What I wasn't prepared for was how triggering and stigmatizing some of the well-meaning messages about mental health can be. I'm not angry about this. I don't judge anyone for it. The whole reason we need awareness is so that we can start having these important conversations. In the interest of building more awareness, I'm going to share the impact some of these messages have had on me and people can judge for themselves whether it should affect their thinking and messaging.
1. "Healthier lawyers are better lawyers." I already addressed this one here (discussing how we need to avoid discrimination and health-shaming) and to some extent here (discussing how we need to respect autonomy). Although I have been diagnosed only recently, I have a mental health condition that has affected me my entire career and is expected to do so for the foreseeable future, perhaps my entire life. But let's be clear: I'm not a bad lawyer for it, and I'm not worse than someone else who happens not to have a mental health condition. My quality of life has certainly been affected but I have been a competent and ethical lawyer throughout my career. Saying you have to be healthy to be a good and/or ethical lawyer is factually untrue discriminatory nonsense. It also presupposes that everyone has the option of going away for a bit and "fixing" themselves, which is not true for those with chronic conditions that can only be managed not cured. That doesn't mean we can't all benefit from improving our health, whatever that means for us, but please consider the words you use when encouraging people to do so. If you suggest the less healthy are less valuable, you may wish to keep in mind those of us with chronic conditions. On the one hand, I don't wish a mental health condition on anyone, and we should absolutely work on preventing them and curing them whenever possible. On the other hand, an awareness campaign for a condition I'm experiencing, with the message of how terrible it would be to end up like me and how we shouldn't want lawyers with such limitations around is pretty demoralizing, so count me out. It's a fine and difficult line. I know we can't do it perfectly. I'm just asking that we consider the perspective of those who do have less optimal health and not devalue the contributions they can nevertheless still make.
2. "Law school and/or being a lawyer are what breaks people." I take no issue with this to a certain extent. Law school and the profession definitely exacerbated my trauma symptoms in many ways (as I addressed here, here, and more generally here). But let's stop talking about mental health as if we all come from the same privileged baseline of "normal," "healthy" and "bright-eyed" with no baggage before law school. We come from different backgrounds. Some of us already had life-altering experiences and perhaps experienced mental health issues prior to law school. Let's please be inclusive when we discuss how we're all affected. (I addressed this in the context of trauma in my article for Canadian Lawyer Magazine here).
3. "Everyone should have a 'balanced' life or they will be a bad lawyer and/or have less valuable lives." I struggle with this one a lot. Yes, we all need to do whatever it takes to have the best quality life we can, but for some of us our challenges may have taken a lot from us. My struggles resulted in me ending up very socially isolated. I don't have a family life to retreat to, to give me the same sense of balance others have. Often what I have is my work. It's not ideal but I refuse to beat myself up for it. Some people might find considerable solace in their work when participation in a full range of other activities have become more problematic or simply never materialized. Some people might genuinely love their work so much that they naturally wish to become a bit obsessive about it. Maybe sometimes this gets out of hand and becomes unhealthy for some people but maybe some people do okay and it works for them. I definitely think the culture of expecting people to work so hard that they don't have room for much if anything else in their lives is harmful and unacceptable. But let's not fight this by shaming people who don't have much else but work in their lives, either by choice or by circumstance. The point is we all need space to find what works best for us given our strengths, vulnerabilities, inclinations, and limitations. I will proudly support another lawyer's right to have a thriving family life in addition to a successful career. But I would like not to be implicitly shamed for not having that in my life. We all do the best we can.
As always, please note that I am a lawyer, not a mental health professional of any kind. I have no expertise in trauma or mental health. Also, please note that any opinions and views expressed in this blog are solely my own and are not intended to represent the views or opinions of my employer in any way. For more information about the purpose of this blog, please see here and for a bit more information about my personal perspective on this issue, please see "my story" here
I am very grateful to have received a "Clawbie" Award for this blog (which reflects the importance of this topic): https://www.clawbies.ca/2019-clawbies-canadian-law-blog-awards/
For some of my external writing on this topic, see:
- https://www.canadianlawyermag.com/news/opinion/a-more-inclusive-discussion-on-the-impact-of-trauma-on-lawyers-mental-health-is-needed/276166
- https://www.cbabc.org/BarTalk/Articles/2020/February/Features/Speaking-Up-About-Trauma-and-Mental-Health
- https://www.canadianlawyermag.com/news/opinion/changing-the-conversation/326240
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