Wellbeing and Resilience in the Legal Profession: A Message of Hope for 2022

WELLBEING AND RESILIENCE IN THE LEGAL PROFESSION:

A MESSAGE OF HOPE FOR 2022

We can all agree that the COVID pandemic has ushered in a period of suffering, stress, and uncertainty that has lasted much longer and cut more deeply than expected. When the pandemic first hit in 2020, we all anticipated that it would be an event with a predictable end. Since then we have agonized together as the goal line of defeating COVID remains undefined.

Simply put, we are still in uncharted territory and the only thing for certain is that it will take years for the fallout of COVID to run its course. No one knows what the “new normal” will finally look like.

Health questions rage on: Will surgical masks be a permanent feature in society? How will the controversy over mandating vaccines play out? Will vaccines ultimately prove as effective as we hoped? What medicines and treatments will be developed to better fight COVID? If I catch COVID, will the Urgent Care down the street have the best medicine in stock? Will we ever really know where the virus came from so we can try to prevent something like this from happening again?

Logistical questions also persist: Will our supply chains recover? Will folks go back to work at levels prior to the pandemic (e.g., will hotels and restaurants be fully staffed again)? Will we be “doomed to Zoom” forever? The questions go on and on, and at the heart of it is a fear of permanent negative effects.

I am a lawyer. I can’t help it that, by nature, I am impatient, controlling, and opinionated. The truth is, I want all the answers about all these issues now. But as individuals we can’t control any of it. I have accepted that answers will come in the fullness of time, but not on my schedule and not all to my liking.

What I can do is make sure that I am taking care of myself and “doing the next right thing” every day to bring hope, healing, and resilience to the world in whatever small part I can. Much of the happiness in my life has less to do with what hardship is impacting me at any given time and much more to do with how I choose to frame it and react.

Luckily for me, I am an alcoholic in recovery. I now have over 39 years of continuous sobriety. My entire legal career (law school at LSU, practicing law in Baton Rouge, and as LAP director in Louisiana and now Tennessee), has been accomplished in sobriety. I have enjoyed a stunningly rewarding and interesting life in recovery, and I would not change a thing. I am very grateful to be in long term remission from a disease that tried its most powerful best to kill me. Being in good recovery has been a tremendous advantage in weathering the COVID pandemic. I have the benefit of additional tools for dealing with life’s challenges and these tools are very effective in situations like this. The program I work in order to stay sober teaches things like living one day at a time, accepting things honestly as they are, not taking myself too seriously, resisting catastrophizing things, and readily understanding the limits of what I can and can’t control. It all adds up to resilience. The issue is: can we all develop the necessary mindset and skills to, like bamboo, bend but not break when a strong and relentless wind challenges us? As for dealing with COVID and helping others professionally at TLAP, when the pandemic first hit, Lawyer’s Assistance Programs across the nation went on high alert, expecting calls for help. In early 2020, and as the isolation and fear of being quarantined ramped up, we all braced ourselves at TLAP for a tsunami of confidential calls for help from lawyers and judges experiencing serious anxiety, depression, or problematic alcohol or substance use due to the stressors of the pandemic. But to our total surprise, the opposite happened. Most LAPs reported a steep decline in calls for help, with some reporting an unprecedented and eerie “radio silence.”

We know now that a significant number of folks simply delayed reaching out for help. By the end of 2021 TLAP began seeing many more cases of individuals calling for confidential help with anxiety and depression from the COVID pandemic. TLAP will surely see many more such confidential calls for help in 2022 and beyond. We have real answers

COVER STORY By: Buddy Stockwell

TLAP Executive Director

and real tools to help address any mental health issue.

Of course, the message on best practices self-care during this Pandemic remains consistent. To stay resilient and healthy means putting self-care first. Take media breaks and make sure you do not spend too many uninterrupted hours looking at computer, cellphone, and television screens. Get outside often, even if only in your backyard. It is important to turn off our “lawyer brains” and simply experience and appreciate the present moment. Meditation, mindfulness, yoga, or even taking a 15-minute walk in the morning and afternoon can render significant benefits. And, of course, we all know that exercise and diet matter. Staying connected with family and friends is also paramount. Mental health issues are always worsened by isolation. All these things are ingredients for the ultimate goal: developing and maintaining a positive “attitude of gratitude” that promotes health, hope, and opportunity even in times of adversity. The mission is not simply to survive but instead to thrive in the wake of COVID-19.

All that said, it is important to keep things in a very hopeful and positive perspective. Family and friends are important. My father is 96 years old and still sharp. He was born in Knoxville, Tennessee in 1925. As a young child, however, he and my grandmother relocated to South Louisiana to be with family after the untimely, accidental death of my grandfather.

When I start to feel depressed and sorry for myself about COVID fallout, I think of genuinely terrifying times our country has successfully weathered in the past. My father, as a teenager, arrived in France not long after D-Day. He was a mortarman in the infantry and was wounded several times, always returning to the fight. He survived the war and went on to attend college on the G.I Bill, and he ultimately earned a Ph.D. in English. He enjoyed a full career as an English Professor. In 2012 he was Knighted by France, receiving the Legion of Honor for his heroism in helping to liberate the French from the Nazis.

I don’t have to think very hard about it to put COVID into perspective personally. Compared to what my own folks went through in WWII, I have been very lucky during COVID and feel embarrassed to have ever complained about wearing a surgical mask, or being put out over slow service at a restaurant, etc.

In truth, I have learned many lessons on resilience from those who managed it in the most desperate circumstances. It has been a while since I have read Man’s Search for Meaning, the 1946 book by Viktor Frankl that chronicles his experiences as a prisoner in Nazi concentration camps during World War II. Frankl reports that his survival was largely due to his attitude and remaining positive and seeing beauty in the world despite the most terrifying and tenuous conditions imaginable.

Of course, many of us have been severely damaged by the COVID pandemic, including the loss of businesses, livelihoods, and loved ones. We have all had different experiences, and some way worse than others. But the point for all of us is that the past demonstrates that together we can manage this tough spot in our history, and as legal professionals we can certainly adapt and overcome as necessary to support the effective functioning of the legal system despite COVID.

In fact, we have everything to be hopeful for. I say let’s all do our best to get up every day and make 2022 the year of tolerance, patience, resilience, and unrelenting hope. We have overcome far worse than COVID. We will prevail. We just don’t know when and what it will look like yet.

There is one thing, however, that I can report with utmost confidence right now: no matter what mental health challenges you or someone you know may experience as we continue to navigate the pandemic, you can trust that TLAP is your absolutely confidential, highly specialized, and comprehensive professional clinical resource. Whether it be up-to-date information on best practices in self-care and well-being, or the need to access discrete and effective professional clinical help for a problem, TLAP is here. TLAP’s services are specifically designed to meet the needs of licensed professionals. It doesn’t cost a penny to talk to TLAP and all calls are absolutely confidential. You do not even have to give your name. Call (615) 741-3238, or visit us on the internet at www.tlap.org.