The Stress

It begins for those in our profession the moment you decide to attend law school. We stress about the LSAT, getting into the best school, beating 1L, getting onto law review, setting up a job, getting a clerkship, publishing our student notes and comments, passing the bar, and so on. Are lawyers just creatures of stress due to the overwhelming amount of type-A’s in our midst? Or, does the work in this field simply facilitate anxiety? Whatever the reason, excessive stress is problematic, and can lead to other mental and physical health issues, including depression. In fact, I recently observed a thread in an online forum where prospective bar exam takers were utilizing hypnosis to counter the extremely high level of anxiety they were experiencing in preparing for the bar exam--there has to be a better way.

To that end, Damien Carrick, of ABC Radio National (Australia), discussed this issue in depth on the April 6th edition of his radio program, the Law Report. In particular, he spoke with various attorneys and medical professionals who offer advice on various measures you might consider taking if you’re a lawyer suffering from high levels of stress.

This is an issue that I believe is not taken seriously enough by most legal professionals, so check out the transcript.