Owning Up to Depression
This month’s ABA Journal cover story “A Death in the Office” chronicles the life and death of Mark Levy, a prominent and talented appellate lawyer who killed himself after the Washington law firm of Kilpatrick Stockton terminated his employment in a cost-cutting move.
The article and readers’ online comments travel a well-worn path with an oft-repeated but largely irrelevant question: who’s to blame? Levy? The firm? The article suggests Levy was invested in his work, had few outside interests, and was of a generation whose self worth is tied up with work status. It suggested that the firm could have done more to ease its cost-cutting move, perhaps offer Levy an office to use while he searched for a new job.
But the article did not adequately examine a serious issue: why have we not made meaningful progress. The profession, you and me, create the pressures, the expectations, and often the environment where depression and mental health 
issues take root, but are then hidden away. Lawyers are often expected to be perfect, if not for our firms then for our clients. And unlike diabetes or cancer or even a serious bout of the flu, depression is seen as a flaw, a weakness, something that can even disqualify you from being an attorney. So, faced with the thought that revealing a perceived weakness will seriously damage a career, it’s no wonder that lawyers take extreme measures to hide it. From this perspective, it’s not surprising that none of Levy’s colleagues apparently knew about his anguish. He was apparently masterful at keeping it secret. But, we have to admit, he was that way because our profession demands it.
Answer this: would the average lawyer – would you — admit to suffering from depression? Would you seek help from a colleague, file for health insurance coverage through your employer, or confide in a partner or colleague? How would you counsel an attorney if he told you about his difficulties with depression? We generally know what to do when a coworker comes to us and discloses that he or she has been diagnosed with cancer. But we’re not comfortable or clear about counseling those among us who suffer from depression. While resources have become easier to find through groups like Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers, have our attitudes about depression kept up with these changes?
Lawyers are smart and talented, but they are human and imperfect. The statistics are clear that we suffer disproportionately from depression. Collectively, then, can we look in the mirror and say, each one of us, that we own this issue – the acceptance of depression as a disease that can be treated?
Posted by Nancy Hupp
Joan Bibelhausen
The good news is that more and more people are calling Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers and that they are calling earlier in their illnesses. But this is still the tip of the iceberg. When LCL offers CLE programs about depression or other mental illnesses or about alcoholism and other chemical or compulsive behavior issues, we are awarded Elimination of Bias credit because there is STIGMA. It’s because of this stigma that we don’t ask for help. We do experience depression more often than most – 3.6 times as often according to a Johns Hopkins study. More tragic is that we complete suicide nearly six times as often – partly because of our tendency toward perfection. If we make the decision to take our life, we are less likely to fail.
LCL started out as an organization that worked with alcoholics. We’ve expanded to offer help for any issue that causes a lawyer, judge or law student, or their immediate family member, stress or distress. Through us you can receive up to four free counseling sessions and appropriate referrals for additional help if needed. Sometimes four is enough as you figure out how to deal with some of the curve balls life throws you, and by dealing with it early you learn self care that may lessen the likelihood of depression. Other times it’s a way to enter into significant professional assistance. There is also free 24 hour telephone counseling available. Every day. We’ve spent some time with the counselors you may meet with, telling them about the lives lawyers lead so you don’t have to start at the beginning. The folks who answer the phone at night, also counselors, don’t have that training but if you want to talk to someone at 3 a.m. it may not matter as much what you do for a living.
LCL’s peer support network continues to grow and we need people who have come out on the other side of this to be available to their brothers and sisters in the law to say I know how you feel. I’ve been there. And it can get better. In fact it can become better than you ever imagined.
We’re available across the state. Everything we do is confidential. Call us if you need help. Call us if you can help. 651-646-5590, 866-525-6466, help@mnlcl.org
Gary K. Wood
I am a lawyer depression. I treat it with medication, therapy, and daily acts of compassion. Treatment doesn’t cure depression or alcoholism. LCL is not funded sufficiently to assist everyone who needs service. Depression often interferes with the ability to practice law, resulting in appropriate discipline, as it has with me. Don’t wait. Talk to others as people, not revenue streams or profit centers. Practice selflessness. Reach out. Get out of your own head. Use structure to ease pressure.