CHICAGO – Lawyers face a number of stress-inducing challenges in the performance of their work that can bring on severe depression and chemical dependency if left untreated, studies show.
Chelsey Castro, director of outreach and clinical programming for the Illinois Lawyers' Assistance Program (LAP), is the author of a treatise on stress in the law profession and the treatment and prevention of mental issues, titled “A Profession in Crisis—We Stepping up to the Plate for Our Colleagues, Recognizing, Understanding and Referring a Colleague in Need.”
“As lawyers we are a vulnerable population,” Castro said in the report, “Recent studies have confirmed that overwhelming stress commonplace in our legal profession disproportionately results in attorneys suffering levels of depression, anxiety, addiction and other serious issues at rates much higher than those in the general population.”
LAP is an Illinois nonprofit based in Chicago that helps lawyers, judges and law students cope with alcohol abuse, drug dependency and mental health issues.
Castro said life challenges, organizational and individual factors all contribute to potentially harmful stress in lawyers.
“This can lead to anxiety, depression, burnout, substance abuse and other unhealthy coping mechanisms,” she said in the report.
LAP researchers have been collecting statistical information on the high rates of mental health issues affecting the law profession such as anxiety and burnout, asking the question, “Why are attorneys a vulnerable population?" Castro said three major categories were determined: life stressors, organizational stressors and individual stressors.
Life stress is the usual anxiety most people face, including marriage problems, problems with children and financial hurdles.
“Organizational stresses are those factors unique to the profession of law,” Castro wrote in her report. “For many attorneys legal practice can be characterized as one of high pressure but little credit.”
As a result, Castro said attorneys often become workhorses for their firms, working the long hours expected as part of the job.
Also an issue is the “zero-sum game.” The legal system by its very nature is adversarial, with competing attorneys and cases having a winner and a loser, Castro wrote. Attorneys rarely walk away from a settlement with everything they wanted, even in contract negotiations with a meeting of the minds. Struggles with the acceptance of it, or losing a case, can result in psychological stress, she wrote.
Contending with a client and performing to their expectations is another major factor in causing high stress levels. Castro noted that attorneys when representing their clients often have to take responsibility for a client’s well-being, his family or even a life-or-death issue.
Castro explained there can be is a lot on the line in a case, causing an enormous amount of pressure to get it right.
Additionally, there is the cultural definition of success unique to the law profession, what law school an attorney attended, who their clients have been, their class ranking, journals they have written for, success rate and the amount they get paid. Though Castro noted there is nothing wrong with striving for success, she added that if a person’s self-worth is defined in this way, they can suffer for it if something goes awry.
Castro said pessimism is a feeling widely shared among lawyers and can be simultaneously beneficial or harmful. She noted that while pessimism can make a person a good lawyer, looking out for the potential problems and issues in a case, focusing on the potential negative can also make a person a bad spouse, bad parent or bad to themselves.
Warning signs that alcohol or other substances are being used as a coping mechanism include increased patterns of consumption and decreased inhibition, mood or appearance changes and change in productivity or quality of work, she wrote.
Castro said help from LAP is free and confidential. She asked attorneys who have a concern about a fellow colleague to tell the colleague about LAP or contact the organization to talk to a clinician.
If a referral is made, an assessment can be scheduled lasting approximately 45 minutes at one of four LAP offices. Castro said an action plan can be created to treat an individual’s condition. Short-term counseling, long-term therapy and peer support with LAP volunteers are among the available options.
LAP can be reached at 312-726-6607 or gethelp@illinoislap.org.