It is difficult to defend anyone on this forum with addiction problems or medical maladies. If somebody was falling down drunk, most would see this as disgusting, drinking alcohol to excess. Some, a very few, might recognize it as a physical addiction, that the person is sick.
With medical maladies such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and psychopathic tendencies, people see the behavior and cannot recognize that it is a symptom of the disease. They can only see the ugly behavior.
I used to go out with a pool player that suffered from schizophrenia. When he was winning, everybody loved him and he loved everybody. He was on top of the world, but when he lost, missed a ball, didn't hit a horse race, his personality immediately changed. Everybody was a "black cat" or their gods were pulling against his gods. If you were traveling with him, you'd get left. He would storm out of the joint and leave whoever came with him there, reminding me of Earl storming out of the pool room and not waiting for his lady friend to join him.
Earl is basically good guy, like my friend with schizophrenia, but without medical intervention of some kind, he will continue to be misunderstood. To shoot pool proficiently, one can't be on medication that will slow down your hand-and-eye coordination and recall. Like somebody else I know well, pool is Earl's entire life. He is a champion, like Alex Higgins, but he does have demons, like Alex Higgins did. :sorry:
