Paul Gascoigne

[tommy.irene]

Paul got £188,000..that should buy him a lot of drink..

[taraxacum*1]

What an unpleasant thing to say. Being hounded by the media with little support contributed to his problems including his alcohol problems. No sum of money could compensate for his experiences.

[tommy.irene]

---

@taraxacum*1 wrote:
What an unpleasant thing to say. Being hounded by the media with little support contributed to his problems including his alcohol problems. No sum of money could compensate for his experiences.

---

He was drinking before all this happened...Hes had plenty of chances to stop drinking and wont take them..

[tommy.irene]

After retiring from professional football, his life became dominated by his mental and emotional problems, particularly his alcoholism. His personal struggles have received regular coverage in the British press, especially since leaving professional football. He has attempted to live without alcohol on numerous occasions, though rehabilitation programmes have provided only temporary relief. His problems ended his coaching career, and he has not worked since being fired as the manager of Kettering Town in 2005. On 21st May 2015, he was awarded £188,250 in phone hacking damages from Mirror Group Newspapers.

[electric*mayhem*band]

 Correct, Tommy. I am not saying that the the phone hacking debacle didn't exacerbate his fondness for the booze, but to say that it was the cause, is arrant nonsense. Teetotal he most certainly wasn't.

I am assuming that given his past mental health issues, he has been assigned a Social/Care Worker. Might be a good idea if they took charge of his windfall, because to plonk £188,000 into his bank account, must be like manna from Heaven for him, which, if he gets his hands on it, can only result in a devastating and detrimental effect on his present fragile state of health.

[tommy.irene]

---

@electric*mayhem*band wrote:

 Correct, Tommy. I am not saying that the the phone hacking debacle didn't exacerbate his fondness for the booze, but to say that it was the cause, is arrant nonsense. Teetotal he most certainly wasn't.

I am assuming that given his past mental health issues, he has been assigned a Social/Care Worker. Might be a good idea if they took charge of his windfall, because to plonk £188,000 into his bank account, must be like manna from Heaven for him, which, if he gets his hands on it, can only result in a devastating and detrimental effect on his present fragile state of health.

---

I hope im wrong..but i can see him ending up like George Best.............. Dead..

[cee-dee]

It's sad but here's another one who's almost self destructed due to an addiction:-

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/snooker-legend-willie-thorne-going-5709450

All these folks seem to have it all but instead set course for a life of nothing and seem to expect everyone to feel sorry for them......

[jd.linklater]

It's very easy to criticise the paths that addictive people seem to take when you've never walked even a few steps in their shoes.

[tommy.irene]

---

@jd.linklater wrote:

It's very easy to criticise the paths that addictive people seem to take when you've never walked even a few steps in their shoes.

---

I havent had a drink in 30 years and i know what im talking about... The help is there if ..YOU REALY WANT IT..

[Anonymous]

Good for you.

The help out there does vary a lot though and not everyone responds the same to the treatments available.

You can say that if you really want the help it is out there, and I won't deny that, but it is not always as straight forward as that.

People are all different and so are their issues.

[cee-dee]

Why do they always wait until they're penniless before bleating about their lot?

[tommy.irene]

---

@cee-dee wrote:

Why do they always wait until they're penniless before bleating about their lot?

---

They need the money from the story to buy more drink.. There is a good story line on Emmerdale at the moment about what an ALCOHOLIC will do to get drink..steal..have sex.. lie.. and still not admit they have a problem when they hit rock bottom..Drink is their God and so is Drugs..

[Anonymous]

People with addictions often have to hit rock bottom before reality really hits them. They live in denial most of the time.  But even waking up from that doesn't mean they can be saved.

It is easy to judge people.

[Anonymous]

Alcohol and drugs are not their GOD, it's their escape.

[tommy.irene]

For the 200 watchers on this thread ..you should Google .. The Twelve Steps ..

[Anonymous]

I'm well aware of the 12 steps. I'm also aware that it needs some adjustments. One shoe doesn't fit all.

[margaret*e]

The only one that can help Paul Gascoigne is himself.

Many others have tried to help him.

[jd.linklater]

Twelve step recovery programs are not for everyone. Anyone who goes into rehab will be told that their chances of recovery from addiction  are around 5% - 7% at best, and that is with a lot of back up from so called experts. Congratulations if it worked for you, but it's certainly not a sure fire fix for everybody who tries.

[jd.linklater]

Paul Gascoigne is not capable of helping himself, his self will is out of control. Asking an alcoholic to cut down or stop drinking is like asking a dog not to bolt its food, a complete non starter.

[right-then-petal]

The Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous

The relative success of the AA program seems to be due to the fact that an alcoholic who no longer drinks has an exceptional faculty for "reaching" and helping an uncontrolled drinker.

In simplest form, the AA program operates when a recovered alcoholic passes along the story of his or her own problem drinking, describes the sobriety he or she has found in AA, and invites the newcomer to join the informal Fellowship.

The heart of the suggested program of personal recovery is contained in Twelve Steps describing the experience of the earliest members of the Society:

1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol - that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

Newcomers are not asked to accept or follow these Twelve Steps in their entirety if they feel unwilling or unable to do so.

They will usually be asked to keep an open mind, to attend meetings at which recovered alcoholics describe their personal experiences in achieving sobriety, and to read AA literature describing and interpreting the AA program.

AA members will usually emphasize to newcomers that only problem drinkers themselves, individually, can determine whether or not they are in fact alcoholics.

At the same time, it will be pointed out that all available medical testimony indicates that alcoholism is a progressive illness, that it cannot be cured in the ordinary sense of the term, but that it can be arrested through total abstinence from alcohol in any form.