Football skill aside he's pretty much wasted the last 20 years. Also remember his binges with Evans, Baker, etc. Almost like he drank as much as he possibly could even before alcoholism kicked in. That was his choice.

Could have been a pundit, could have been a football coach, could have been a sports writer for the nation, could have been a ticket collector at Fulham Broadway Station.

He looks like he's a chronic alky now not your still functioning one.

Think all he can do is try to manage the shakes the best he can with help and wait to die.

Big chest and massive boobs

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I don't think alcoholism just kicks in. Most of the alcoholics I know, and I know a lot as my father has been in AA for over 40 years, drank a lot before anyone diagnosed them as alcoholics. The problem exists possibly even before they take their first drink.

That said, I have little sympathy now for Gazza, its really down to him now. No one can do it for you, it has to be something you have to do for yourself - Pleasing others is just an excuse addicts use to 'get clean for a bit' before going back.

The sad thing, is that not everyone can be saved, and society may be better of at the present, focusing on someone else who could use the help now, to kick the habit, who is ready to do it, rather than the celebrity f**k up, who's isn't.

One of the biggest problem in getting people clean is the delay between them wanting to get clean, and the availability of rehab facilities. Same with the homeless etc, there is a very limited window where the will to change dissolves into learned helplessness.

"One Nation Under God, has turned into One Nation Under the Influence of One Drug"
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What a waste!

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I think it is a problem but Gazza has always had an tendency towards addiction. It was just that while playing football he had a potentially productive avenue into which he could channel that tendency.

Without that, he has spiralled.

Don't think it helped that the self destructive behaviour was laughed off in the early/mid nineties as just 'Gazza being Gazza', not the start of something serious that it obviously was.

"It's almost like a moral decision. Except not really cos noone is going to find out," Jez, Peep Show

I think its probably a bit of genetics, a bit of social environment and a bit of psychology combined. I've had problems with addiction, but found that treatment for clinical depression mitigated that a lot.

People become addicts because of something within themselves, which alcohol appeals, such as depression, or trauma, or abuse or self hate etc and that oblivion of drinking away that feeling, is the key to resolving peoples addiction. Its not the booze, although anyone can become addicted, its the psychological dependency.

You see this with people who are on morphine for pain, only some of them have long term problems, with opiates, other than physical addiction.

The pleasure factor, I think, cannot be overstated - That anything that treats our psychological issues, is by default very attractive to us.

For me, addiction to stimulants, was massively resolved through treating and medications for depression. I'd been using opiates as well, but that wasn't a problem, and booze never really has been either, and since even stimulants have no real appeal.

"One Nation Under God, has turned into One Nation Under the Influence of One Drug"
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