I suspect that to readers of this column the name ‘Pep Guardiola’ might not mean much, unless, that is, they are football aficionados. Seems he’s the manager of a football team, and quite a well-paid one at that, earning about P300 million a year, in charge of Manchester City. That’s the going rate in the English Premier League.and with the big bucks comes big responsibilities and big expectations, mostly to ensure that their team wins more games than it loses, thus staying in contention to take home the League trophy.
And Pep, I understand, has quite a good track record, helping his team to take 6 trophies in the past 7 seasons, including a Treble and an unprecedented four consecutive League titles. But his Midas touch would appear to be losing its power this year. His team is under-performing, fans are frustrated, and Pep is losing his pep.
Now, you’re probably wondering why the trials and tribulations of an English football team and the success or other wise of its Spanish-born manager should find itself the focus of this column; and of course, you’re quite right – it matters not one jot to me whether the team wins or loses, but this week Guardiola’s mask of invincibility slipped when yet another losing performance from City caused the manager to self-harm. At the post-match press conference, he was seen with blood on his face and scalp, and he confessed to a posse of hard-nosed sports reporters ‘I want to harm myself. Goodnight.’ And right there was my hook. Any exhibition of self-harm is a clear sign of a mental health problem and, often subconsciously, a cry for help. In the words of Oliver Brown, Chief Sports Reporter for the UK’s Daily Telegrah:
‘You can be sure that Guardiola does not want to face the world bleeding. Turning his anguish against himself is an extreme stress reaction, the type of behaviour suggesting that a cocktail of frustration and self-reproach has become so overwhelming that he feels he has no other outlet. It is a picture, frankly, that should stop any critics in their tracks. While the temptation might be to counter that he earns £20 million a year, or that he has won six titles in seven seasons, none of this matters much when he is clearly so traumatised by City’s tailspin that he hurts himself.’
What made that display all the more shocking was that by all accounts Guardiola is not normally backwards in coming forwards, and has a reputation for being something of a braggadocio – self-confident, more than a little arrogant, with a tendency for sarcasm and superiority. But clearly his confidence is hard-wired to his professional success; and when his professional hold slips, so does his mask. Said Brown ‘(he) offered a fleeting window into his soul, into the reality that the most mythologised manager of his generation can still endure moments of wretchedness’.
According to the prestigious Mayo Clinic, ‘Non-suicidal self-injury is the act of harming your own body on purpose, such as by cutting or burning yourself. It’s usually not meant as a suicide attempt. This type of self-injury is a harmful way to cope with emotional pain, sadness, anger and stress. While self-injury may bring a brief sense of calm and a release of physical and emotional tension, it’s usually followed by guilt and shame and the return of painful emotions. Life-threatening injuries are usually not intended, but it’s possible that more-serious and even fatal self-harm could happen. Poor coping skills. Non-suicidal self-injury is usually the result of an inability to cope in healthy ways with stress and emotional pain.
Such self-harm is most usually carried out in private, and most often by young people. It stems from difficulty managing emotions. ‘Having a hard time controlling, expressing or understanding emotions may lead to self-injury. The mix of emotions that triggers self-injury is complex. For example, there may be feelings of worthlessness, loneliness, panic, anger, guilt, rejection and self-hatred. Being bullied or having questions about sexual identity may be part of the mix of emotions.’
Despite Guardiola’s age and status, his distressful clawing and scratching of his head and face during City’s last fixture, clearly indicate stress from his inability to alter the actions on the pitch, his mental anguish at his professional failure, and a desire to punish himself by causing physical pain to reduce the mental agony.
And though usually carried out in private, sufferers need help and may subconsciously be sending out a signal in the hope that they might be picked up , where mere words seem inadequate. Self-injury mostly happens in private and is usually done in a controlled manner or the same way each time, which often leaves a pattern on the skin. The outward signs would be cutting, scratching or stabbing with a sharp object, burning with lit matches, cigarettes or heated, sharp objects such as knives, carving words or symbols on the skin, self-hitting, punching, biting or head banging, piercing the skin with sharp objects or inserting objects under the skin. And these are often accompanied by a change to long-sleeves clothing, in an attempt to hide the outward signs.
If you feel that a family member or friend may be self-harming, try to persuade them to seek professional help to pinpoint the root case and work around it. Though rare, such behaviours can lead eventually to attempts at suicide and thus it is not to be trivialised.
As for Guardiola, he has a PR team around him who have his back. Losing streaks can be turned around but only if the manager turns around his personal slough of despond. That’s a vicious circle and circles can be broken. If he scratches his head to find the solution, that might be more be productive than scratching it to draw blood.
QUOTE
According to the prestigious Mayo Clinic, ‘Non-suicidal self-injury is the act of harming your own body on purpose, such as by cutting or burning yourself. It’s usually not meant as a suicide attempt. This type of self-injury is a harmful way to cope with emotional pain, sadness, anger and stress. While self-injury may bring a brief sense of calm and a release of physical and emotional tension, it’s usually followed by guilt and shame and the return of painful emotions. Life-threatening injuries are usually not intended, but it’s possible that more-serious and even fatal self-harm could happen. Poor coping skills. Non-suicidal self-injury is usually the result of an inability to cope in healthy ways with stress and emotional pain.
