Drug Addiction Stories & Info

Former AFL player, Ben Cousins was born in Geelong, Victoria in 1978, is now aged 33. He was by any standard an outstanding football player, playing between 1996 and 2010, with 270 games to his credit.

Cousins played for West Coast 238 games, with 205 goals and then later for Richmond in the Australian Football League, with medals, awards, honors and sponsorships to match. Cousins’ father was, in his day, a star player for Geelong football team.

Cousins is currently hospitalized in a psychiatric ward, apparently suffering from paranoia, and drug induced psychosis as a result of “chasing the dragon” with meth drugs – using for several days in a row. Many drug users see meth drug addiction as the beginning of the end of the road. Meth drug is a stimulant, highly toxic to the body, and extremely addicting.

Photos of Cousins have appeared in the press, showing unmistakable signs of the physical deterioration that rapidly sets in with regular meth drug abuse.

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 This current situation is all the more disappointing because it was only late last year that Cousins became a father for the first time, claiming that this fresh, innocent young child meant all the world to him. Love for his partner, love for his child were not powerful enough to prevent Ben Cousins’ continued poly drug use and addiction.

Whatever drove Ben to use drugs in the beginning has led to public shame and humiliation. Cousins has his fans, he also has outspoken detractors. Many feel that as a top AFL player, Cousins’ had an obligation, a responsibility to be a good role model for the younger generation,

Cousins has run off from police, leaving his then girlfriend in his car, been found passed out in the street, had many issues with attempted drug rehab and missed sessions of football training. Cousins’ drug using behavior has caused him to be accused of having criminal connections.

In many ways it is easy to blame the addicted person – for immaturity, lack of backbone, lack of moral values – for appearing not to care about anything else but drug use.

To see the drug user, in a negative way is perhaps to misunderstand the nature and causes of drug addiction – which at the end of the day is a form of compulsive behavior over which an individual lacks control.

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The story of Ben Cousins is of a life that went out of control – due to abuse of drugs, and a failure of many attempts that he made to complete drug detox and rehabilitation.

 Footy identity and former Collingwood coach Mick Malthouse says now that he was warned three years ago that Cousins would eventually relapse when considering taking him into the Collingwood team  in the 2008 pre-season – a year after Cousins was sacked by the West Coast team for problems associated with his drug taking.

It was said of Cousins that all it would need would be some form of setback to trigger off his drug dependency again. Richmond club took him in on the basis that Cousins would make a genuine attempt to overcome his drug addiction.

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The Malthouse article is revealing in that it hints about another side of the football industry, one that causes immense pressure to top players, in terms of their commitment to the game, and to sponsorship deals. There is big money involved in AFL – it can both make and break the players.

Ultimately it is for the managers to offer mentoring and protection to players who mostly come into the game as talented kids – unprepared for the politics and pressures of what has undeniably become big business. Many blame the aggression and escapist behavior that has crept into football today on high financial stakes, and constant pressure to perform.

 Cousins has been reported as recently saying that if it hadn’t been for the football – he would have gone into drug rehab fifteen years ago. Ultimately it is for the individual to sort their priorities out – no easy thing for anyone to do who is caught up in the lifestyle, the public profile of a high pressure, yet highly rewarding career. So much easier to take the pressure – and use drugs to compensate.

For Cousins it has been a very public battle against addiction since 2007 when he was sacked by West Coast for issues relating to drug use. Five years later and it would seem that drugs have got the upper hand despite every best intention.

Mainstream drug rehabilitation does not appear to have worked for Ben Cousins, nor for many other addicts. The assumption behind traditional rehab is that addiction can never be overcome, that recovery is never complete.

As a result many people never try alternative methods for addiction recovery that offer success, believing it to be impossible, particularly for drugs such as meth.

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Meanwhile levels of drug dependency and addiction are increasing worldwide, and those addicted are dying.

There comes a time when those who say that something is impossible, need to stand aside, and get out of the way of those who are out there doing it.

It is not only sports stars and famous people who suffer from drug use and pressure, however reading about their stories can help to reassure us that we are not alone when trying to deal with our problems and getting caught up in drug use.

Taking time out for genuine alcohol and drug detox and rehabilitation at a comprehensive addiction recovery center can get you off drugs completely.

Don’t dream about drug addiction recovery – use a comprehensive program now and recover completely from your drug use and addiction.

Instead of being famous, going down in history as a world champion gold medalist, in the 100 meter sprint, Ben Johnson due to steroid abuse was instead, found to test positive for steroids at the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games. He was sent home from the games, and later stripped of all his previous world records and medals.

Banned from competition for two years, Johnson attempted to make a come back in 1991, but had lost form – failing to be placed in the finals at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. He was found, in 1993, to be using steroids again at a sporting event in Montreal, Canada, and was subsequently banned for life.

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Born in 1961, Johnson emigrated in Canada, from Jamaica, and lived in Toronto. His sprinting career peaked in the 1980′s. As a result of his successes – with him winning numerous medals for the 100 meter sprint, and relay racing – Johnson was said to be the fastest man in the world – and invested as a  member of the Order of Canada in 1987, the same year that he was named Associated Press – Athlete of the Year, earning a small fortune as a result of product promotions and endorsements.

By late 1988, he would be stripped of all honors due to testing positive for stanozolol, an anabolic steroid.

 Johnson found some further fame in coaching the son of Muammar Gaddafi, and acted as trainer for Diego Maradona in 1997. Johnson wrote an autobiography Seoul to Soul in 2010.

He now lives with family in Ontario, and continues to work as a coach.

 Doping continues to haunt the sport of athletics, and many take the risk, hoping not to get caught. Part of the problem with doping is that it taints all sportsmen – particularly winners, with the assumption that they must, at some point be taking performance enhancing drugs, in order to be winners. In fact, many if not most of the track and field competitors in Seoul in 1988 are acknowledged to be winners without dope.

An article, written in 1988, that appears in Sports Illustrated makes it clear, that although many in sport use drugs to “enhance performance”, not all successful sportsmen do drugs, and of those that choose to take drugs such as steroids – their motivation is generally to overcome feelings of doubt, anxiety about failure.

In the article appears strong evidence that most people in sport want to keep it clean, want to win by fair means, even perhaps Ben Johnson himself, given the freedom of choice.

A source quoted in the article says that Ben’s trainers said that “he was a skinny little guy, until they beefed him up on steroids – a sponsor said to have offered a million dollars to get Johnson “fit” by Seoul.

Just before the events, in Seoul, an American trainer is reported to have been shocked by the yellow appearance of Ben’s eyes – a sign of liver dysfunction. The suggestion is that Ben was promoted, as a commodity, in priority to concerns about his health.

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 Frequently, in looking at the lives of top performers, outstanding entertainers, there is a sense that they are acting under enormous pressures – drug use seems to be both a way of trying to extract a maximum performance, and a way of coping.

Young people thinking about using drugs in sport need to understand the risks, not only of putting in so much training, and time, only to get busted, but of causing harm, such as fatal heart conditions, and liver failure, caused by drug toxicity.

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Many cases have occured of young people becoming ill, sometimes dying because of their preoccupation, and addiction to performance enhancing drugs.

Young people need to make a commitment to saying no to steroid drugs, whether for increased sports performance, or just to enhance appearance.

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British rugby hooker, Terry Newton died in September 2010, after taking steroids – amphetamines, and cocaine. Although sudden death among athletes on steroids is well documents, there is also evidence to show that many steroid users go on to use addictive, illicit drugs as well as, or to withdraw from steroid use – often with unintentionally harmful results – injury and death.

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Depression, lack of confidence are associated with steroid use, and with illicit drug taking. People who are or who think that they might be at risk of steroid dependence or addiction need help.

Effective help for recovery is provided by comprehensive steroid and substance abuse programs.

 Start to detox your life, gain true freedom from steroid abuse, depression and insecurity by using a comprehensive residential detox and rehab program to get back to feelings of happiness.

 When it comes to celebrity, fame and fortune, there are many types of pressure both from other people, and our own desire to meet our own expectations, put on a good performance. People with the skill can always perform well, without any need of drugs.

Performance based on drugs has little satisfaction - whether you are a star, or an ordinary person. Ordinary people can do great things – in a spirit of perseverence and courage – and a determination to do their best – without the aid of drugs.

It would seem that for Dylan Thomas being a poet, using words was his way of communicating with other people in the world, a means of evoking feelings in them, a way to make himself heard.

 Not for Dylan the usual rough and tumble, interaction of childhood – with a mother who was protective of him, treating him as an invalid – and a father who seemed emotionally remote – a school teacher at the local Grammar School who thought himself worthy and deserving of a better academic position.

His father taught him poetry at the age of two, and Dylan could recite Shakespeare by the age of four.

As Dylan wrote later, to a friend:   “I had come to love just the words….what mattered was the very sound of them, as I heard them for the first time on the lips of the remote and quite incomprehensible grown ups who seemed, for some reason, to be living in my world.

By the age of eight or nine he began to write his own poetry – entering the Grammar School in 1925 as a quiet and introspective lad, he wrote many articles for the school magazine.

At 16 he went to work for the South Wales Daily Post. Writing what were often scathing reviews of local plays and concerts, Dylan also spent time in the pub at night – reciting offbeat jokes, stories and obscene limericks. Dylan never wanted people to read his poems – he wanted them to hear him read them.

What Dylan’s father had given him was the gift of poetry – and it was the poetry of words, in their purest form, that Dylan had grown to love.

In 1934, Dylan moved to London and there published his first book 18 poems, it got rave reviews and in 1936, he published a second book 25 poems.

Dylan married a “mother figure”, Caitlin in 1937 and they were like “twin souls”, moving to Laugharne in Wales where, until war broke out, Dylan’s writing flourished. They were poor, but happy.

 Aside from his poetry,which was always acclaimed, Dylan had a difficult time in the real world. He attracted the patronage of a Mrs Margaret Taylor, her continued support led to the family eventually living in a boathouse in Laugharne that she purchased for them.

Having avoided conscription in the war to some extent Dylan was regarded as a draft dodger by many, a deranged ex commando once shooting up a cottage in which he was entertaining friends. His marriage was fraught with rows about possible mutual infidelity, and Dylan himself was given to drinking.

Despite the passion and fire of his poetry, Dylan became a heavy drinker. The marriage lasted, despite the drinking, and relative poverty.

 With a third child born in 1949, an offer for Dylan to visit the USA, and be paid well was one not to be missed. In February 1950, he was off to America. His irreverent, capricious drunken behavior was a trial to his sponsors – he ended up one night driving a carful of revellers into the tennis nets at a private house party.

Despite this, there was money to be made, if not all by Dylan, and he went on a further tour in 1952, and another in early1953, followed by a series of television appearances..

 By then Dylan’s father and sister had died, and his marriage was as rocky as ever.  Dylan continued to drink heavily.

In late 1953, Dylan was returned to America, to begin a fourth tour. Dylan was taken ill after complaining for weeks of exhaustion and depletion from his alcoholism and respiratory problems.

Given at first cortisone and then a high dose of morphine, by a doctor that Dylan’s agent had arranged to be responsible for Dylan’s care – Dylan died later in hospital, in the USA in the November of 1953.

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 In a book entitled Fatal Neglect, author David Thomas comes out to say that it was greed and neglect on the part of Dylan’s American agent that led directly to Dylan’s early death. Thomas describes the American tours as “a tragic tale of how a sick poet was exploited for financial gain, and academic prestige.

 The book says that:

At the time of the fourth tour, he already had a history of blackouts, and chest problems, was using an inhaler to help with his breathing.

The book goes on to say that between Dylan’s agent  Brinnin and his assistant Liz Reitell, Dylan was literally worked to death in the lead up to the intended production of Under Milkwood, in New York, with Brinnan keeping away, busy with other interests.

Dylan had collapsed after two  Under Milkwood performances, a work that was put on stage before Dylan had actually finished writing it, and Dylan also walked out of a dinner held in honor of his birthday because he was feeling unwell.

 While an inquest put the death down to swelling of the brain due to pneumonia, and it was widely reported that Dylan had drunk himself to death – the truth lies somewhere between.

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Brinnin, two years after Dylans death received the Gold Medal for Distinguished Service to Poetry and on the 25th anniversary was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters, enjoying in the end a comfortable retirement in Florida.

Dylan was that flawed genius, a brilliant poet from Wales, an alcoholic who died in New York, after drinking 18 glasses of whisky, at the age of thirty nine.