It’s hard to find a footballer who doesn’t itch to jump onto the pitch. But there are… and many more than we think. One of them has a name, Tree Gurrutxaga (Elgoibar, 1980). The one who was defense of that Real Sociedad that touched LaLiga 2002-2003 He went from dreaming about football to hating it, a victim of a trail of mental problems.
Much later he found a solution to his problems and knew reconvert to the benchmark it is todaywithout having to have a ball at your feet. Now he handles a microphone. Or a keyboard. Because this central defender with a past in a dozen teams became lecturer y even writer (Runner-upco-written with Ander Izagirre) with a mission, to ensure “mental health”, always with humor as a flag.
His new facet has led him this week to intervene in the event Know to advance organized by Hurry. After his talk he attends El HuffPostjust before giving another to the Girona squad. It is part of the project that he carries out with LaLiga and the Blanca Foundation to talk about you to the footballers of the present about mental health. He does not deny feeling that “I contribute much more to football now than when I was a footballer.”
Few have experienced like him the secret management of something that we see normally today, the many OCD that frightened him decades ago, when I wasn’t even sure what “obsessive compulsive disorder” was. Closing the door at home tightly, difficulty touching other people…, many manias but taken to the extreme, to obsession. And in the early 2000s, bad times so that a footballer confesses to mental health problems without being seen as a “weirdo.”
Then he felt “alone, misunderstood” and he has made a career out of that experience, so that no companion will ever be so before him again. the “names” that many athletes face. “Also the footballers” and, yes, “even the rich, because this is not about status.”
You boast of humor as your ‘weapon’ to talk about mental health and your experience. Do you feel more impact on your listener by doing it that way than if you treated them more seriously?
When I suffered from problems in my time I couldn’t get that distance and now I can see it well. They say that comedy equals drama plus time and the key is to shorten that time as much as possible. It took me too long to laugh at those problems I suffered.
I am not coach I am neither a psychologist nor do I intend to go where I am not called, I simply intend to speak from my experience. Not to make great reflections or advice, but to narrate my case and this can be useful… because it would have been very useful for me to know that my OCD existed 20 years ago. 20 years ago I didn’t know what OCD was; in fact, I ate it alone believing it was the only one. And when you see you you just try to hide it, of course.
Be careful with the fact that having money, footballers cannot complain. It has happened to me and yes, it is frivolous (…) Mental health does not understand status
In terms of football I have been what I have been, I am not well known, but when they hear that someone who has been in the First Division suffers from these things I think I can reach a lot of people.
Also, to many colleagues, as you have been explaining. What is that experience of talking about mental health with yesterday’s players and especially with today’s footballers? Things have changed a lot in these 20 years…
See if they have changed what I am in a LaLiga and Fundación Blanca project called ‘Preparados’ to give talks to First and Second teams in which I can tell my story and how it has changed my life.
Zuhaitz, in a talk to the Spanish team
In fact, I have learned that the book that Ander Izagirre and I wrote is in all the First and Second dressing rooms. For me to return to professional football today like that, ufff, imagine, I feel like I’m contributing much more than when I was a footballer.
In these talks with former teammates and current footballers, what patterns in terms of mental health are repeated?
The fear of failing. I think it’s something common to everyone, but here every Sunday millions see you, millions judge you, millions write to you on social media… An incapacitating fear that blocks you to the point of not wanting to play.
Colleagues of my time and athletes of today have confessed to me that they are not capable of making a pass from 10 meters in a moment of panic and that they practically prefer not to play.
You experienced it, you often say, because of the many problems you suffered. Even as part of that Real team that touched the League in 2002-2003. But your career continued for another decade, in lower category teams. Did you manage to enjoy football at that other level?
I came to enjoy it, yes. Soccer was my passion as a child, but I ended up hating it, I didn’t want to play, I preferred to be a substitute… I fell to 2nd B, chaining teams, until I arrived at Lemoa… They signed me because no one else wanted me. And I enjoyed it again because there was no pressure, there was no press…
From there I gave my best in 2nd B. Maybe I had physical and technical qualities for Primera, but not mental qualities…
Couldn’t you rejoin that First Division later, already recovered and with confidence?
No, because he thinks that when you leave the big circuit, the First Division, it is very difficult for you to return unless you are a star capable of making that leap again, which was not my case. Most importantly, I reached the Second Division with Real Unión de Irún in 2009.
Let’s talk about today. We have been hearing complaints from numerous footballers, about the excess of matches during the season, about not having suspended the entire day due to DANA… Does the footballer today have true power within the great spectacle that is football?
Tricky question, huh? (laughs). Those who are in the super elite play every three days and the schedule is demanding, but I do believe that the footballer has decision-making power, that his word matters… Although I cannot say much more because it is an issue that I do not control and I do not I want to speak without knowing.
Do we frivolize too much with the possible problems of a footballer just because “they are rich”?
We tend to believe that footballers are flat characters who run on a field and earn a lot of money, so how can they complain. Morata said it recently, talking about mental health problems. This doesn’t know about status. If it reaches the captain of the Spanish team it can reach all of us.
It would have helped me a lot to know that my OCD existed 20 years ago. 20 years ago I didn’t know what OCD was.
Of course, when it comes to asking for help, money comes in handy. Better treatments, more facilities to choose from… But be careful with the fact that having money you can’t complain. It has happened to me and yes, it is a bit frivolous. You see comments on my interviews and things are repeated like ‘I would send you to work for 8 hours, to see your mental health.’ The more footballers that come out, the more normal it will be.
We continue with thorny issues. Racism. You lived another football, the one that did not yet have social networks. Are these same networks the ones that exaggerate cases of racism or are we really getting worse? Is it something you talk about in your talks?
I think racism as a topic related to mental health is an issue that will need to be delved deeper into, although for now our talks have focused on other issues.
But it’s just what you say, that in my time there were no networks and you cannot compare the media noise from one time to another, but in the stadiums we are getting better. The insults that were previously made very gratuitously have decreased.
I’m talking to you about my stadium, because it is the one I know best, the Reale Arena of Real Sociedad. If someone shouts, they are pointed out much more than before, although there are many steps to take. And I insist, I talk about this field because it is the one I know the most, but I think it is a common pattern to the rest.
Source: www.huffingtonpost.es
