“Anger is liquor to the “dry drunk” alcoholic. Once anger comes in, just like alcohol, it has to wear itself out; it goes through the body just like liquor.” These were the words of a PALS volunteer to me recently. They struck home. I have been working with lawyers and judges dealing with alcohol issues […]
Some time ago, I had the opportunity to have an e-mail discussion about anonymity with a law student who was trying to decide whether he should disclose information about being an alcoholic and in recovery in connection with applying for a judicial clerkship. The conversation got me thinking about how we deal with this time-honored […]
“It’s just coke that you smoke,” the dealer said. “It’s direct.” John drew on the pipe and blasted off into the ecstatic edge of consciousness. This was John’s escape from the problems, as well as the responsibilities, of his practice and his relationships. Although it was not John’s intent to become addicted, he did. Within […]
I made it through junior high school and high school drinking regularly on weekends. I could drink a lot. Miraculously, no one seemed to know how inferior I was and I was somehow elected as president of everything honor society, junior high, freshman, junior, and senior class, key club, and high school fraternity. My grades were […]
Introduction My name is Kent S. and I am a recovering alcoholic and drug addict. I am sober today through the grace of God and the fellowship of Alcoholic’s Anonymous. I am also a husband (married thirty-four years), father of five children, and an active member of the LDS faith. I have been a member […]
If you are bewildered by the workings of 12-step programs but think that you or someone you know might benefit from one, this article is dedicated to you. If someone (or more than one person) has recommended that you check out a 12-step program but you don’t think that you have an addictive or compulsive […]
“The gift is to the giver, and comes back most to him — it cannot fail” –Walt Whitman. In a recent speech in Laramie Wyoming, Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor noted that job dissatisfaction among lawyers was widespread, profound, and growing. She added that attorneys are more than three times as likely to suffer […]
So might the epitaph of many of us read. Or, “Tried to get everything done, didn’t and died anyway.” Are we just trying to get through the day and check one more thing off our list? Are in fact our lives just a series of tasks? Are we just waiting to get some unseen list […]
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 […]
The Stories of fellow alcoholics are the fresh minted coins of survival. You pass yours to the next person in the hope he or she will see a gleam of their own life and find the reassurance of recovery. This is the story of a PALS member offered anonymously in that tradition. As I approach […]