Minor Wisdom

Lawyers, depression, and Charlie Brown

I’ve written here and elsewhere that lawyers are more prone to depression than members of any other depression. But a new study suggests otherwise. According to this report by the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, the legal depression ranks 11th in incidence of major depressive episode.

Bob Ambrogi, who gets the hat tip for this one, surmises that the difference between this study and prior studies may be due to the criteria. Says Bob, “This study focused on occurrences of major depressive episodes, not milder symptoms, which may account for its divergent findings concerning lawyers.”

Of course, the important thing is not where lawyers generally rank on the scale of depression proneness. Depression happens to persons, not to professions. Whether or not you’re in the legal profession, the important thing is to understand the disease and to get help if you see it happening to yourself.

Speaking of depression, have you noticed some of the recent Peanuts Classic comic strips? The recent reruns are from 1960, when Charlie Brown was wrestling with depression. Forty-seven years later, these strips are still wickedly funny, which proves the genius of Charles Schulz.

Another bit about lawyers’ depression, another nerve hit

Last Wednesday, the WSJ Law Blog ran an item titled Are Lawyers Emotional Wrecks?, drawing on a Boston Globe story about a lawyers’ assistance program for lawyers with mental-health problems. The gist of the Globe story is the recent increase in the number of lawyers seeking help for depression. The WSJ Law Blog editor invited readers to comment, and boy, did they ever! Much of the commentary is negative toward the commentators’ individual jobs particularly and the legal profession generally.

Speaking for myself, I enjoy practicing law. By and large, I enjoy the company of the people I work with. In my case, practicing law did not cause depression—if it did, I wouldn’t still be doing it. That said, I do think that the legal profession attracts people who may be prone to depression (e.g. perfectionists), and that the demands of the profession can sometimes be bad for your mental health (e.g. several weeks without a full day off). That’s why all lawyers should know the signs of depression, and should not be bashful about getting help if they spot them. (A good place to start is your primary-care physician.)

“Are law students emotional wrecks?”

This is the question asked by the WSJ Law Blog. The post links to a paper titled Understanding the Negative Effects of Legal Education on Law Students: A Longitudinal Test of Self-Determination Theory, by psychology professor Kennon Sheldon and law professor Lawrence Krieger.

I found the paper itself to be a bit abstract, meaning it’s not the kind of thing I want to read on a Sunday afternoon. The comment thread following the WSJ Law Blog post is, to me, more concrete and more interesting.

Many of the commentators on the WSJ thread seem to regret their decisions to go to law school. Speaking for myself, I did not find my third-tier law school depressing or demoralizing. Overall, law school was interesting, though at times a bit of a grind. It was hard work, but I must say it paid off in improving my income and my lifestyle. Overall, I’m better off today than I would have been had I not gone to law school. Maybe I was lucky.

While I won’t presume to offer anyone advice, I would like to share one bit of my own experience, for what it’s worth. One thing many of the WSJ commentators find demoralizing is the crushing debt they leave law school with: generally around $150,000.  In contrast, my total student-loan debt on leaving law school was, as I recall, somewhere around $9,700. This was partly due to good fortune — financial assistance that paid a good chunk of my tuition. But part of it was my own doing. I chose Loyola’s four-year night program over Tulane’s three-year day program because of dollars and cents. Loyola’s tuition was lower, and by going to school at night, I could keep my day job, which paid my living expenses.

There was a trade-off in this. Night school is certainly the hard way to do law school: work an eight-hour day, then grab dinner at a fast-food restaurant before three hours of classroom time, and spend the entire weekend doing a week’s worth of preparation for next week’s classes. Multiply that by four years instead of the usual three, because when all your classroom time has to be scheduled between 6:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m., law school takes four years. And a less expensive school generally means a less prestigious school, which may mean fewer job interviews. Still, I managed to get a good-enough job with good-enough money, and with relatively little debt, I left law school with no money worries.

Some people advise prospective law students to try to get into the highest-ranked, most-prestigious law school they can. I have a different suggestion: consider the cost. The less debt you have at graduation, the more of your starting salary you’ll get to keep.

The best blog post I ever wrote

On March 16, 2005, I wrote a guest post for Evan Schaeffer’s Legal Underground, titled Depression, the Lawyers’ Epidemic. Two years later, it still draws comments.

One way to develop a psychiatric practice

I’ve just figured out that my psychiatrist’s office has a secret plan for developing its practice: drive people crazy while they’re sitting in the waiting room. They do this by playing a local soft-rock radio station. The last two times in a row that I went there, I was subjected to Don't Go Breaking My Heart and Careless Whisper before the doctor finally saw me. Coincidence? I don’t think so.

... and damned if you don’t

A couple of years ago, studies indicated that some children and teens taking antidepressants were at increased risk of suicidal thoughts and behavior. At the time, I thought that anyone eligible for an antidepressant prescription is, by definition, at increased risk of suicidal thoughts and behavior. Nevertheless, the FDA ordered antidepressant manufacturers to provide a warning about the possible link between antidepressants and suicidal thoughts and behavior among children and teens.

Now, two years later, another study finds a recent spike in youth suicides. The spike coincides with the FDA order referred to above. It seems that the warning is accomplishing its immediate goal: fewer youngsters are taking the medicine. Whether the warning is accomplishing its ultimate goal seems open to question.

(Hat tip to Drug & Device Law.)

Whipping depression

Some Russian scientists have come up with a new way to whip depression. Pravda reports:

"... If a depressed individual receives a physical punishment, whipping that is, it will stir up endorphin receptors, activate the 'production of happiness' and eventually remove depressive feelings.

"Russian scientists recommend the following course of the whipping therapy: 30 sessions of 60 whips on the buttocks in every procedure...."

This, uh, therapy apparently works best when administered by someone of the opposite sex. According to lead scientiest Sergei Speransky, there's just one drawback:  "[I]t will take a certain time for the buttocks to heal, of course."

Maybe that Silas character in The Da Vinci Code was on to something.

Hat tip to Improbable Research.

Think fast

Can you feel better simply by making yourself think faster? Yes you can, according to a study reported recently on Cognitive Daily. The study suggests that the pace of thought has more effect on affect than the content of thought; that is, thinking fast about depressing thoughts is more uplifting than thinking slowly about uplifting thought. This may explain the popularity of rock-and-roll and hip-hop. (Hat tip to Scott Adams.)

Lawyers and depression: Three case studies

Here is an article by Owen Kelly, Ph.D., outlining three fictional cases of lawyers with depression. Do any of the three sound like someone you know?

1. [Pierre] He no longer enjoys things they way he used to and he feels a profound sense of sadness just about every day; so much so that he feels utterly hopeless about his future. To make matters worse, Pierre's previously healthy appetite has evaporated and he often finds himself waking up very early in the morning and unable to fall back asleep. Although Pierre has always enjoyed hockey and weight-training, lately he has found that he just doesn’t have the energy to do much of anything.  At work, he has been scraping by and cannot seem to concentrate or make quick decisions, both of which have conspired to send his self-esteem and sense of worth into a tailspin.
2. [Alia] has taken on an extraordinary number of cases and often works three or four days straight without sleeping or so much as a quick nap, yet she remains completely functional.  Recently, friends have remarked that Alia seems to be much more talkative than usual, almost as if she cannot get out the words fast enough.  Alia herself has noticed that she seems to have a million thoughts racing through her head at any given time and that she is hopelessly distracted. Although Alia has been generating a lot of revenue through her increased caseload, she's been prone to wild spending sprees, racking up $17,000 in credit card bills in just the last two weeks.
3. Rahim does not remember a period where he has been truly happy—he has always felt a sense of sadness about himself even though he has a loving family. Although intelligent, he suffers from low self-esteem and has always been plagued by poor sleep and low levels of energy.  Rahim is functional at work, however, he definitely feels that he has not excelled in his career the way he could have, which he attributes largely to a crippling talent for procrastination about making important decisions, as well as his difficulty concentrating. Although Rahim feels that he certainly isn't a miserable as he could be, he feels burdened by a nagging sense of hopeless about his situation and worries that he might get even worse one day.

These three cases respectively describe major depression, bipolar disorder, and dysthymia. As explained in Dr. Kelly's article, all three are treatable.

(Hat tip to Dan Hull.)

All in the family

I am now the proud owner of a cat (Ash Wednesday, pictured above) on antidepressants (also pictured above, and below). It seems that during the Katrina evacuation, she started biting hair off her tummy and legs. We thought she'd get over it once we returned home, but more than a year later, she still has bald patches. Today she had her annual veterinary checkup, and the good doctor prescribed Elavil. (Click on either photo to enlarge.)