Baseball Star Placed On Disabled List Due To Anxiety Disorder

In many cases, a mental disorder can be just as disabling as a physical one. That seems to be the case with Los Angeles Dodger Hong-Chih Kuo, who was just placed on the disabled list due to an unspecified anxiety disorder. While various physical injuries have landed Kuo on the disabled list before, this time the timeline for his recovery is more uncertain. Unlike a physical injury, the trajectory of recovery from an anxiety disorder is based very much on the individual.

Despite feeling fine physically, Kuo had recently been struggling with his command. He spent three months on the disabled list and says he had about with what is known in the baseball lexicon as "Steve Blass disease" (referring to former MLB pitcher Steve Blass and applied to talented pitchers who inexplicably lose their ability to accurately throw a baseball). He recovered from that episode of loss of command, and the Dodgers are hopeful that he will return to pitching again in the future.

For most people, being disabled by an anxiety disorder is not as obvious as being put on a "disabled list" at their workplace or in their home life. But about 4.1% of adult in the United States are classified as having a severe anxiety disorder, and like Hong-Chih Kuo, some of these people are unable to work due to anxiety.

Source: LA Times
Photo: Wikimedia Commons