Ben Cousins on The Footy Show tonight...
You read between the lines from the interview, you look past the charade of cocky levels of confidence from Cousins, and you see someone who is afraid, and they're afraid of just how ignorant people are toward addiction problems.
Whether it's gambling, drugs, alcohol, spending, any form of addiction problem is the same. As most involved in the counselling of these problems will tell you, there is no "cure" per se, there is no such thing as being able to confidently say that you will never do _____ again. The problem itself, regardless of the symptom, is that you are unable to find a middle ground between not touching something at all, and using it to excess.
Not all drinkers are alcoholics. Not all drug users are drug addicts. Not all gamblers are problem gamblers. However, all alcoholics are unable to be social drinkers, all drug addicts are unable to be recreational drug users, all problem gamblers are unable to have a casual punt on the footy. Most rehab clinics encourage it's patients to realise that it is a common thing to "fall off the wagon" per se, and not to be discouraged by it, instead focus on what has been accomplished. For example, you may have been sober for 8 years, but if you have one drink, then the immediate social reaction is to look at you falling off the wagon, rather than you having been clean for 8 years.
This is the problem with Ben Cousins, and the interview that aired. You can't guarantee such a thing. Do you ever see a medical practitioner proclaiming that *insert AFL player here* will not be affected whatsoever by his knee reco? Same set of reasoning should apply for Ben Cousins and his rehabilitation. If he were to have one night where he does indulge in substances he may or may not have been addicted to in the past, it will be portrayed in the media as "falling off the wagon", rather than a crucial aspect of his rehabilitation process. Such intense media scrutiny, such as that placed on Ben during the "shirtless in the city" incident, would be enough to place any bloke under enough pressure to fall back into bad habits, let alone one so constantly hounded by the media.
To "read between the lines" as suggested, is to say that the physical aspect of the game is the easy part, which was opined by Cousins. The mental aspect, in that he needs to know that rehabilitation from an addiction is not so black and white as on the wagon and off it, and to expect fallbacks along the way, which probably would not be able to be accepted by his potential employer in an AFL club, but also one chosen to not be accepted by the mass media and the general public.
Whilst questions such as "can you guarantee you'll never touch drugs again" are asked at Ben Cousins, then it no longer remains the issue of whether Ben Cousins is ready to resume elite level football, it's whether elite level football, and the trimmings that come with it, the media, it's supporters, and the general public are ready for Ben Cousins.
