Again, I don’t buy this. Didn’t matter to be set for life? She’s now got mental illness eating out of garbage cans. No way you get like her or Demayo with it not mattering. Too many years devoted. My guess is simply drugs or some combo of drugs and latent mental illness brought on by the drugs.
With Paul DeMayo my guess is drugs. My understanding is he was addicted to heroin. He may have taken heroin as a way to train harder. There's evidence to suggest street drugs/recreational drugs aid in sports performance. I have even found many of the gray area soft drugs like kratom, kava and phenibut to aid in training. Talk about focus!
I think it was Mike Ayala who fought for a world boxing title against Danny 'little red' Lopez while high on heroin. He ultimately lost but his performance was incredible especially his ability to absorb inhuman amounts of punishment. So in a way bodybuilding could've been a gateway to hard-core drugs for Paul. Then drug addiction affected his personal life and finally his pro bodybuilding career.
Denise OTOH I think was crazy before bodybuilding. Her crazy probably lead her to bodybuilding. She then found out even throwing herself into something as extreme as women's bodybuilding still didn't exorcise her demons. According to Tommy Wishbone there was always something a little off with Denise.
