Run Benny run!!

[Gaz]

The Footscray supporter who bagged Stynes' foundation a few years ago. Great adviser.

Yeah. No one took drugs before Cousins Les :

 

[KnightersRevenge]

Misery has so many layers, forms, guises and permutations ... who knows what miseries lie at the root of Cousins' behaviour, but it is apparent he isn't a well or happy or adjusted individual.
All I know is that I haven't always made the right or correct or best decisions in life ...
Drug abuse is usually the culmination and reaction to the deep misery that an individual carries in their spirit, for whatever reason ... it is depraving and debilitating.
With all due respect, "just saying no" does not go anywhere near the reality that presents to some.
The dark depths of despair, borne of whatever experience, are so difficult to confront, let alone manage, for most, least the heroes and superstars of our society.

This is pretty much my thinking on it. The use of mind bending or numbing substances certainly suggests that the person needs to bend or numb some part of their mind. It is impossible for us to know what that is. It is easy to be flippant about Cousins and I'm not suggesting we forgive his transgressions, laws are necessary in a civil society and they need to apply equally and blindly to all. But the discussion needs to focus as much on the drive to take substances as it does their availability.

 

[LeeToRainesToRoach]

Misery has so many layers, forms, guises and permutations ... who knows what miseries lie at the root of Cousins' behaviour, but it is apparent he isn't a well or happy or adjusted individual.
All I know is that I haven't always made the right or correct or best decisions in life ...
Drug abuse is usually the culmination and reaction to the deep misery that an individual carries in their spirit, for whatever reason ... it is depraving and debilitating.
With all due respect, "just saying no" does not go anywhere near the reality that presents to some.
The dark depths of despair, borne of whatever experience, are so difficult to confront, let alone manage, for most, least the heroes and superstars of our society.

Sorry, I just don't have much compassion when it comes to this. If he suffers abject misery without drugs, then so be it. Got to pay the piper sometime.

 

[Chiang Mai Tiger]

Come on all of us Tiger fans, how about we try not make a moral stance on Benny's situation here.

Drug addiction is an illness and Benny is sick like hundreds of thousands of other poor souls.

I sincerely hope he gets help to overcome this.

 

[smasha]

Misery has so many layers, forms, guises and permutations ... who knows what miseries lie at the root of Cousins' behaviour, but it is apparent he isn't a well or happy or adjusted individual.
All I know is that I haven't always made the right or correct or best decisions in life ...
Drug abuse is usually the culmination and reaction to the deep misery that an individual carries in their spirit, for whatever reason ... it is depraving and debilitating.
With all due respect, "just saying no" does not go anywhere near the reality that presents to some.
The dark depths of despair, borne of whatever experience, are so difficult to confront, let alone manage, for most, least the heroes and superstars of our society.

Depression is something you ccant see on the outside.Ive seen humans with amputed limbs who get through life because they have a strong mind.You see a bloke like Cousins who looks perfect on the outside but the thing is we cant see his damaged mind so we question him.

 

[Bennnny]

Nobody ever said no to Benny. He is a superman. He can do whatever he wants.
This is the problem with being a star. Nobody ever says no to you. And football clubs are full of people that pump up players.
Ben has probably never faced being told no. His father was a star and Benny was put into the culture at an early age.
West Coast knew what was going on. They let it happen. I have heard talk that West Coast was divided into the druggies and the Christians.
The management needed to stomp on it hard, but they didn't and it has blighted West Coast for a long time.
Benny feels that he is invincible. He loves the feeling that ice gives him. He becomes a superman, just like everybody wants him to be.
In my opinion the hero worship started with his family. As he became an adult he could not be disciplined by his family. And the club was rapt that he was so good, but a little concerned. But the fans loved him.
But in the end he is a little boy lost, with issues that need to be dealt with. He needs to gain an understanding of why he needs to feel the way he does with drugs.

 

[Bunnerz]

I hope he isnt allowed to be left alone with his kids?
whats the situation here?

 

[LeeToRainesToRoach]

Come on all of us Tiger fans, how about we try not make a moral stance on Benny's situation here.

Drug addiction is an illness and Benny is sick like hundreds of thousands of other poor souls.

I sincerely hope he gets help to overcome this.

I hear you and don't want to sound like I'm putting the knife in, but I'm not going to become invested either. Compassion is for his family to give, if they have any left.

 

[Rfc4Ever]

Come on all of us Tiger fans, how about we try not make a moral stance on Benny's situation here.

Drug addiction is an illness and Benny is sick like hundreds of thousands of other poor souls.

I sincerely hope he gets help to overcome this.

Because he is a moron and the longer this goes on the more likely he will hit the point of no return.

 

[Bullarto Tiger]

Compassion is a human value we could all strive for.

 

[Chimptastic]

This is pretty much my thinking on it. The use of mind bending or numbing substances certainly suggests that the person needs to bend or numb some part of their mind. It is impossible for us to know what that is. It is easy to be flippant about Cousins and I'm not suggesting we forgive his transgressions, laws are necessary in a civil society and they need to apply equally and blindly to all. But the discussion needs to focus as much on the drive to take substances as it does their availability.

Sometimes, but definitely not all the time.

Perfectly healthy individuals can become just as addicted to drugs. I suspect Ben Cousins was driven to drugs out of excitement and experimentation rather than in search of a mental bandaid. Afterwards, the brain's set point shifts as a result. Then they experience artificially hot-wired mental health-like symptoms in withdrawal.

Just to give an example of how addictive these drugs are, you can put a rat in a cage and feed it cocaine + food. If you hook it up so it receives an instant self-administered injection of cocaine at the touch of a lever, they'll literally starve themselves to death while pressing the lever for cocaine, even when food is on the other side of the cage. They can't stop for 5 minutes to eat and live.

Cousins had a self-administered lever environment too, especially on those 2-month binges in the post-season. His brain is stuffed, forever.

Sounds like he's created delusions to enable himself to continue. This is the most difficult type of drug addiction to correct. It requires an extensive breakdown of his beliefs about the world. It requires a professional to spend hundreds of hours making him realise (not told) that his own thoughts are *smile*. It'll never happen IMO and he doesn't deserve the level of sympathy that I would offer to someone driven to drugs due to significant preexisting mental health issues.

 

[TJsFurrow]

This is pretty much my thinking on it. The use of mind bending or numbing substances certainly suggests that the person needs to bend or numb some part of their mind. It is impossible for us to know what that is. It is easy to be flippant about Cousins and I'm not suggesting we forgive his transgressions, laws are necessary in a civil society and they need to apply equally and blindly to all. But the discussion needs to focus as much on the drive to take substances as it does their availability.

Self-medicating. There's a fair bit of evidence to suggest it underpins most substance abuse. If not all.

 

[smasha]

Sometimes, but definitely not all the time.

Perfectly healthy individuals can become just as addicted to drugs. I suspect Ben Cousins was driven to drugs out of excitement and experimentation rather than in search of a mental bandaid. Afterwards, the brain's set point shifts as a result. Then they experience artificially hot-wired mental health-like symptoms in withdrawal.

Just to give an example of how addictive these drugs are, you can put a rat in a cage and feed it cocaine + food. If you hook it up so it receives an instant self-administered injection of cocaine at the touch of a lever, they'll literally starve themselves to death while pressing the lever for cocaine, even when food is on the other side of the cage. They can't stop for 5 minutes to eat and live.

Cousins had a self-administered lever environment too, especially on those 2-month binges in the post-season. His brain is stuffed, forever.

Sounds like he's created delusions to enable himself to continue. This is the most difficult type of drug addiction to correct. It requires an extensive breakdown of his beliefs about the world. It requires a professional to spend hundreds of hours making him realise (not told) that his own thoughts are *smile*. It'll never happen IMO and he doesn't deserve the level of sympathy that I would offer to someone driven to drugs due to significant preexisting mental health issues.

That's we have a bottlo and cafe on every street corner.
Caffeine and alcohol sell because they are addictive and guaranteed sales that's why they are popping up everywhere.Got rid of my caffeine addiction(10 cups a day)alcohol is going to be harder. :hihi

 

[Chimptastic]

Self-medicating. There's a fair bit of evidence to suggest it underpins most substance abuse. If not all.

While it is indeed common, self-medication certainly doesn't underpin all substance abuse. There is no evidence to backup the scope of that claim.

I understand people want to remain compassionate to Cousins in the face of his lack of willingness to receive help, but I'm not sure he deserves to be categorised as a victim who self-medicated. There are people who truly do suffer from addiction and can regrettably say they used drugs as a crutch through very tough times. We can speculate about a teenage Ben Cousins turning to drugs as a crutch but from what it publicly known, it's more likely he was sucked into the scene due to popularity, excitement, experimentations, and looking for a good time. Benny was a good-looking party boy with confidence, competence, and leadership material with women and friends everywhere he went. It went downhill after he binged, it didn't go downhill before he binged with the drugs used as a crutch. The direction of causation is pretty clear in Benny's case IMO. I won't rule out anything when it comes to Cousins though.

 

[LeeToRainesToRoach]

Compassion is a human value we could all strive for.

Think it's a trait we're all born with and give naturally; no other species can picture itself in another's place. Exercising this with Cousins causes me to switch off rather quickly.

 

[Chimptastic]

That's we have a bottlo and cafe on every street corner.
Caffeine and alcohol sell because they are addictive and guaranteed sales that's why they are popping up everywhere.Got rid of my caffeine addiction(10 cups a day)alcohol is going to be harder. :hihi

Hahaha, very true! (I say this while sipping on my second coffee for the day...)

Last week I heard an argument that the dangers of alcohol surpass the dangers of illicit drugs, and the evidence put forward was difficult to challenge! But that's another topic altogether.

 

[Tigers of Old]

While it is indeed common, self-medication certainly doesn't underpin all substance abuse. There is no evidence to backup the scope of that claim.

I understand people want to remain compassionate to Cousins in the face of his lack of willingness to receive help, but I'm not sure he deserves to be categorised as a victim who self-medicated. There are people who truly do suffer from addiction and can regrettably say they used drugs as a crutch through very tough times. We can speculate about a teenage Ben Cousins turning to drugs as a crutch but from what it publicly known, it's more likely he was sucked into the scene due to popularity, excitement, experimentations, and looking for a good time. Benny was a good-looking party boy with confidence, competence, and leadership material with women and friends everywhere he went. It went downhill after he binged, it didn't go downhill before he binged with the drugs used as a crutch. The direction of causation is pretty clear in Benny's case IMO. I won't rule out anything when it comes to Cousins though.

Excellent post.

 

[smasha]

Hahaha, very true! (I say this while sipping on my second coffee for the day...)

Last week I heard an argument that the dangers of alcohol surpass the dangers of illicit drugs, and the evidence put forward was difficult to challenge! But that's another topic altogether.

Gambling another one.
AFL promotes non gambling then fills the Locker Room(Etihad) with betting machines and tvs. :
Scratch that.They want everyone to bet on footy.

 

[TigerForce]

Who would've thought this. No-one reported it? Is it possible not even Lethal or Allan McAllister knew?

Jon Ralph ‏
@RalphyHeraldSun

Gavin Crosisca used to snort speed in the changerooms and nearly lost everything. How he turned his life around .
http://m.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/from-rock-bottom-to-helping-hand-gavin-crosisca-knows-both-sides-of-drug-addiction/story-fnp04d70-1227275292893

 

[jb03]

Who would've thought this. No-one reported it? Is it possible not even Lethal or Allan McAllister knew?

Jon Ralph ‏
@RalphyHeraldSun

Gavin Crosisca used to snort speed in the changerooms and nearly lost everything. How he turned his life around .
http://m.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/from-rock-bottom-to-helping-hand-gavin-crosisca-knows-both-sides-of-drug-addiction/story-fnp04d70-1227275292893

Collingwood should have the 1990 flag stripped. Along with Carlton 1995 and West Coast 2006. And a few others in between.