Overcoming social anxiety disorder After Ricky Williams won the Heisman Trophy, awarded annually to America’s best college football player, one might have expected that Williams’s future would be filled with nothing but success. But he experienced social anxiety disorder; he had trouble interacting with fans, media, and even friends and family. Fortunately for Mr. Williams, an accurate diagnosis and therapy helped. “After I was diagnosed with social anxiety disorder, I felt immense relief because it meant that there was a name for my suffering. I wasn’t crazy or weird, like I thought for so many years,” said Williams. “Soon [after therapy began] I was able to start acting like the real Ricky Williams” (Anderson, n.d.).