Arelia Margarita Taveras, former NJ lawyer, is suing the Atlantic City casinos for $20 million, claiming the casinos failed to notice her gambling addiction. She claims that she lost over $1 million since the beginning of her gambling habit and lost her law practice, her apartment, her parents' home, plus she says she owes the IRS $58,000. Arelia Margarita Taveras also admits she dipped into her clients accounts to fund her gambling problem, which led to her disbarment last year and faces criminal charges stemming from the embezzlement.

"They knew I was going for days without eating or sleeping. I would pass out at the tables. They had a duty of care to me. Nobody in their right mind would gamble for four or five straight days without sleeping," Arelia Margarita Taveras was quoted. A sad story which could only serve as a reminder to the millions of gamblers worldwide that gambling is fun when only in moderation.

"Scientists may want scientific evidence but I have anecdotal evidence. I make no guarantees but I have had many people who were heavy smokers one minute and non-smokers an hour later."

A professor of public health at the University of Sydney, Simon Chapman, said that Ms Mavety's claims of success indicated she clearly lacked any understanding of nicotine addiction.

"In the history of tobacco advertising there have been a long line of snake-oil merchants, and this has all the hallmarks of being the latest kid on the block," he said.

"There is not a skerrick of evidence in peer reviewed literature to indicate this is anything more than taking money from gullible, desperate people. This would be laughable if it were not so tragic."

Ms Mavety said: "I have never said the laser therapy is a miracle cure. A person has to want to quit, but I have plenty of clients who can back me up."

Ms Mavety, who says she takes about 200 appointments a week, said her treatment included free telephone follow-up care involving dietary tips and psychological advice, a service Professor Chapman dismissed as unscrupulous.

"Nicotine is an addiction in the brain. It is not cured by someone waving their hands over you and saying 'give me the money' or someone, who is not a trained counsellor, telling you to drink cranberry juice."

Tori Spelling admitted she almost filed for bankruptcy after her spending habits went out of control and rang up some serious debt on her credit cards. Beverly Hills,90210 star blames her shopping addiction to being the daughter of late billionaire Aaron. Too proud to ask her father for help to get out of debt, the 34-year old decided to work it off herself. From her new memoir Tori Telling, she recalls: “I was in severe debt on my credit cards - hundreds of thousands of dollars. Bad shopping habits die hard. In all honesty, I grew up a certain way. I never had to worry about money. That was my reality. "I would sit and watch my mom order stuff online, or in a catalogue, see a sweater and order it in 10 different colours. I thought, 'I have my own money - that's what I should do.'"

I never really have thought about suicide in the war, only death from fighting in it. What a sad story. Isn't amazing how much one person can impact your life especially in his state of mind. It probably made him happy while he was there to think about her waiting for him to return, but instead all he could think about was her being with another guy. Sorry to hear about your loss.

Isn't is sad what parents let happen in their own home. It amazes me. I don't understand why people have children if they aren't going to take care of them and raise them. I think if more parents cared and were off drugs, the society as a whole would be better.I'm not talking about parents who struggles, but turned their lives around, I'm talking about the ones who just flat out don't seem to care.

Black Eyed Peas's Fergie has revealed to Marie Claire that working as a child star made her develop a drug addiction. She said: "I was a child actor. I was this spaz kid diagnosed with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder), and I worked all the time. I got on a TV series, Kids Incorporated; I was like a little adult. And years later, because I would try to people-please, I would hold all these feelings in." She became addicted to crystal meth: "Then all of a sudden, I just didn't feel creative. And crystal meth came into my life. When I had that first hit, I knew I wanted to feel that way every day. I went on a downward spiral. I lost friends and family. Anyone who disagreed with my way of life, I cut them out." She also talked about paranoia she experienced while using.
"I had about 20 different conspiracy theories," Fergie stated. "I painted the windows in my apartment black so 'they' couldn't see in."
The singer who was on crystal meth before, obsessive paranoia was so bad that it had her believing that everyone was against her. Fergie's health was affected greatly which left her weighing only 90 lbs, hitting rock-bottom and looking like she was homeless by her presence.
"One day, a guy comes up to me. I'm searching in the bushes for clues about whatever they're after me for. I'm in a cowboy hat and red lips. He hands me a muffin. I'm thinking, He's in on it. Is there a message inside? So I tear it up. Looking back, I realize he assumed I was homeless."
I think that it is good that celebrities are coming out and saying, yes I had a problem, but I'm in recovery. All we see are failing celebrities who can't stay off drugs, but now people can think if Fergie could do it, I can do it too.

You throw away the outside and cook the inside. Then you eat the outside and throw away the inside. What did you eat?
Corn on the cob-You throw away the husk, eat the corn but throw away the cob.

I just read a touching story about a 40 year old man, Capt. Ivan Castro, in the Army who lost his eye sight from when the mortar round blasted off 5 feet from his face. Since the war in Iraq, 100 soldiers have lost their eye sight completely and 247 have lost it in 1 eye. Capt. Castro is the only blind officer serving in the Special Forces. He said he will not be happy just sitting in an office all day. Isn't that great determination?

"An addiction to pornography can happen in as short a time as six weeks if watched for 10 hours or more each week and if the person has a predisposition to addiction," said psychologist Brenda Schaeffer. This article also brought up a good point saying how easy it is to come across porn. I know when I’m doing homework research or on Myspace I get pop ups all the time that are inappropriate. You don’t even have to go searching to find such sites, they come to you.