Source: Mike Mooneyham, Dr. David Reiss, MJK Public Relations
Last week, ESPN featured the tragic story of Scott Hall on their E:60 program. Following that very brief documentary on Hall’s career inside the ring and personal struggles outside of it, TMZ.com released an update to the story noting that his relationship with his son Cody quickly fell apart.
In yesterday’s Post and Courier, Mike Mooneyham updated the story again to note that Cody, his mother, and sister are living in a two bedroom apartment and struggling financially. Mooneyham also spoke with Dr. David Reiss – a psychiatrist and the Interim Medical Director of Providence Hospital in Holyoke, Massachusetts. Dr. Reiss made the following observations about Hall:
On Encouraging Scott to Get Clean
Obviously many, many people have been trying to encourage Scott — but for someone like this, if encouragement, support and confrontation didn’t work before, it’s unlikely to work now. As to why … in general we can talk in lay language metaphorically about ‘demons,’ but there would need to be a full evaluation of his history, family relationships, youth, etc. to understand his personality structure.
On Sean Waltman’s Advice in E:60
While I never say to give up hope, friends and family must realize that the most reasonable course is to prepare oneself for his death, and if anything is going to get through to someone in this position, it would be actually seeing people reacting to him in that way — being supportive, giving some encouragement, but with the direct message: ‘I hope and pray for you, but I’m realistic to know that you’re probably going to kill yourself, and I have to protect myself and keep a reasonable distance.’
On Cody Hall’s Attempt to Become a Wrestler
Scott’s son must be gently confronted that he cannot save his father or re-live his father’s life ‘the right way,’ and if he expects to do so, consciously or unconsciously, he’s setting himself up to go down the same path when he inevitably fails at doing the impossible.
Thank you for publishing my quotes. I hope I can be of help to some. David M. Reiss, M.D.