High rates of alcohol abuse, depression among attorneys

Personally, I haven't seen the alcohol abuse. Most people I work with are squares. Anxiety? Yes. Depression? Probably.

High rates of alcohol abuse, depression among U.S. attorneys, study says

 

Higher than among journalists? I tend to doubt it.

 

Not from what I've observed.

 

I'd like to know the methodology. It mentions frequency. I drink frequently, for example. But moderately. Would I be in the 20 percent?

 

This is not news. Weekday AA meetings in cities are filled with attorneys. Anybody who has dealt with lawyers helping lawyers programs or board discipline sees how frequently alcohol is the basis of any problem.

 

Before reading up on the OJ case when American Crime Story started the other day, I had forgotten about F. Lee Bailey's flask of "coffee" in the courtroom.

 

My fiancee is an attorney and most of her friends are attorneys. I agree with Dick. They all seem to be neurotic squares. It's a rural area, though. That might make a difference.

 

Surprised its just alcohol to be honest. Knew a couple heavy into coke.

 

Ban the legal profession.

 

I've heard a theory that depression and addiction tend to go untreated in lawyers because they fear disbarment, but I'm not sure how much it has been formally studied.

 

I think that's definitely a factor among law students, because of all of the reporting you have to do on the Character and Fitness application. Our dean of students told us that if we were so much as hassled by a mall cop, we better report that, in case there's a record of it that they scare up. I reported getting suspended for tardies in 7th grade. (And I'm glad I did - the Bar contacted me for the address and phone number of my junior high. So I guess they'd have found it, if the record existed.)

I was written up freshman year of college for drinking in the dorm. I called the school to see if there was still a record. There wasn't. But I reported it anyway.