Stoke's Matthew Etherington under pressure to settle huge gambling debts

[Guest]

So you're saying if you're a gambling addict, you're not actually wasting your money ???

No smart arse, it's a cause and effect relationship.

[Guest]

It's exactly the same as saying people who are subject to depressions are nut cases, mad and the likes when in fact it's an illness.

[saj]

You seriously believe alcoholics, drug addicts and gambling addicts are simply 'weak'? Addiction is an illness, it is a medical fact, and some mouthy, clueless idiot on an internet forum who thinks otherwise is never, ever gonna change that fact.

If gambling was a true illness and it was a medical fact, then the following would not be true:

Most treatment for problem gambling involves counselling, step-based programs, self-help, peer-support, medication, or a combination of these. However, no one treatment is considered to be most efficacious and no medications have been approved for the treatment of pathological gambling by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Any studies that apparently prove that gambling is an addiction are highly subjective and this is proved by the fact that there is no drug that can control it. Any drugs that do work are apparently work are more than likely having a placebo effect on the individual.

[Dalglish]

some mouthy, clueless idiot on an internet forum .

Reads music forum......

......decides to leave it

[Shaggy]

If gambling was a true illness and it was a medical fact, then the following would not be true:



Any studies that apparently prove that gambling is an addiction are highly subjective and this is proved by the fact that there is no drug that can control it. Any drugs that do work are apparently work are more than likely having a placebo effect on the individual.

So now you're shifting the goalposts to just gambling alone and not drugs and alcohol?

[saj]

It's exactly the same as saying people who are subject to depressions are nut cases, mad and the likes when in fact it's an illness.

Nut case is a rude way of saying a person has a mental illness though so I don't understand your point

[Shaggy]

Reads music forum......

......decides to leave it



Puts on Erasure's greatest hits, minces around for a bit

[Dalglish]

You love them and you know you do

[Neil Young]

I'm not saying he's a hopeless gambling addict, a druggie and a slave to real ale (can't get enough of that hoppy taste!) but it's like Shaggy has a personal interest in all this.

I rather agree with him though. I think the point about addiction is not how you define it but how you approach preventing and treating it and it seems to me that approaching it like it's an illness is the most helpful way forward.

[Dalglish]

I rather agree with him though. I think the point about addiction is not how you define it but how you approach preventing and treating it and it seems to me that approaching it like it's an illness is the most helpful way forward.

[saj]

So now you're shifting the goalposts to just gambling alone and not drugs and alcohol?

How do they help to cure people of Heroin addiction? Well they don't give them a miracle pill, they treat give them a prescriptive drug which has simlar effects. This drug (it begins with M, methodone) is in itself highly addictive.

How do people some people stop smoking? Again there is no miracle pill. Some use willpower alone (which is further proof it can be classed as an illness). Others take Nicotine which satisfies the body/mind craving.

But if there is no cure medical cure for these addictions, there is no way they can be categorised as illnesses.

[Shaggy]

I'm not saying he's a hopeless gambling addict, a druggie and a slave to real ale (can't get enough of that hoppy taste!) but it's like Shaggy has a personal interest in all this.

[Guest]

Nut case is a rude way of saying a person has a mental illness though so I don't understand your point

It's the same as saying someone is 'greedy' when in fact he is addicted. Simple point no?

[Shaggy]

How do they help to cure people of Heroin addiction? Well they don't give them a miracle pill, they treat give them a prescriptive drug which has simlar effects. This drug (it begins with M, methodone) is in itself highly addictive.

How do people some people stop smoking? Again there is no miracle pill. Some use willpower alone (which is further proof it can be classed as an illness). Others take Nicotine which satisfies the body/mind craving.

But if there is no cure medical cure for these addictions, there is no way they can be categorised as illnesses.

Naive beyond belief, Dr Saj.

[Neil Young]

How do they help to cure people of Heroin addiction? Well they don't give them a miracle pill, they treat give them a prescriptive drug which has simlar effects. This drug (it begins with M, methodone) is in itself highly addictive.

How do people some people stop smoking? Again there is no miracle pill. Some use willpower alone (which is further proof it can be classed as an illness). Others take Nicotine which satisfies the body/mind craving.

But if there is no cure medical cure for these addictions, there is no way they can be categorised as illnesses.

I've got a cold but since there isn't a drug that cures it I'm not a bit ill.