Ben Cousins should steer clear of pills, even legal ones

martinX says:

02:59pm | 06/07/10

Sorry, Tim, but it sounds like Cousins has a problem.

SMH:
“It has been suggested that Cousins took caffeine tablets before the match against Sydney on Sunday, and drank a number of glasses of red wine following the match, before taking sleeping tablets that night.”

He sounds like an “all-or-nothing” guy. For the sake of his health, he should choose “nothing”. A great football career doesn’t help if your dead.

martin says:

08:34am | 06/07/10

Correct Stellaaaaaa
however 90% of what is reported in the media is exactly the same - private matters, had a look at a womans day or new idea, like ever, its all private matters and generally untrue anyway

Jenni says:

11:11am | 06/07/10

Nice to see someone else on the same page as me. Has anyone in the media ever heard of a little thing called ‘privacy’? And don’t give me that rubbish about people like Cousins “opting” to be in the limelight. He *opted* to play a game for a living, it was the midea who made him a ‘celebrity’ and I use the term VERY loosely.

One could argue that those in the media have, themselves, ‘opted’ to be in the limelight - shall I sit outside your front door with a camera, Luke? Wait until i catch you at a weak point and publish the details for everyone to judge you?

Even if Cousins *is* misusing prescription drugs, what the hell business is it of yours/ours? It is *possibly* the business of the Tigers as his employer, but that’s as far as it goes. Everyone else should just leave him the hell alone.

Oh, and I go for Sydney Swans (before anyone accuses me of being an Eagles or Tigers fan, and therefore biased).

Arnold Layne says:

12:28pm | 06/07/10

As long as what he is taking is legal then I agree with you Stella.  However the matter itself ceased to become private once he was admitted to hospital.  Footy fans in general, and Richmond fans in particular, are entitled to know that one of their players is sick and in hospital.

km says:

02:42pm | 06/07/10

Stella none of anyone’s business what pills he takes or doesn’t take????
What if he kills some innocent person? God for bid: one of your family members on there way home from work? Or a child crossing the road after school? Grow a brain, This is our business.

Jenni says:

01:21pm | 07/07/10

@ km - wow, thanks so much for enlightening me on the dangers of a grown man taking prescribed medication in the privacy of his own home and then falling asleep in his own bed - you’re right, this monster should be locked away for endangering the safety of the public and - omg, the children!

won’t *somebody* think of the children?

ps - in case you missed my sarcasm (given your obvious high level of intelligence) - you’re a douche.

Z says:

09:51am | 06/07/10

Exactly.

Players put their heart and soul into games and after a night game going to sleep would definitely be an issue. I just play low-level basketball, and I still take pills after late games so that I can get to sleep before 3 and be able to wake up for work the next day. Adrenaline, stress hormones, testosterone, etc, are all highly elevated after competetive sports, making sleep a near impossibility for many.

And that’s my crappy low level of basketball, not a couple of hours of elite level football which would have near infinitely more impact.

It’s so easy for ignorant people to judge. How about demonstrating some concern instead of your moral elitism.

Muttley says:

12:13pm | 06/07/10

wow. What a fantastic stream of excuses. Dont forget to throw in troubled childhood, all those unfair expectations on him….. Poor little pet. I suspect the prejudgement may have something to do with the addiction to hard drugs and his speedy re entry to the AFL. My god, if the stint in rehab cant teach him not to mix alcohol and sleeping tablets then he really is slow.

martin says:

08:39am | 06/07/10

its good you were not trying to pass judgement there Bob. My advice next time you start off a comment that way, stop and do something else because all comments are passing judgement just as this one is on your inability to not pass judgement but trying to appease your conscience by stating the opposite

Tim says:

09:25am | 06/07/10

Ah but Stephen,
society says those drugs are good mmmkkkaaay.

Muttley says:

12:10pm | 06/07/10

oh well, if society says its ok then….dont think it may have been a bad idea for a recovering addict then Tim? Oh its ok because he’s an AFL star. Think again, mmmkkkaaay…......

Arnold Layne says:

12:24pm | 06/07/10

Yes.  He’s Ben Cousins.

Kate says:

03:17pm | 06/07/10

Going by the news reports, she called the club when he was still asleep and she realised he wouldn’t be awake and ready in time to make the 9:30am recovery session scheduled for Richmond players.

She was then apparently unable to wake him, became afraid, and got the club doctor involved. The club doctor would have an intimate knowledge of Cousins’ health. It’s much the same as when people with a health complaint phone or visit their GP before going to the hospital. Makes sense to me.

The media storm surrounding this case is another reason why hospital may not have been her first choice - imagine if he’d just been a bit tired and had absolutely nothing wrong with him, but the couple still would have had to put up with hundreds of media reports about ‘Ben Cousins raced to hospital, blah blah former drug addict’ etc.

Jenni says:

01:24pm | 07/07/10

Carl - from one Swans supporter to another, I agree with all of your comments. (On a more selfish note, couldn’t he have put himself out of commission BEFORE our game last Sunday? LOL)

Tim says:

11:10am | 06/07/10

And that’s why “society” is full of retards Stephen.
What Cousins did, thousands of people would have done on the same night- minus the bad reaction to the sleeping pill.
Just because he used to be drug addict doesn’t make what he did any worse.
He had a bad reaction to prescribed medication - end of story.

Muttley says:

12:07pm | 06/07/10

yes it does Tim. He needs to be EXTREMELY careful around any type of drugs, and mixing sleeping pills and red wine is NEVER a good idea, especially for a recovering addict. The thousands of others you mention are fools, doubly so if they are recovering addicts.

Tim says:

01:16pm | 06/07/10

Muttley,
Unless you are Ben Cousins’ doctor how do you know what is good for him or not?
You do know what prescribed medication is don’t you?

Or do you just base you view on, you know, the vibe of the thing.

He used to be addicted to illegal drugs, therefore any future reaction he has to legal drugs must be a result of his past addiction? Is that your argument?

And for the record I don’t even follow AFL.

martin says:

02:49pm | 06/07/10

oh stephen stephen stephen, no he is not ‘supposed’ to be a role model for anyone, he is supposed to be exactly what he is, just another bloke makng his way through life, because he happens to play a popular sport the responsibility of being a role model is pushed onto him by the media, if he were never written about then he would never cast a bad image so if he fails as a role model, or succeeds for that matter it is all down to the way he is presented by the media. there is more news in saying he has fallen than suggesting he is an angel

ToWhit says:

02:53pm | 06/07/10

Tim,

As someone with long standing sleep issues (I’ve been to sleep clinics etc) and have in the past been prescribed very strong sleeping pills - I know how these things work.  If you are actually prescribed sleeping pills - the reason those pills are only available on prescription is that they are bloody dangerous if not used exactly as prescribed, and their placement on the drug schedule (most prescription sleeping pills are schedule 8 drugs so they are very potent) demonstrates this.  You have to be counselled by your doctor about the impacts of the use of the medication.  By denfinition any prescibed sleeping pills irrespective of the name/generic nature of the drug are highly, highly potent.  Misuse of prescribed sleeping pills - and any halfwit knows that mixing alcohol of any quantity with prescription sleeping pills is misuse - is courting disaster.  If Ben Cousins has had a few glasses of wine, plus caffine tablets, plus a few sleeping pills, then this is clearly heading into dangerous use territory.  Yes, some people may be able to pop a couple of sleeping pills and down a bottle of wine.  But the very nature of sleeping pills when prescribed means that if you mix alcohol of any quantity with them then you are really asking for trouble.  Ben Cousins status as an AFL player is neither here nor there.  However, he has undergone drug rehabilitation, presumably part of this involved being educated and acknowledging the dangers of any drug taking behaviour (it doesn’t have to be addictive behaviour - but rather drug taking in general) and how he needs to manage this process.  If, as reported, he has combined, both caffine tablets, wine and sleeping pills, then clearly his rehabilitation has taught him nothing.

Tim says:

04:02pm | 06/07/10

To Whit,
once again you’re assuming things.
You don’t know the type of medication he was taking or it’s potency. I think I read he may have been taking Temazepam but that is not certain.

I’m pretty sure that the team doctor would know exactly what the players are taking before game (caffeine) and afterwards (sleeping tablets). It is common practice among footballers (of all codes) to do this. It is nothing new. Obviously the team doctor doesn’t have a problem with it.

Now mixing this with alcohol may not be the smartest idea but the usual reaction from doing this is greater sedation and deeper sleep.
Just because he had a bad reaction doesn’t necessarily mean anything.
And just because his name is Ben Cousins doesn’t mean anything either.
I’ll wait for further information before making further judgement.

Skid says:

02:22pm | 07/07/10

But when you overdose on sleeping medication (which he admitted today that he did), it clearly is about his approach to drug taking.  It wasn’t a mixture of booze/caffine and sleeping pills, it was an overdose plain and simple.  The fact that the drugs were legal is not the issue, it is the fact that this bloke seems unable to appropraitely manage drugs of any kind.