Dual Diagnosis - Which Comes First, the Chicken or the Egg?

Often use of drugs and alcohol may be an unconscious attempt to manage faulty brain chemistry caused by a mental health condition. Then use of those substances compounds the underlying mental health symptoms. For this lawyer, recovery from marijuana addiction was complicated by an undiagnosed mental health condition. Having a mental health component adds another wrinkle in the recovery process that requires special attention. Read More

By the time we are adults most of us have made some accommodation with our culture, a sort of unconscious bargain of how we must be in the world to be emotionally safe and gain the approval of our peers and authorities. And most of us, in making that bargain, gave up a good deal. Reclaiming this aspect of our lives is key in experiencing wholeness.  Read More

I don’t like change, and I don’t like surprises. What am I doing in this line of work? Read More

This successful, managing partner recovering from years of undiagnosed depression has gone very public with his story in an attempt to break stigma. He has even created a resource called lawyerswithdepression.com. Meet Dan Lukasik. Read More. (You do not need to enter your email address to read the article. Simply close out the box asking for your email and the full article appears.)

The life of a lawyer isn’t a cakewalk. Constantly judged in terms of winning and losing, and existing in a culture of attack and counterattack, lawyers face countless pressures. The emphasis on perfection that starts in law school seldom lets up once a lawyer is in practice. Read this interview with Dr. Rebecca Nerison, a psychologist and author of the ABA Web Store bestseller Lawyers, Anger and Anxiety: Dealing with the Stresses of the Legal Profession. Read More.

In this season of Thanksgiving, you may be interested to know that a recent research study explored the impact gratitude writing has on mental health. This randomized controlled trial tested gratitude writing as an additional intervention for psychotherapy clients. Participants were 293 adults seeking university-based psychotherapy services. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups: (a) control (psychotherapy only), (b) psychotherapy plus expressive writing, and (c) psychotherapy plus gratitude writing. Participants in the gratitude group wrote letters expressing gratitude to others, whereas those in the expressive writing group wrote about their deepest thoughts and feelings about stressful experiences. About 4 weeks as well as 12 weeks after the conclusion of the writing intervention, participants in the gratitude group reported significantly better mental health than those in the expressive and control groups, whereas those in the expressive and control groups did not differ significantly. Why not try making a gratitude list each day over this 4-day Thanksgiving weekend.