Lawyers are not alone in facing stress. The medical profession is about life and death. “However, when a surgeon goes into surgery,” an internet commentator observed, “they don’t send another physician in to try to kill the patient. Everyone is on the same team doing the same job.”
Lawyers, however, have no escape from conflict. They have to struggle with the client, the lawyer on the other side, judges, insurance companies, regulators.
Time is another foe, with pressures to bill according to the hours worked. The career ladder for a young lawyer is challenging. Once partnership is reached, there are fresh pressures – as well as competition – to bring in more work.
Overworked, fatigued, and isolated
Many lawyers work long hours at the expense of time with family and friends. They feel overworked, fatigued, and isolated.
They may wield authority and control over events professionally but, in their personal lives, they may feel powerless, hopeless, and trapped by circumstances – making life seem like a meaningless treadmill.
Successful outwardly, they are suffering and struggling inside. Often, they do so alone and in silence.
If we are physically wounded and bleeding, our pain is visible and can be tended to without shame. However, emotional pain is often invisible to others. Feeling bad and not coping runs counter to the lawyer’s role: the strong advisor on whom anxious clients can depend.
So, the lawyer struggling with depression may feel compelled to keep performing, even after reaching breaking point.
Little miracles
There is hope, however. Let’s recognise the little miracles we perform every day in doing the work we do under pressure and treat ourselves with the compassion we would automatically extend to others.
It is possible to change one’s relationship with work, to recalibrate our lives, to find deeper purpose and meaning, and to tend to the more vulnerable part of ourselves.