But telling someone to their face or worse, to someone else, that one is an addict, as if it were diagnosed fact, can be wrong and very harming to one's reputation.
I think a real addict doesn't have much to do with reputation anymore because if he does, he won't have to get to the level of addict, he would place some limit to himself because at that point he is still in control of himself and emotion which makes him to be cautious of his actions. Someone is an addict because he has lost self control to limit himself on his gambling playing habit. Therefore, having reputation is not visible for an addict, that is why giving them help is mostly by initially out of their will , that means the third party has to act for them by taking the decision to help him out of it.
I don't agree with that, even if someone is heavily addicted to gambling, they wouldn't want the world to disrespect them and they still expect to receive respect from everyone because whatever he is doing, whether it's good or bad, it's only for himself and his life and it isn't harming anyone else, they might not care much about things and money and stuff, but they would obviously feel offended if they are disrespected by anyone.
I personally believe that anyone in this world has some dignity no matter what they do or how they live or what their profession is or what their habits are. We should simply respect every individual and don't hurt them by calling them names or doing things that might hurt their emotions.
Yes, you are right, no matter how bad a person is, they want others to respect them, even though they may be someone who is very detrimental to others, for example. But in what way do they make themselves appreciated by others, that's the question. The reason is maybe when he can make other people lose, then it's normal if they are not appreciated by other people. I think this is a different thing, not respecting does not mean we don't like the person, but we just don't respect his behavior, be it addiction or whatever it is. And usually it starts from our lack of trust in them.