I'm sure your all aware that running back Ricky Williams proabably has ADD.

First he refused to give interviews with his helmet off because he had anxiety talking to people. Then he failed a bunch of NFL drug tests because he was proabably medicating himself. Ricky even said "Marijuana does more for me than Paxil ever will"(Which is funny because I took paxil for my anxiety and it did nothing for me, only made me crabby).

Then mysteriously calls his coach from a plane and says he's not going to play football weeks before training camp(Typical impulsive ADDer with bad timing and not thinking thinks through clearly). Then of course comes back this year oweing his former team millions and serving a 4 game suspension at the beginning of the year.

Now I know there was really no excuse for abandoning his team like that, but I can see why he would. People like to say "What an idiot, giving up a dream career so he can go smoke pot his whole life". Of course they don't understand that he's not doing it to get "high", but to clear his head and be focused. His teammates called him "different" and "hard to understand who he is". Have you seen his interviews in the preseason? He's very soft spoken and appears spacey in interviews, but appears to be toughing out his anxiety now.

To me, he is just another classic example of how society doesn't get it and probably never will. Will be interesting to see how the season pans out. :)

very nice post!! I'm a huge sports fan(addict) and very much get this...I had this problem myself in college while trying to play football..I was a VERY good athlete(4.4 speed) in college(Univ.Of Idaho) BUT, nothing worked out(school or football) due to LD/ADD issues..VERY frustrating..I was looked at as weird/wacky...I sort of feel like I get what this guy is going through.

Of course they don't understand that he's not doing it to get "high", but to clear his head and be focused.
Or, he smokes pot to decrease his anxiety. Odd that he hasn't sought treatment for something that is so strongly impacting his life. Odd that the team managers haven't encouraged him to seek help.

Or, he smokes pot to decrease his anxiety. Odd that he hasn't sought treatment for something that is so strongly impacting his life. Odd that the team managers haven't encouraged him to seek help. Actually he did seek help for his social anxiety before he dissapeared from the league and was using Paxil for it. Most of the time however anxiety seems to be accompanied with another disorder such as Bi-Polar or ADD, as is the case with me.

Maybe I was just ignorrant, but I also refused to get help for the longest time, because I was afraid of being labeled with a disorder. Worried about how other would view me and such. It wasn't untill It became serious enough where I realized it was probably never going to change, that I finally did something about it.