March 2008

It Takes Courage

by Abby Smith

Think about this research finding for a moment: One study of the general population found that most people were more willing to tell their employer that they had committed a petty crime and served time in jail than to admit to being in a psychiatric hospital for treatment of mental illness.

Stigma, the definition of which is "a mark of disgrace or infamy," is one of the most insidious aspects of our culture's attitude toward any type of mental health problem or addiction. Consequently, it takes courage to walk through the doors of a counseling office. Those seeking help with these issues must first find the courage to face down the stigma before they can get the help they need.

It can be unimaginably difficult to call the WSBA office and ask for help with an addiction, or admit that stress and anxiety are so overwhelming that you've been avoiding work. Fortunately, lawyers do so every day. A typical lawyer who receives services at the WSBA Lawyers Assistance Program (LAP) comes in to solve problems that are causing — or have the potential to cause — his or her work to suffer. Many are lawyers whose resources are limited and who have debts to pay off or families to support. The sliding-fee scale at LAP provides access to professional mental health and addiction counseling at an affordable cost.

Although the lawyers and scenarios that follow are fictional, they are representative of the work we do here at LAP.

Relationship Problem Spills Over

On a typical afternoon at LAP, I took a phone call from a lawyer seeking help. "I need to talk to someone," he told me. "My girlfriend left me a couple of months ago and I haven't been able to pull myself together. I'm avoiding work and I don't know what to do."

We talked on the phone for a few minutes and he agreed to make an appointment. When he entered my office later that week he immediately apologized for taking up my time, saying, "I should really be over this by now." Later on in our session, he told me that he hadn't been sleeping, was eating only once or so a day, and living on energy drinks and lattes. He'd tried working out daily and talking to friends, but still found himself distracted and anxious and wasn't getting much work done. He worked in a small firm, and people were starting to notice that he wasn't in the office much. His billable hours were dropping.

After several sessions helping him learn and practice tools for relaxing and managing his anxiety, we both agreed that he needed some help with organizing his practice. Admittedly, he wasn't well-organized; his firm owned software he never used, and he felt guilty and anxious about it, which wasn't helping. He was afraid someone at his firm would discover the disorganization in his paperwork and he would lose his job. He called the WSBA Law Office Management Assistance Program (LOMAP) and got started. Over the next few months, as he gained traction on the organization of his practice, he became less anxious about it. His counseling at LAP helped him work through the loss of his relationship, manage anxiety, and make healthy choices about his life while he used the services of LOMAP to better organize his practice.

Poor practice management is a common reason that our clients feel stressed and overwhelmed. Fortunately, LOMAP is just next door to assist with solutions. But sometimes lawyers don't make it in the doors of LAP or LOMAP, and none of this help reaches them. Lawyers who believe that if they seek help they will be treated differently by their colleagues are reluctant to let anyone know that they even have a problem. Others don't ask for help because they think competent people should be able to handle problems themselves. That's unfortunate, because they miss an opportunity for support from sympathetic colleagues as well as professional guidance.

Statewide Help from Peer Counselors

Another caller to LAP was fresh from an inpatient chemical dependency treatment center. She lived outside the Seattle area, and her inpatient counselor at the center instructed her to call LAP when she got home. She wasn't sure what to expect, but since the treatment center told her to call, she complied. After a few minutes on the phone, I told her about LAP's peer counselors, and she was interested. Peer counselors are lawyers who volunteer to serve other lawyers. There are peer counselors in many locations around the state. Peer counselors have walked the same road themselves — through recovery from addiction or another type of problem — so they know the territory. Within several days, the caller had a peer counselor and they soon met for coffee. She called a few days later to set up a counseling session by telephone, "just to make sure I'm going in the right direction."

This experience made me grateful for our peer counselors. Once the caller got home from inpatient treatment, she had been doing so well at not drinking that she had pretty much talked herself out of following through with an outpatient treatment program. Unfortunately, she started going out to bars with friends and falling back into old habits. She seemed to be on the way to a relapse. Fortunately, her peer counselor had spotted the signs, shared her concerns, and encouraged her to get help before she had a relapse. In our telephone session, she said she was ready to look for continuing care, so I helped find an outpatient program in her area.

Naturally, we help lawyers who are headed for trouble, but we also help lawyers find and maintain balance and a sense of health in their personal and professional lives. If an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, then LAP's services are surely that ounce of prevention for the lawyers who overcome the stigma about seeking help.  

Abby Smith, MA, LMHC, CDP, is the addictions counselor for the WSBA Lawyers Assistance Program. She has 19 years of experience in the addictions and mental health fields. She can be reached at 206-733-5988 or 800-945-9722, ext. 5988, or abbys@wsba.org.