If Professor Daniel Gilbert is right, then you are wrong to believe that a new car will make you as happy as you imagine it will. You are wrong to believe that finally getting that big case in will make you as happy for as long as you might imagine. On the other hand, if […]
A lawyer (let’s call him Joe) comes home every day and pours a big drink into a Bobcats cup, goes into his den and closes the door. Because his wife has been complaining about his drinking he has started keeping a bottle in the car, so he had had a couple of long pulls even […]
One of the leading mental health issues facing lawyers, including lawyers suffering from alcohol addiction or depression, is anxiety. Anxiety can be a terrible emotional experience. It is a feeling that something horrible is about to happen, that is not actually happening. A mechanism in our body has been triggered to put us into a […]
One of the questions I get asked over and over in meetings with local bars across the state is, “Are lawyers really that much more likely to become alcoholics or drug addicts?” Or, said another way, are lawyers more apt than others to contract addictive disease? The statistics for the general population reflect that approximately […]
One morning I went to a place beyond dawn. A source of sweetness that flows and is never less. I have been shown a beauty that would confuse both worlds, but I won’t cause that uproar. – ‘Rumi No matter how we grow up -wealthy or poor, well loved or forsaken – we form a view of life. […]
One of the great difficulties these days with contracting a serious illness is that the disease makes us tired, emotional, vulnerable, and uncertain at a time when we most need to be mentally sharp, resourceful and diligent in order to reach out and determine the most effective treatment. This is especially true with diseases like […]
In a recent column, I mentioned the results of Mary Howerton’s doctoral research. Mary is the former director of the Mecklenburg County Bar and a member of the Lawyer Assistance Program Board. Her doctoral research, concerning the quality of well-being of lawyers in North Carolina, revealed that over 27% of the lawyers in her study […]
Keith Yamashita is the hot item right now in advising corporations that have hit a brick wall. He is a 37-year-old principal in a business consulting firm on the West Coast known as Stone Yamashita Partners. His skill has been in identifying structural and systemic problems in a company or its leaders. His firm has […]
Standing at the doorway of the courtroom, I reflected on how I had come to be here as a civil court judge. My reverie took me back to another time when I stood at the door of a different room, where a meeting of recovering alcoholics was in progress. I recalled wondering how I had […]
What are the common risk factors for a heart attack? Obesity, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure rate at the top of the list. But most heart attack victims have absolutely NO advance warning symptoms. Believe it or not, the first heart disease symptom they experience is the actual heart attack! There is a little-known […]
In our society, there is a very negative and prevalent association with the words “addict” and “alcoholic.” This antiquated association was, and continues to be, born of ignorance and unhealthy shame, or stigma. Shame and the societal stigma that accompanies it are detrimental to understanding addiction, identifying those in need of treatment, and facilitating acceptance, […]
It was like any other Monday morning. I got up and got in the shower and began planning the day ahead. After a few minutes I started feeling dizzy while I was shaving. My heart started racing, my breathing became short and erratic, and an unexplainable sense of fear overcame me. The anxiety seemed to […]