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Lawyer Well-Being & Mental Health: Massachusetts LAP Blog

A Story of Hope and Redemption

Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers means many things to many people. Ideally those that seek its services do so before their personal challenges result in professional problems.

I’m a regular member of LCL’s Professional Conduct Group, a group made up of attorneys who have been subject to some form of Board of Bar Overseers discipline. Members represent every stage of the disciplinary process: Most have already been subject to a sanction, be it suspension, or disbarment. Some are in the very earliest stages of the disciplinary process and may even still be practicing pending a temporary suspension or some other, lesser disposition of their matter. Others have already done their time as it were and have already been successfully reinstated to the practice of law. It’s a testament to the importance and power of this group that those lawyers, the reinstated ones, who are under no obligation or mandate to come to this group, continue to do so, in many cases years after they’ve returned to the practice of law.

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Shedding Some Light on Blackouts

In her new book, Blackout: Remembering the Things I Drank to Forget, Sarah Hepola looks back on and illuminates her drinking life, a time when she recurrently found herself awakening in the bed of a stranger and told herself that it meant that she was free and empowered rather than imprisoned in a horror show. Sarah experienced drinking as a doorway to feeling better about herself – her intellect, her body – and, as it is for many alcoholics, sexual behavior and alcohol consumption became intertwined. To hear Terry Gross’ interview with this author, who is very open about her story, click here.

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Re-entering the job market through the OnRamp Fellowship

Today’s legal job market is competitive. With the number of law school graduates exceeding the number of law firm job openings, many struggle to find a way into a job working in a law firm. On top of this, many experience law firms as looking for a very specific resume and feeling as though they need to fit into a cookie cutter mold and surrender over their lives in order to get hired. Historically, there have been significant gender differences in the practice of law which can be grossly summarized as large firm culture has favored men. Women lawyers often report that their experience as associates in large firms is significantly less satisfying (as in their compensation) than their male counterparts (you can read more here and here).

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Tips on winning the fight against anxiety – Tip #1: Cheat

Growing up we all learned that games have rules and you have to play by those rules, otherwise you are cheating. And cheating is bad. If you cheated you were considered a poor sport, someone who couldn’t play nice with others, or someone who just always wanted their way at all costs. Again, all bad. So it’s no wonder that we resist the idea of breaking the agreed-upon rules. So how does this translate into a tip to fight against anxiety? Stay with me.

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Change is BAD! Or at least, that’s how it can feel at first.

There is comfort in predictability. This is one of the reasons we develop routines and habits. In fact, the more comforting our routine, the more painful it is to change it. To put it simply, deep down inside we often times would prefer the comfort of a bad habit to the uncertainty of a potentially positive change (that’s why it is so difficult to change habits – even bad habits). Despite the negative aspects of our routines, the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t. This principle of resisting change contributes to the fact that the only reason we give in to change is when our status quo becomes too uncomfortable. Sometimes the motivating discomfort comes from within you (feeling bad about the status quo) and sometimes it comes from the environment (new jobs require learning new skills).

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