Gazza - new pics - Not good.

[dk-yid]

Gazza looking healthier than I've seen him in years in a couple of pics from Cup Final day:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbi...scoigne-looks-healthy-happy-FA-Cup-final.html

Great to see

 

[Rocksuperstar]

Great to see.

I still hate the Daily Mail.

Man i typed the most hateful post about them ****s and deleted it all, it's not the right thread for that.

It's good to see, i'll leave it there.

 

[soup]

There's always an option. He just needs someone to point it out.

Cut down on the drink and the world is his oyster.A very tough ask but I'm not giving up on him.

I'll follow up my winner rating by throwing in another 'winner' and a chicken dinner.

 

[King of Otters]

But sad/strange he could be there and not thelanethefinale..!

Read somewhere that he didn't feel comfortable being around a party atmosphere. Makes sense as he appears to be on the wagon.

 

[Cavehillspur]

Looking sharp haha great to see, he suits the specs lol

 

[Flashspur]

I'm (first gen) middle class. My dad is a recovering alcoholic. The people I come across who are most understanding about alcoholism are educated middle class people. The people who are the most judgemental and least understanding re mental health are the working classes or older people/dinosaurs in general. I doubt Paul Gascoigne's friends and family in Newcastle would have been terrible receptive to the idea of drinking being a disease. I have no particular affiliation, and not that it matters but it's best not to generalise or analyse in terms of these things because the results are rarely palatable to those that do.

The line between mental health and personality trait is extremely blurred. I think there's a genetic marker that predisposes toward specific addictive behaviour. There are different types of alcoholics as there are people.. there are mental health components, life components but then there are also stupid, selfish traits that exacerbate alcoholics as well. I have met a great many recovering alcoholics, for instance, and almost to a man they will lecture you on life lessons that only they need, and you can see that although they stopped drinking, the real problem remains unchecked - they have that kind of need for a guru, that brings about the same behaviour in them. Cults and pseudo-spiritual groups are full of them.

Anyway, I'm not taking a side; rather, the opposite - I just think it's just as reductionist to lump everything into being a disease as it is scapegoating and blaming people with mental health issues resulting in alcoholism, and actually serves to exempt people from taking responsibility for their actions - such as beating wives, abusing and neglecting children.

Interesting comments, in my experience alcoholism is self medication of a deeper more profound issue. The majority of alcoholics I know suffer from mental health issues, particularly anxiety and depression. Getting people off the booze is hard because it has its own addictive qualities, but keeping them off it is difficult especially when the anxiety, depression or manic depression is left untreated. I suspect Paul has tried manfully to get off the booze but the mental demons have never been fully resolved. I believe that with the right help he will get better but its a massive struggle and you have to have a will to want that change to occur. I hope he sticks it out.