Dontrelle Willis placed on 15-day DL with "anxiety disorder"

[hawing]

MLB.com link

 

I placed "anxiety disorder" in quotes because that is the phrase used in the MLB.com release, not because I specifically disbelieve the report.

 

However...I live with an anxiety disorder which was not diagnosed via blood test. I wish Dontrelle well, but that part of the report makes me wonder if there's anything else going on.

[GormanHarvey]

Man that guy sure has fallen a long way. It's too bad because his attitude was good for the game when things were going better for him

[mothershipconnection]

I'm not sure why blood tests are necessary to diagnose an anxiety disorder. As far as I know, there isn't a widely-accepted blood test while there are widely-accepted psych and medical evaluations. Maybe they wanted some biological basis to point to so they could build the case for putting him on the DL?

 

Just give the guy some alprazolam and let him pitch.

[ttsather]

I can't help but feel like the term "anxiety disorder" is being used very loosely or maybe even improperly.

 

Happy to hear that they're saying so bluntly that it's easily treatable. Maybe hypertension? Anemia?

[endaround]

"Anxiety Disorder"=Depression from the Marlins blowing out his arm?

 

At least Willis is getting paid.

[Ennder]

His one 'ace' season was more luck than good, 3.82 xFIP that year. This was always a 4+ ERA guy talent wise and that is in the NL in a pitchers park, not surprised at all to see him fail in the AL. Only thing he had going for him before was the goofy delivery and they tried to 'fix that'.

[DougJones43]

This story is very strange. They are saying it's anxiety disorder, but then he's talking about "something in his blood." As the article notes, there are no blood tests for anxiety disorder. There is nothing in the article that really adds up with Willis actually exhibiting symptoms of the disorder.

 

What Zack Greinke went through seemed to be much more consistent with what panic/anxiety disorder actually is.

[hawing]

This story is very strange. They are saying it's anxiety disorder, but then he's talking about "something in his blood."

Well, that's what caught my eye. "Something in his blood" could certainly bring on or exacerbate an anxiety disorder, but a blood test is not how anxiety is diagnosed.

[drezdn]

The one thing I could think of relating anxiety and blood would be diabetes.

[reillymcshane]

It does sound a little strange - i live with someone with an Anxiety Disorder (there are several versions of it) - and they never have to get their blood tested for 'anxiety' or whatever.

 

One thought I had, however, is that Willis is being treated for Anxiety Disorder - possibly drugs (a common one is Zoloft), combined with therapy. While most anxiety drugs don't affect things that require blood tests, there are side effects that often force a person to take second or third drugs to counter the negative effects. Example: a person could take an anti-anxiety drug, which, while it helps their anxiety, gives them an irregular heartbeat. They are then given another drug to counter the irregular heartbeat. Perhaps that drug, or the combination of the two (or three or whatever), requires him to have blood tests to monitor some other potential issue. Maybe something like this is what's happening.

 

No matter, I hope he's okay. He seemed like a fun guy, and knowing someone who struggles with this, it's got to be killing him. I just hope he can rebound.