Nick Diaz - Self Sabotage Case Study

For those of you that follow the world of the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship), I am sure you have heard by now that Nick Diaz has yet again failed the mandatory drug testing and has tested positive for Marijuana.

Last weekend he fought and lost a controversial decision that would have made him the UFC welterweight interim champion. He was extremely vocal about the decision and how the fight went, and it was announced earlier this week that they would have an immediate rematch to settle any argument as to who the true champion should be, but now not only will that not happen, but Diaz may not be allowed to fight at all for a very long time.

The sad thing about this is that this is now Diaz's second time that he has tested positive for Marijuana. The first time was back in 2007, where he was barred from fighting for 6 months to a year, which set his career back. Now it's up in the air whether he will even have a career at all in the future. In addition to this, he was originally supposed to fight for the championship almost a year ago, but he was scratched from the fight because he refused to partake in the contractual pre-fight promotions for that event.

I think it is safe to say that Nick Diaz has an aversion to success as he seems to self-sabotage himself whenever something good comes in his life. So why would he work so hard to become one of the best fighters in the world just to lose it all time and time again over something so trivial as drugs or advertising?

Psychologically speaking, the best way to describe his actions are that he subconsciously believes that he is not worthy of the level of success that he has achieved and so he acts out to bring himself back down to the level of success that he believes he deserves.

According to some research, it is believed that as much as 20% of the population have issues with self-sabotage, such as Nick Diaz. It is an extremely complex psychological problem that is still trying to be researched by psychologists today.

There are several warning signs that you may exhibit this type of behavior, so if you should ever suspect yourself of doing so, you should seek psychological help as soon as possible so that you don't end up sabotaging yourself in ways like Nick Diaz has done throughout his life.

Through therapy, the pattern of self-sabotage can be stopped by replacing the negative thoughts in your subconscious with positive ones, but if you delay treatment, you may do irreparable harm to yourself and others that can change the course of your life forever.

In the case of Nick Diaz, I hope he will one day be able to see what pain he has caused himself by his actions and he will be able to continue on in a career he truly loves before it is too late.