but things got worse when the baseball season ended.

"From the beginning of the offseason till spring training I was pretty severely depressed," Votto said. "I was dealing with the anxieties of grief and sadness and fear and every single emotion that you can imagine that everybody goes through."

Spring training gave Votto something positive to focus on, and playing two World Baseball Classic games for Canada in front of family and friends in Toronto was "a breath of fresh air." But Votto's grief had not subsided and eventually got the better of him when he was sidelined by dizziness and inner-ear problems in May.

"All my emotions that I had been pushing to the side, that I was dealing with, really struggling with on a daily basis in the winter,they all hit me, and they hit me 100 times more than I had been dealing with all offseason," Votto said.

After his ear recovered, Votto had to be taken out of games in Arizona and San Diego because of anxiety.

"I could tell there was something going on," Votto said. "I felt like I couldn't recover and it was a feeling of anxiety, I had this feeling in my chest."

Two weeks later, during a May 29 game in Milwaukee, Votto had another attack, his worst yet, leaving in the second inning. Feeling "totally overwhelmed," he was placed on the disabled list the following day.

"Going out on the field, I just couldn't do it anymore," Votto said. "The stuff I was dealing with off the field finally seeped its way