Lawyer Megan Zavieh writes, “My purpose is to encourage attorneys to stop buying into the “Superman complex” — the idea that nothing is going to hurt you — and consider the ramifications of not taking care of yourself.” Read her Blog
Cautionary Takes of Personal Burnout
The Happy Horizon Keeps Unhappy Lawyers Stuck
Lawyer Jennifer Alvey writes, “I’d be willing to bet more than 80% of you live with a Happy Horizon in your head. The Happy Horizon is the fantasy you use to convince yourself that all your angst over your job is just a temporary blip, rather than the actual contours of your daily existence.” Read her Blog
Shake It Off? Not So Easy for People with Depression, New Brain Research Suggests
A new study reports that getting rejected hurts depressed people for longer due to a lack of a natural pain and stress-reducing chemical. Read the News
How People Become Resilient
Maria Konnilova writes in The New Yorker magazine, “Resilience presents a challenge for psychologists. Whether you can be said to have it or not largely depends not on any particular psychological test but on the way your life unfolds. If you are lucky enough to never experience any sort of adversity, we won’t know how resilient you are. It’s only when you’re faced with obstacles, stress, and other environmental threats that resilience, or the lack of it, emerges: Do you succumb or do you surmount?” Read her Article
3 Lies Lawyers Should Stop Telling Themselves
Lawyer and author of the new book, “The Anxious Lawyer: An Eight-week Guide to a Happier, Saner Law Practice Using Mindfulness,” Jenna Cho writes that lawyers tell themselves three big lies: that they aren’t good enough, that more is better and that they must sacrifice themselves and their well-being for others. Read her Blog
Time to Talk, Depressed Lawyers. To Yourself
Jennifer Alvey writes, “Depression for lawyers is not solely due to external influences or chemical imbalances. A notable chunk of it also stems from our self-talk. Lawyers, as I’ve written about before, tend to be a pessimistic lot. Let your worst-case scenario work filter become your life filter, and you’ve got an inner life that leads straight to a lot of hopelessness. Living the ‘always look on the dark side’ kind of life means that you won’t see possibilities.” Read her Blog
Meditation, Aerobic Exercise Combo Cuts Depression by 40 Percent
A new study has found that following two sessions combining meditation and aerobic exercise per week for two months can reduce the symptoms of depression by 40 percent. Read the News
How to Break that Vicious Cycle of Anxiety We Lawyers Suffer From
Casey Berman writes, “Now, we can’t blame the practice of law in general for every not-so-good emotion and thought we have, but it is safe to say that many of us lawyers who yearn to leave law behind suffer from a great deal of anxiety that is directly caused by our jobs. For many of us lawyers, our default position is to be stressed.” Read his Blog
The Legal Profession’s Drinking Problem
CNN reports the findings of a new study which found that approximately 15,000 currently employed attorneys reveals that between 21% and 36% drink at levels consistent with an alcohol use disorder. For comparison, those numbers are roughly 3-5 times higher than the government estimates for alcohol use disorders in the general population. The study also uncovered similarly alarming rates of depression and anxiety, while further identifying why it is that most lawyers don’t seek help: a pervasive fear of harming their reputation. Read the News
Depression Defies Rationality: Sad on a Sunny Day
Kerri K. Morris writes in the Chicago Tribune, “A few months ago, I told a friend at work that I struggle with depression. She was surprised and said, ‘How can you be depressed with your job and your family? You don’t have any problems.’ I swallowed hard. But, then I stopped and realized, I’m not depressed because of these things. It’s not cause and effect. It’s depression, and depression defies rationality. It doesn’t follow the laws of physics or of logic. Read her Blog
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