It was announced yesterday that Aubrey Huff will be placed on the disabled list due to an anxiety disorder, which explains why the first baseman and outfielder suddenly left the Giants. "Obviously, we’re putting Huff on the DL. The reason is, he had an episode of anxiety," Giants Manager Bruce Bochy said. "He's gotten some treatment and he’ll continue to get treatment. He’s going to meet us in San Francisco when we get back, but we can’t keep going short." And with that, a couple of local media figures came out of the proverbial closet with their own mental health issues. For starters, SFGate scribe Henry Schulman made his own issues public on Wednesday:

Before I continue this story, I need to disclose something. I have struggled with whether to say this publicly, and how to do it, but this gives me a good opening. Since 2009 I have been treated for depression, in therapy and medicinally, and continue to be treated. Many awful things happened to me and people around me in a very short time, and my mental health was affected. Anxiety and panic attacks were part of it.

I say this, then, from experience. Everybody will have an opinion about what set this off, but you can’t know, and it’s possible Huff doesn’t know. Sometimes a panic attack just happens.

Local blogger Rich Lieberman also mentioned his own bout with depression and anxiety, saying:

Depression and anxiety are terrible. I have to be open. I too have had, and continue to experience depression and have had anxiety attacks for a good many years. It is hell.

Without too much information, (at least for now), I just offer out my deepest sympathies to Aubrey Huff and hope he gets better. Life is bigger than baseball.

According to Schulman, Huff will "address the subject in San Francisco when he returns Friday or Saturday." We have to hand it to Huff (and Schulman and Lieberman) for making something so touchy as mental health less taboo (especially for men in the manly world of macho sports) by going public.