Thaindian News

London, Feb.24 (ANI): A troubled former England football star Paul Gascoigne a.k.a. Gazza has revealed how he careered towards insanity during a year of drink and drugs hell. Gazza opened his heart to give a painfully honest account of the worst 12 months of his life.
He confessed to snorting cocaine and revealed how cops dragged him from his hotel bath amid family fears that he would kill himself. He also revealed how he downed hundreds of bottles of wine and gin over a six-week spell during which he didnt get a wink of sleep, and admitted he became so disturbed he thought his toy parrots were real and his only friends.
Gazza, 41, is now battling back to full health after a four-week spell in the rehab clinic inspired by ex-Arsenal ace Tony Adams. Looking tanned and fit, he told The Sun: I was staring into the abyss, but now the future looks great for me. I cant say I will never drink again all I can say is that I didnt drink today and I hope I dont drink tomorrow.
Comparisons are often odious, but when it comes to making it between two great England football players who fell on bad days at the prime of their careers, it is acceptable.
If it is Gazza on the one hand; it George Best on the other.
Gazza is now on the mend, calm, clear-eyed and confident, and prefers a glass of water to liquor.
In contrast, George Best, looks troubled at the same health farm that Gazza is now at in 2004. Best, who had a glass of wine next to him, died 18 months later aged 59.
The extreme sleep deprivation that Gazza claims to have endured would have made it far harder for him to deal with all his other problems.
Studies have shown your brain suffers a great deal from lack of sleep.
In terms of driving or operating machinery, being sleep-deprived can be as bad as being drunk, reports The Sun.
Gazzas nightmare 12 months, which saw him sectioned three times under the Mental Health Act, was triggered by a hip replacement operation in December 2007.
The star, who had battled the bottle for years, kept off the booze in the run-up to the operation. But hobbling round his flat in Jesmond, Newcastle with only a few visitors he was soon drinking heavily again. (ANI)