Last year I had the chance to read David McCullough’s biography of John Adams and to read the Adam’s biography that preceded it by Catherine Drinker Bowen published in 1949. What is striking about the two stories of one man’s life is how McCullough focuses on Adam’s emotional life his insecurities, his emotions under pressure in […]
Archive for the ‘Law Students’ Category
Anger and Alcohol
Posted byRecently I was speaking at a CLE program about lawyers, and chemical addiction. I talked about the need to understand the signals one gets from the dashboard of the physical/mental/emotional vehicle that we call the self. After the program I talked with a lawyer who told me that the only emotion he was aware of […]
Anger The Drug
Posted by“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 […]
AA and the Question of Anonymity
Posted bySome 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 […]
Becoming a Better Lawyer: Identifying Addiction
Posted by“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 […]
College and Law School Drinking
Posted byI 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 […]
A Recovery Story: Darkest Before Dawn
Posted byIntroduction 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 […]
Demystifying 12-Step Programs
Posted byIf 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 […]
Good Mental Health and the Lawyer’s Gift
Posted by“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 […]
Got Everything Done, Died Anyway
Posted bySo 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 […]