You want to keep a careful eye on this fellow, Cuddy.

Looks like he might try to usurp your position of man most likely to drown in a sea of his own metaphor

See all I do is express an opinion. You might not like it in which case you can say so, make an alternative point. That's the nature of conversation. But it's this kind of incessant trolling and attempt to turn every conversation into something personal that kills it. I'm happy to indulge you if that's what you want. We can swap insults until someone swears or says something the staff don't like, then another account gets deleted, who cares. But before that happens let's at least be clear that it is you who has chosen to force the thread down that route.

[Hot Flatus]

I'm sorry, Specializta.

My post was actually a playful dig at Cuddy Duck, and you were at most just collateral damage.

[spesh]

<thread necromancy>

It looks like Gazza's fallen off the wagon again. Looking at the pictures in the papers, you'd never guess that he's 47... 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/celebritynews/11051318/Friends-fear-for-Paul-Gascoignes-health.html

[Von Broad]

<thread necromancy>

It looks like Gazza's fallen off the wagon again. Looking at the pictures in the papers, you'd never guess that he's 47... 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/celebritynews/11051318/Friends-fear-for-Paul-Gascoignes-health.html

God, his physical deterioration get's more noticeable every time I see him. I guess we all age day by day, but to see the Gazza of Italia 90, fit, young, healthy and brilliantly gifted as a footballer to see where he is now is really quite shocking actually. What a decline in the physical [and financial] health of a sportsman. Talk about alcohol doing its damage to the body. 

Reading that article, you can hear Linekers compassion, but also his frustration at seeing his mate Gazza not being able to find the help within himself to complement all the help that has been given to him over the years. I really feel for the bloke.

[LEE]

It's just tragic and painful to see.

For every Gazza there are probably thousands of others, with the same problems, in shop doorways, hostels and the cemetery.

It's just not seen as a disease by the masses but it should be clear that he's not drinking for pleasure any more.

Just to lighten the mood...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXuXu-jDN1E

It struck me that, in his prime, he moved like Lionel Messi.

[pcolbeck]

Such a wasted talent. He was one of those amazing naturally gifted players that are so very rare. I remember watching this with a load of mates in our back garden on a blazing hot day with the telly shaded by a jury rigged canopy. It was one of his last great matches. England 4 Holland 1 Euro 96.

http://youtu.be/dJfurjUOJLc