High Anxiety: Dontrelle Willis

Congrats and good luck to pitcher Detroit Tigers Dontrelle Willis who’s back to work after a lengthy struggle with anxiety issues. From the New York Times:

For privacy reasons, [manager Dave] Dombrowski declined to talk specifically about what treatment Willis received for the anxiety disorder, and how it was diagnosed.

On Tuesday, Willis discussed his treatment in general terms. Asked whether he saw a psychologist or a psychiatrist, Willis answered, “Yeah, something like that,” and added that he saw more than one at a time. “Like a team,” he said. The therapy, he said, mainly involved talking to doctors, then to teammates.

“With all the professional things that were going on, they said I needed to relax and have fun and get back to my old self,” he said. “That’s what I’ve been doing. It was just one of those things. I think I was putting a lot of emphasis on every pitch unnecessarily, and they said, ‘Well, just go back to what you were doing before.’ ”

Dombrowski said the team followed the doctors’ recommendations for treatment, which required putting Willis on the disabled list after supplying the commissioner’s office with supporting medical documentation. Willis added that he is no longer undergoing therapy.

“Our goal all along was to put him in a position where he could come back and pitch well for us,” Dombrowski said. “We let the doctors guide it, not the baseball people.”

Dontrelle Willis, Back From Anxiety Disorder, Is Seeking a Return to Form

liz | 12:54 PM | anxiety