EXCLUSIVE: Mel Gibson Was 'Really On The Verge Of Suicide'

LA Weekly ^ | July 31, 2006 | Nikki Finke

[claudiustg]

I'm told by a source intimate with his situation tonight that Mel Gibson "was really on the verge of suicide because he felt he was helpless to alcohol and didn't know what to do about it. That's why he was driving around 90 miles an hour. This was a death wish. If that cop hadn't stopped him, this guy was going to be wrapped around a pole. This is such a bigger issue than 'Will he work again?' This is about his not wanting to live anymore. I've seen what he's gone through and what he's going through. You have to understand the disease of alcoholism. He was back in it. There's no doubt in my mind he was trying to kill himself that night." As for his anti-Semitic slurs during his DUI arrest, I'm told that Gibson doesn't remember saying them. "Why? He had alcoholic blackout syndrome. I don't know a lot about it. I've not had a lot of experience with it. He has some recollection of parts of the eveenings. But he's not denying he said those things, and if anything he's owning up to it. But nobody could verify it. Not even he or his lawyers have seen the police report yet." The insider called Gibson's situation "tragic. It's not about what people are focusing on, understand that. 'This is Mel Gibson. He can do whatever he wants. He has all money in world. He has a wonderful family. He has a wonderful wife.' They're not thinking about the real issue here: alcoholism. Nobody is talking about his alcoholism."

[fabian]

I have to disagree with you about alcoholism being a disease. There's alot of drug users that do so to try and escape the pain of their conscience as I did. I actually still do but I just use food now instead of drugs or cigarettes. Alcohol is just another drug that our darkside likes us to use to escape. Saying it's a disease is an easy way of trying to relieve the guilt of anger and hate that drive us to escape.