Wow, what a powerful piece, and sharing it might just impact the world for the better so much more so than being the world #1 in tennis. It reminds me a lot of another piece from a year ago: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;stories.expost-news.com&#x2F;screw-stigma-im-coming-out-6809e83f355e" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;stories.expost-news.com&#x2F;screw-stigma-im-coming-out-6...</a>.<p>I&#x27;ve learned it can be really dangerous to tie so much of your identity up into something that&#x27;s external and not fully under your control. But maybe that&#x27;s something that&#x27;s particularly true for people predisposed to anxiety? It would be interesting to know if, for example, Fish&#x27;s contemporaries identify at all with what he&#x27;s going through. Maybe it&#x27;s a matter of degree.<p>I&#x27;ve had anxiety issues for most of my life. I&#x27;m 31 now, and until I was about 22, I think my anxiety and related issues were one of the defining features of my life experience. I&#x27;ve never really gotten professional help with them because I only realized what was going on with me in retrospect, after managing to wrestle my anxiety under control, with a lot of support from people close to me. It&#x27;s almost like anxiety cloaks itself so that the sufferer feels like their experience is truly unique and untreatable. I look back and feel silly for having felt that way. But I hope I know enough now to identify anxiety and call for help if it ever rears up again.<p>What has helped for me is a great deal of meditation to reframe what&#x27;s important in my life, taking on of tasks that challenge my fears, seeking balance and diversity in my activity and thought patterns, development of self-awareness of my thought patterns and deeply held assumptions, a very intentional focus decoupling of my self-worth with success in tasks I take on, and being lucky enough to friends patient enough to really shepherd me through some difficult times.<p>What hasn&#x27;t helped are self-medication, over-reliance on any single source of comfort, value and&#x2F;or security, and adherence to belief systems that emphasize extremes.