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Peer Support Saved My Life
Keeping Legal Minds Intact
Why Is Peer Counseling So Important In My Ongoing Recovery?
Surviving The Suicide Of A Family Member
Relapse or Not?
Staunch Advocate’s Lived Experience with Bipolar Disorder
Peer Support Saved My Life
I am an alcoholic, a drug addict, and a lawyer. I started out highly functional despite bouts of alcohol binging and depression. I thought I had “arrived” and was uniquely bullet-proof. Drinking with colleagues and clients and attending cocktail-oriented legal functions became one of my favorite "parts" of my lawyer job. That and the financial security and persona of prestige and "success". More became constant and never enough. My medical diagnoses (I now know) are substance use disorder, depression, anxiety, and PTSD.
Even when I was physically present, I increasingly isolated and detached (checked out). I lived only to drink and use marijuana. I hated myself, I hated everyone else, and I did not want to live. Life was a dark web of misery to be endured until death, which seemed more appealing. My physical health and appearance suffered. My marriage and work relationships became constant battle zones. I was in denial, unreachable, and reckless. I drove drunk and high and used during "work" days and at the office. My partners finally had to carry my workload, even try a case for me. They put me on an unrequested "leave of absence" and demanded that I have no contact with my clients. I felt humiliated and devastated. A sobbing wreck (in private but indignant and defiant outwardly), I thought my career and life were over.
Peer support saved my life and continues to help me stay healthy. When I heard others share their own stories of addiction, mental health struggles, and despair, I no long felt alone. These people had been there too. They understood me. I felt safe to share my own feelings and experiences. They shared how they had similar feelings and experiences -- and had found hope and a way out of the darkness. They showed me how they came to live happy healthy lives and they helped me find my own way to health.
Leslie Hagin, JD (President Of Washington Lawyers Assisting Lawyers) lhagin@walal.org
Keeping Legal Minds Intact
Free-1 hr WSBA ethics CLE available for download
Andy Benjamin, JD, PhD, ABPP, discusses briefly the etiology of lawyer stress that can lead to depression, alcohol/drug abuse, and cardiovascular disease. These are the conditions that most frequently plague lawyers in contrast to other professional populations. He provides the evidence-based findings from the scientific literature about how to sustain lawyer health, values, and spirits.
Dr. Andy Benjamin (At Large Board Member For Washington Lawyers Assisting Lawyers and its Director of Training/Consultation) abenjamin@walal.org
Why Is Peer Counseling So Important In My Ongoing Recovery?
I love being a volunteer peer counselor for other lawyers struggling with addiction. Peer counseling provides me with continuous opportunities to reflect on my own personal progress. Through active listening, and by sharing coping strategies, I find myself rediscovering and strengthening the tools that helped me in my own recovery. It reinforces the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle and reminds me of the coping mechanisms I need to sustain that lifestyle.
Volunteering also gives me a sense of community. It offers a supportive environment where peer counselors can form meaningful connections with lawyers who really need some frank talk to reduce their feelings of isolation. That act of giving back gives me a renewed sense of hope and motivation.
Ultimately, serving as a peer counselor helps me stay accountable, stay connected, and stay focused on my healthy lifestyle choices, all while making a positive impact on someone else’s journey. By healthy lifestyle choices, I mean not just sobriety from a certain substance. I mean the whole package. Self-care. Relationships. Work/life balance. To me they are all equally important as abstinence from whatever substance and/or behavior you were addicted to.
Being a peer counselor is a uniquely powerful way to continue healing, grow emotionally, and build resilience.
Watch Wil describe his path out of addiction.
Wil Miller, JD (At Large Board Member For Washington Lawyers Assisting Lawyers) wmiller@walal.org
Surviving the Suicide of a Family Member
Dan Lukasik, JD, has made more than 200 presentations throughout the U.S. on depression, anxiety, and stress. Many presentations have been to law firms, bar associations, judicial associations, and law schools. Lukasik and Dr. Andy Benjamin, Board Member and Director of Training/Consultation at Washington Lawyers Assisting Lawyers, have worked together to improve lawyer health throughout the profession.
“My Brother Lost In Time: A Bipolar Life” is Lukasik’s affecting, tender, and ultimately redemptive documentary. As people left behind by suicide increasingly show solidarity for their shared losses, the documentary shows and destigmatizes the shame. In 15 minutes, he relates growing up with a father who became an alcoholic and a mother who became mentally ill, how he overcame obstacles to become a successful lawyer, and how receiving a diagnosis of major depression at age 40 proved to be the catalyst that allowed him to begin addressing and managing his mental health in sustainable ways, and also build a movement to increase the health of lawyers. After more than 30 years as a trial lawyer, Dan Lukasik serves as the Judicial Wellness Coordinator for the New York State of Court Administration.
Dr. Andy Benjamin (At Large Board Member For Washington Lawyers Assisting Lawyers and its Director of Training/Consultation) has worked with Dan Lukasik to increase lawyer health. abenjamin@walal.org
Relapse or Not?
As a lifelong Athiest (as I am today) after 30 years of law practice and 24 years of recovery from substances, I closed my law practice to care for my wife in her Parkinsonism and dementia. Then one day I unwittingly ingested a THC gummie. Read the New Leaf article about the harrowing experience.
David Huber, JD (At Large Board Member For Washington Lawyers Assisting Lawyers) dhuber@walal.org
Staunch Advocate’s Lived Experience with Bipolar Disorder
Andrew Imparato describes his lived experience with bipolar disorder. For nearly three decades he has served as a lawyer and disability rights leader in the federal government and nonprofit sector, especially on behalf of persons with “invisible" disabilities. The 40-minute interview is conducted by Deborah Ruh, Chair of the United Nations' G3ict EmployAbility Task Force, who also discusses her own lived experience with mental health challenges. Mr. Imparato is a colleague of WALAL president Leslie Hagin, and early supporter of WaLAL.
Leslie Hagin, JD (President Of Washington Lawyers Assisting Lawyers) lhagin@walal.org