Safety Catch Off

Mr Jakes and friend in rehab

I am not a fan of Paul Gascoigne but I have been where he is in regards to drinking so he has my best wishes. However I fear this is a story that is doomed to end in tears. Footballers and celebrity friends can throw all the money they want towards rehab costs but money means NOTHING to addiction. It is worthless. It is like trying to treat cancer with wine gums and doc leaves. Believe me, and I really do not wish to dwell on negativity here, I have looked into the eyes of an alcoholic who has given up the ghost and Gascoigne has the exact same look about him. And famous friends won't help. Or their money.
In fact where on earth were these friends to allow him to get so bad? Lonliness plays a huge part in alcoholism (especially when one finally gets clean), so where was the concern over Paul then? It seems to me that unless the ex footballer is in dire needs and on death's door, his so called friends let him get on with it. They are nowhere to be seen. Of course when his flame burned brightest (Italia 1990? Im not a football fan) they flocked to his 'glow' but come the arrival of the doldrums they disappear like Dodos. This has been the saddest thing to witness for me, the empty smiles in newspapers, knowing he's probably weeping inside.
A friend of Gascoigne has said, "it could be a long road to recovery." Quite. It is the longest road of all. (Or shortest depending on how quick one is picking up a bottle again.) Money is not going to help here. It might soothe a few consciences of those who feel the pangs of guilt, but throwing money at an alcoholic who looks hellbent on drinking no matter what is pure folly. I really hope he can get sober but excuse me having mega doubts that he will. You have to want to do it but worryingly Paul looks like he doesn't. In fact he reminds me so much of the late George Best, who was another filled with promises of never drinking again, blah blah, blah and yet only stopped when it killed him.
In all of my long time as a drinker (and having had another alcoholic in the family), ive heard and seen it all, and it hurts me to say it but I know the look of the beaten. The look of a person completely surrendering to alcohol. The look of Paul Gascoigne.

Betray the Wind

My name is Despair

Paul Gascoigne is a doomed man. I fear he has reached the point of no return, I really do. A paper recently ran a story claiming that the ex footballer is "hooked on a mix of valium and strong lager," and pictured him buying booze at 11am. It also said that 'Gazza' has told his friends: "The one thing I can't live without in my life is a drink. I know I have to stop boozing but I simply can’t."
If this is true (lets face it tabloids are hardly gospel) then all the help being offered to him is hopeless. This is one battle that nobody can fight for him and unless he hits a 'moment of clarity' soon, real soon, he will be dead before 50. Killed by the bottle like that other gifted footballer, George Best. He was another man who believed alcoholism was a fight he could leave to others to sort out. Then he died, and Gascoigne will too unless he has a drastic turnaround. Believe me, alcohol is no fun to those unfortunates to whom it sinks its lethal claws. In moderation it can be beneficial to health, while in excess it becomes as destructive as any class A drug (more so perhaps because it seems to affect more organs but i'll leave that to experts.)
It is always terribly sad to see any person in such a state but the truth is like I have already said, nobody can save himelf can actually save him from himself. I know only too well the agony and despair of alcoholism, and I also know the loss of losing a loved one through it. It is vile, capable of hanging, drawing and quartering the very spirit of a human being. And to those who call Gascoigne a worthless drunk with no self control, think again. He is in a place right now where I would not wish my worst enemy to be. A dreadful place with bleak never ending walls wherever one turns, that choke light and swallow hope. I know because I have been there many times. Nobody would willingly put themselves in this hole; no fun is to be found there for as sure as alcohol can give a 'normal' person a glow of happiness and well being, to someone in the pits of addiction it offers only cold stings and sickly barbs that pull at flesh and make it hard to carry on.
Football hero he might be, I have no love for the sport so im not aware of Gascoigne's 'genius', but I do care for my fellow man when I see him suffering and I wish him all the strength and courage in the world because he needs it right now. He really does.