Dan Heilman, BridgeTower Media Newswires
Every job has stress and pressure. But few professionals have an anxiety as an everyday companion the way lawyers do. A Johns Hopkins University study examined more than 100 occupations for anxiety-related issues and found that lawyers suffer from depression and related problems almost four times as often as the other professions studied.
For lawyers, anxiety usually takes the form of a nagging sense of unease that they’re not doing their jobs sufficiently, that they can’t handle the pressure of the profession, or just a general sense of being overwhelmed.
“We see it a lot,” said Amanda Mulfinger, president and owner of Cabot Psychological Services in Edina. “Work is one of the top two or three reasons people cite for anxiety, along with money and relationships.”
The practice of law can create a perfect storm for anxiety, say psychologists, because it combines perfectionism with pessimism. When a profession demands that someone cross every t and dot every i, yet also forces him or her to examine the many ways things could go wrong, an occasional — or chronic — sense of doom is inevitable.
“People I talk to don’t always say, ‘I have anxiety,’ but they identify symptoms,” said Joan Bibelhausen, executive director for Minnesota Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers. “Trouble sleeping, difficulty communicating with people; dreading interaction, panic attacks. As attorneys, we’re prone to that. Stress is built into the profession.”
For lawyers, anxiety can be manifested as a prevalent feeling of unease – a knot in one’s stomach that won’t go away. On the far end of the spectrum, it can mean panic attacks and physical problems.
“Pressure to succeed, as well as the stress related to your ability to assist your clients, can contribute to work-related anxiety, which can become overwhelming if not addressed in a healthy way,” said Shannah Mulvihill, executive director of Mental Health Minnesota (www.mentalhealthmn. org). “Anxiety and stress can be contributing factors to the development of depression, so it is essential that symptoms are addressed before they become serious or unmanageable.”
Worse for solos?
It could be that as a solo practitioner, your anxiety is even more acute. As a firm of one, you know that the sense of dread only increases when you know you have tasks on your desk that you can’t pass off, or that you can’t turn down that case that doesn’t really appeal to you.
“There are different types of anxieties in a large-firm setting,” said Mulfinger. “But when you’re on your own, you might feel like you can’t turn away work, and there’s also the stress of not having people to run things by. Isolation can be a huge risk.”
Bibelhausen added that solos can invite anxiety by being potentially vulnerable to bad advice since they have to make business decisions that fall to others in a firm. “You might see something being described as the best client-generating software ever, and you don’t have an organization around you to vet those things,” she said. “You might decide in haste to jump at it.”
But, she said, lawyers in firms have fewer choices about their work and how it’s prioritized. A way to hold off anxiety for solo lawyers is to acknowledge and embrace the independence that lets you prioritize and handle work as you see fit.
“I’ve talked to people who have gone from a firm to a solo practice and say their stress is less, and I’ve also talked to solos who say they feel overwhelmed,” she said.
Mulfinger said that counseling can help a lawyer who feels as if anxiety is getting in the way of work zero in on the problem and possible solution. Free counseling resources are available via LCL.
Other methods
Anxiety can be managed via a number of organic solutions, including meditation, yoga, deep breathing and progressive muscle relaxation exercises. “Even just taking a breath before opening an email can be helpful,” said Mulvihill. Also, scout the Internet for tips on managing your time, dealing with difficult clients, or addressing the main issue once you’ve identified it.
Arranging to spend time to spend with colleagues can be helpful as a way to unload about work stress. Not necessarily just lawyers, either: Mental Health Minnesota uses a peer-to-peer approach in its work, which Mulvihill says provides a “I’ve been there” approach to anxiety discussions.
“For attorneys, finding support from those who have experienced feelings of being overwhelmed can (help them) to talk about how to manage them,” she said.
More attention now is also being given to proactively dealing with anxiety through mindfulness, or the art of calmly living in the moment rather than obsessing about the past or future. In fact, mindfulness was the focus of a presentation given earlier this month by San Francisco attorney Jeena Cho, co-author of “The Anxious Lawyer,” at LCL’s 40th-anniversary event.
“A lot of lawyers are happy with what they’re doing, but just have bad days,” said Bibelhausen.
“If you can stay true to your passion and remember the positive reasons why you do this for a living, that can keep anxiety from becoming a problem.”
