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Are You Caught in the Stress Cycle?

From MSNBC.com

According to the principles of The Highlands Program, when you're in the Stress Cycle, stress, anxiety and depression build to the point of crisis, and the crisis precipitates change. If you're in what the program describes as the Balance Cycle, you approach turning points with a blueprint for making decisions, treating these significant moments as an opportunity to improve your life. Are you in the Balance Cycle? Let the following quiz help you decide.

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Coping In Law School

We know that life in law school can be extremely stressful. Along with our information on depression, addiction, alcohol, drugs, gambling and other resources on the left of this page, we've also found this excellent set of resources on coping at law school from Florida State University School of Law. Just click the link below and the page will open in another window. You can also ask one of our counselors a question anonymously anytime by clicking the "comments" link below.

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Humanizing Law School

Originally published in Student Lawyer, November 2002 (Vol. 31, No. 3)

Humanizing Law School

Some professors are helping their students march through law school with their values and self-esteem intact—en route to becoming happier lawyers

by Jane Easter Bahls

If you’re a typical law student, you may be feeling depressed and disconnected from what you used to believe. But don’t take it personally, and don’t despair even further. Research shows you’re far from alone, and there are simple things you and your professors can do about it.

That’s the gist of the gospel from a small but energetic movement within legal academia to "humanize" the law school experience. Adherents are not only documenting a high degree of depression among law students and lawyers. They’re also working to alleviate it by encouraging students to get in touch with their core values.

Studies finding unusually high levels of distress among law students and lawyers lend evidence to the reformers’ efforts. Research by psychologist Andrew Benjamin, for instance, showed that significant numbers of law students at the University of Arizona were psychologically healthy when they arrived, but within the first year developed major psychological distress that remained through law school and into the graduates’ careers. Anxiety, hostility, and depression ran eight to 15 times higher than in the general population.

The Seeds of Law School Stress

From The Journal of College & Character at www.CollegeValues.org © Center for The Study of Values in College Student Development, Author's Rights Reserved.

In his incisive article, Roasting the Seeds of Law School Stress, Lawrence S. Krieger of Florida State University focuses on law school students and the unique pressures they face, with an emphasis on moral and spiritual welfare and sound advice on managing stress.

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Law Students & Depression

Originally published in Student Lawyer, November 2002 (Vol. 31, No. 3)

Student depression becomes an issue of faculty concern

by Herbert N. Ramy

Law student stress and depression are problems that have become national in scope. While students enter law school suffering from clinical stress and depression at a rate that mirrors the national average, this number skyrockets during the first year of law school. Studies have shown that law students suffer from clinical stress and depression at a rate that is three to four times higher than the national average.

These same studies indicate that student stress rises steadily through the third year of law school and then improves only moderately after graduation. At this point, law students show signs of stress that is twice the national average. Unfortunately, this sad story continues after law school. Lawyers are more likely to suffer from clinical depression, marital difficulties, and substance abuse than are any other professionals.

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Law School & Stress

You can find this letter and many other valuable resources for law students here at the Florida State University College of Law's page, Humanizing Law School.

The following is an open letter to law students from Dr. Andrew Benjamin, who for many years was cross-appointed to both the law and medical schools at the University of Washington. He is an expert in the field of attorneys, depression and stress, and has a great deal of experience in counseling law students and lawyers. He is also a member of the ABA's Commission on Lawyers Assistance Programs' Law School Outreach Committee.

THE ROLE OF LAW SCHOOL IN PRODUCING PSYCHOLOGICAL DISTRESS
REVISITED

INTRODUCTION
Dear Law Students, you are not going crazy!

For more than two decades strong, methodologically sound, empirical research has demonstrated that law schools have failed to prepare many students to cope effectively with the demands of the educational process as well as with the demands of daily life associated with the law [See, Benjamin, Kazniak, Sales & Shanfield (1986). The role of legal education in producing psychological distress among law students and lawyers. American Bar Foundation Research Journal, 1986, 225-252. Most recently, see, Sheldon and Krieger (submitted for publication and available from authors) Does legal education have negative effects on law students? Evaluating changes in motivation, values, and wellbeing]. It also appears that the negative effects of law school process continue to afflict many of us who have survived law school [See, Benjamin, Darling & Sales (1990). The prevalence of depression, alcohol abuse, and cocaine abuse among United States lawyers. International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 13(3), 233-246].

This letter discusses some of the harmful psychosocial consequences (e.g., depression, anxiety, stress-induced physical illness, interpersonal problems, alcohol/drug abuse, and obsessive/compulsive behavior) that the law school acculturation process typically produces in many students. It also discusses what law students can do to insulate themselves from the potentially noxious effects of law school.

Under the Influence

Originally published in Student Lawyer magazine, December 2003 (Vol. 32, No. 4). All rights reserved.

Drug and alcohol dependence affects law student's health and
their prospects for bar admission. Law schools and legal groups
are working to raise awareness of the problem and develop solutions,
but the task isn't easy.

by Cynthia L. Cooper
(Cynthia L. Cooper is a lawyer and writer in New York City.)

Law school without liquor poses a serious problem for Jana Pritchard.
The 29-year-old law student in Chicago, who's halfway through her
J.D. program, is a self-confessed binge drinker-"wine, beer,
mixed drinks, shots on occasion, pretty much anything," she
says. She tried giving up alcohol for a while in law school, but,
within months, she started again.

"The thought of making it through law school without drinking
is stultifying," says Pritchard (who, like some other students
interviewed for this article, chose a pseudonym for herself). "'Celebrate
your victories and drown your defeats.' The law school culture supports
that." She notes an irony of law school orientation: A talk
on substance abuse is followed by an event at which everyone goes
out and gets drunk.