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anxiety/depression can have severe physical effects and cognitive effects; the brain has a way of controlling the body that we don't quite understand yet, other than just looking at it like the brain 'convinces' the body/subconscious...this can also be helpful in fighting ailments, but obviously it's not easy to do (think Tibetan Monks)

of1000kings wrote:anxiety/depression can have severe physical effects and cognitive effects; the brain has a way of controlling the body that we don't quite understand yet, other than just looking at it like the brain 'convinces' the body/subconscious...this can also be helpful in fighting ailments, but obviously it's not easy to do (think Tibetan Monks)

You may have a point, but I still find it difficult to swallow that anxiety would affect defensive range.....maybe I'm wrong.

I've read this in an entirely different way than the rest of you, apparently. I think what they're doing could be helpful in the short term while he does whatever counseling or therapy for the long term.

I saw this as Greene is putting himself under too much personal pressure. He can't stop thinking about it even after he's left the stadium at the end of the day. If he's berating himself, visualizing himself as a failure, then he freezes up and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy. Then he repeats the cycle. If he's told he won't start, he can't dwell on what his performance might be. He's called in from the bench, he has little time to think about his situation. Hopefully he'll simply react to plays and pitches instead of overthinking them. The more positive memories you can build on the field, the easier any therapy can become. The opposite - taking him away while things are poor - he will still have to face that anxiety when you put him back in game situations.

It seems to me LaRussa is trying to give him situations in which to succeed and build upon. Slowly get back on the horse, rather than take the horse away and then expect professional performace when he returned. If you DL him, that anxiety is still out there on the field - waiting for him.

docellis wrote:They said he is "punishing himself"...which could mean cutting, punching walls, etc...

and he confirmed this.

st.lewis11 wrote:

of1000kings wrote:anxiety/depression can have severe physical effects and cognitive effects; the brain has a way of controlling the body that we don't quite understand yet, other than just looking at it like the brain 'convinces' the body/subconscious...this can also be helpful in fighting ailments, but obviously it's not easy to do (think Tibetan Monks)

You may have a point, but I still find it difficult to swallow that anxiety would affect defensive range.....maybe I'm wrong.

anxiety can absolutely affect focus and, I'd imagine, thus affect reaction time.

docellis wrote:

docellis wrote:They said he is "punishing himself"...which could mean cutting, punching walls, etc...

and he confirmed this.

details?

Catching up on this thread, and I was just about to suggest (before I saw the last bit from Bernie) they were holding off on DL'ing Khalil until they get Carp and/or Ankiel back on the active roster. Carp is coming back tomorrow; Ankiel is eligible to come off the DL tomorrow as well.

So, my guess is that they'll DL Greene when Ankiel is activated, and hopefully Khalil can get the proper treatment that he needs. I only hope that whatever that treatment is doesn't dull him to the point where he can't play any more - those of us who've been on antidepressants, for example, know full well the zombificating effects they have.

(This trade is starting to look like one of those "bad for both teams" trades, the likes of which we haven't seen since the 1997 deal we made with the Padres - they got Jackson, Batchelor, and Sweeney; we got Valenzuela, Plantier, and Livingstone.)

Still don't know who gets sent down to make room for Carpenter - Thompson is the guy with options, but Boyer may be on tenterhooks after his bad outing the other day (which all but negated the positive strides he had been making). Problem with Boyer, of course, is that he can't be sent down without being DFA'd - which is how we got him in the first place when Atlanta wanted to send him down to make room for Jo-Jo Reyes.

cardsfansince82 wrote:

docellis wrote:

docellis wrote:They said he is "punishing himself"...which could mean cutting, punching walls, etc...

and he confirmed this.

details?

I haven't had a chance to look at stltoday but they were talking about it on the radio and used those terms and said it was "in the article"...

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/sports ... enDocument

Greene admitted to feeling increasingly overwhelmed by his situation and did not dispute accounts that he has several times punished himself physically.

Several team members have expressed concern about the degree of Greene's self-punishment.

"That's the way it's always been," Greene said, referring to his condition's compulsive nature. "It's not rational. It's not something I think as an intelligent thinking human being. ... I understand the disorder of it. It just doesn't help."

Some players and even managers just can't handle the pressure.