Ready to face the world. (My Turn).(football player describes battle with social anxiety disorder and depression )

Imagine being a kid and discovering your dream--to be an athlete--and chasing that dream off to college, where you win the Heisman Trophy, then to the pros, where a coach wants you so badly he trades his whole draft to get you. Imagine being handed nearly $9 million at 21 years old just for signing your name on the dotted line. Now imagine your life as a 23-year-old with three months of offseason to do with whatever you can imagine; it's calling out to you, telling you to live your charmed life to the fullest.

But you're so afraid you can't even leave the house.

Actually, sometimes you make it all the way to the car, but then you imagine the terror you'll encounter. At the airport, on the street, even inside the grocery store, it's all the same--there will be people, and they will see you; worse, they will expect you to look at them, talk to them, return their smiles. And so you go back inside, where it's safe, and you stay there all day, all night, even when there's no food in the house and you're hungry.

Welcome to my world, where I was powerless as an untreated, unaware sufferer of social anxiety disorder and the depression that grew with it. I'm changing that world with the help of therapy, medication and the rediscovery of my dream.

I was still in New Orleans when I sank to my lowest point. During the season, I'd been able to focus on football enough that I could handle being around the team--even though I feared being brought into my teammates' conversations in the locker room. But the months after my second season with the Saints were the worst. The only friends I had I treated as "do" people: They did things for me like bring me food, take out my dry cleaning. In the eyes of others, I was sure I'd become more aloof, more of a prima donna.

One day I finally realized this wasn't the real me, and fortunately I found the courage to reach out to my best friend back home in San Diego, whose mother did some research and convinced me to go see a therapist. The second-best thing my therapist did for me was take ...