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By: Samantha Dorn, Staff Writer
The American Bar Association’s (ABA) National Mental Health Day for Law Schools took place on October 10, 2018.[1] On this day, law schools across the country were encouraged to sponsor programs concerning the stigma of depression and anxiety among law school students and lawyers, and how this stigma can be reduced.[2] While this campaign focused on programs and resources available to law students, it is just one of many that have been created to educate all legal practitioners about depression’s prevalence.[3]
The National Institute of Mental Health classifies depression as a serious mood disorder, whose symptoms affect how a person feels, thinks, and handles daily activities.[4] Some of its symptoms include: a persistent sad, anxious, or empty mood; feelings of hopelessness; irritability; loss of interest or pleasure in hobbies and activities; decreased energy; difficulty concentrating; difficulty sleeping; changes in appetite; and thoughts of death or suicide.[5] Doctors diagnose a person with depression if he or she experiences some of these symptoms most of the day, nearly every day, for at least two weeks.[6]
The statistics on the occurrence of depression among lawyers are staggering.[7] Lawyers are more than three times more likely to suffer from depression than other professions.[8] According to a study conducted by the ABA and the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation, twenty-eight percent of lawyers surveyed struggle with depression and nineteen percent with anxiety.[9] The highest incidence of depression and anxiety among lawyers occurs within their first ten years of practice.[10]
There are explanations as to why such a high prevalence of depression and other mental illnesses exist in the legal community. Attorneys are often highly ambitious and over-achieving perfectionists.[11]This can cause attorneys to be less flexible and accommodating towards others than other professionals.[12] Attorneys tend to be more pessimistic than others; however, this is often seen as a positive attribute in the profession because having the ability to see problems and troubles arising is essential to the profession’s idea of “prudence.”[13] Combine this personality with a demanding and highly competitive office environment, and the stage is set for a potential crisis if underlying issues are not resolved.[14] Outside the office, the adversarial nature of the legal profession can have severe consequences on personal relationships when the techniques used to persuade others are applied to friends and loved ones outside the legal world.[15]
Law students are no exception to this trend.[16] But interestingly, the prevalence of depression among students increases the longer they are in school.[17] The Dave Nee Foundation reports that eight to nine percent of students already have depression when they begin law school.[18] This number increases to twenty-seven percent after one semester, thirty-four percent after two semesters, and forty percent after finishing three years of schooling.[19] Like attorneys, law students are constantly under stress, and students are taught to think pessimistically as they learn to “think like a lawyer.”[20] When these are combined with certain factors, such as genetic predisposition or a family history of depression, it again creates that “perfect storm” for depression to present itself.[21]
Many practitioners are very aware that depression exists in higher numbers in the legal field. In spite of this, the stigma surrounding depression that pervades the profession (and society as a whole) prevents many from seeking help.[22] Dan Lukasik—lawyer, speaker, and creator of the blog Lawyers with Depression—sums up this apprehension:
Many lawyers do not seek help for their depression. For those who do, too often they feel ashamed of their struggle. Lawyers are, after all, supposed to be “fixers,” not people with “problems.” But depression can’t be “fixed” by one’s self.[23]
Lukasik is correct; depression cannot be “fixed” by one’s self. Treating a person diagnosed with depression often requires a combination of medication, therapy, and lifestyle changes to help a sufferer overcome the hurdles that it brings.[24] Fortunately, there are resources available (a few of which are listed below) to anyone who may be struggling. Anyone who may be suffering can seek out a professional or a support group for people who are also experiencing the same of what he or she is experiencing.[25] Depression may be a hard battle to fight, but one does not have to fight it alone.
Resources:
Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers – Pennsylvania
Confidential help-line for lawyers and law students within PA
1-888-999-1941
ABA Commission on Lawyer Assistance Programs (CoLAP)
Provides resources and lawyer assistance programs for lawyers in all states and territories
https://www.americanbar.org/groups/lawyer_assistance/
LawLifeline
Mental health resources specifically aimed at law students
Sources:
[1]National Mental Health Day for Law Schools – October 10, 2018,American Bar Association, https://www.americanbar.org/groups/lawyer_assistance/events_cle/mental_health_day/ (Oct. 10, 2018).
[2]Id.
[3]SeeCommission on Lawyer Assistance Programs,American Bar Association, https://www.americanbar.org/groups/lawyer_assistance/ (last visited Oct. 24, 2018).
[4]Depression,National Institute of Mental Health, https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/depression/index.shtml (last visited Oct. 24, 2018).
[5]Id.
[6]Id.
[7]Dan Lukasik, Depression and Hope in the Legal Profession, Lawyers with Depression (Nov. 2, 2016), http://www.lawyerswithdepression.com/articles/depression-hope-legal-profession/.
[8]Id.
[9]Id.
[10]Id.
[11]Tyger Latham, The Depressed Lawyer, Psychology Today, https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/therapy-matters/201105/the-depressed-lawyer (May 2, 2011).
[12]Id.
[13]Martin E. P. Seligman, Why Are Lawyers So Unhappy?, Lawyers with Depression (Nov. 16, 2007), http://www.lawyerswithdepression.com/articles/why-are-lawyers-so-unhappy/.
[14]Latham,supra.
[15]Id.
[16]Lawyers & Depression,Dave Nee Foundation, http://www.daveneefoundation.org/scholarship/
lawyers-and-depression/ (last visited Oct. 24, 2018).
[17]Id.
[18]Id.
[19]Id.
[20]Dan Lukasik, In the Beginning: Depression in Law School, Lawyers with Depression (Sept. 3, 2013), http://www.lawyerswithdepression.com/articles/in-the-beginning-depression-in-law-schools/.
[21]Id.
[22]Lukasik,Depression and Hope in the Legal Profession,supra.
[23]Id.
[24]National Institute of Mental Health, supra.
[25]Depression: What You Need to Know,National Institute on Mental Health, https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/depression-what-you-need-to-know/index.shtml (last visited Oct. 24, 2018).
