Gazza's 'drug-fuelled paranoia'

Paul Gascoigne has described how his drug-induced paranoia led him to insanity during some of his darkest hours.

During a BBC interview, the former England football star admitted locking the bible in a safe, fearing that it was "listening" to his conversations.

The 41-year-old spent weeks on cocaine binges in hotels in Gateshead and was too scared to go outside.

He said: "My heart failed three times while I was taking drugs."

He added: "This time, when I went into rehab, they asked me who I was, and I really didn't know.

"The Gazza side of me is still there; the fun and jokes, but now I want to become Paul Gascoigne and for people to know me as Paul Gascoigne - not too serious but serious enough about things that matter to me.

It was a shock to be sectioned, to be put in a mental home, but it was my family's choice because they could not do anything for me. Paul Gascoigne

"I have worked on myself and I have got better, but it has taken a long time.

"At one point I got really paranoid. I was drinking a lot, not a bottle of whisky a day, but gin because I thought people could not smell it.

"I'm not the first person to say 'I will do this and I will do that', but this time my recovery will come first, before everything else.

"In the past every time I left rehab I thought 'I'm going to have a drink' and I had no thought of that this time."

Gascoigne became a millionaire overnight when he was transferred from Newcastle to Spurs in 1988, and later secured a £1.25m deal with Italian club Lazio.

He retired in 2004 and his addiction to drugs and alcohol spiralled out of control.

Now he is working on a 12-steps rehabilitation programme and going to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.

He added: "It was a shock to be sectioned, to be put in a mental home, but it was my family's choice because they could not do anything for me.

"When I was in hospital my heart failed three times on me.

"I was on cocaine for six weeks and that's all it took. It's a warning for kids, never touch cocaine. It is scary where it can lead you."

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