The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has declared stress a hazard of the workplace, costing U.S. businesses more than $300 billion annually (Ivey & Ivey, 2018).

43% of all adults suffer adverse health effects from stress (Ivey & Ivey, 2018).

75% to 90% of all doctor’s office visits are for stress-related ailments and complaints (Ivey & Ivey, 2018).

Stress often plays a part in ailments such as headaches, high blood pressure, heart problems, diabetes, skin conditions, asthma, arthritis, depression, and anxiety (Ivey & Ivey, 2018).

The lifetime prevalence of an emotional disorder is more than 50%, often due to chronic, untreated stress reactions (Goldberg, 2012).

In almost every undertaking, pessimism is considered maladaptive, but not in the law.  There is little upside to this, aside from winning cases.  Lawyers’ pessimism and disenchantment leave them in poor health.  They are at much greater risk than the general population for depression, heart disease, alcoholism, and illegal drug use.”

The Legal Industry

• Lawyers are 3.6 times more likely to suffer from depression than non-lawyers (APA, 2019).
•  The legal industry has the 11th-highest incidence of suicide among professions (APA, 2019).
• A 2016 study by Hazelden Betty Ford (HBF) and the American Bar Association (ABA) found that:
  • Nearly one-third of respondents to the study said they have increased their use of drugs or alcohol as a result of their work or work environment;
  • 44.4% said they drink alcohol to deal with stress;
  • Nearly 4% said they use illegal drugs or abuse prescription drugs;
• A 2014 study by Yale Law School found that 70% reported experiencing mental health challenges during law school (Falling Through the Cracks).

The Healthcare Industry

• A 2010 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association surveyed physicians to learn about their experiences with colleagues who were incompetent to practice or impaired by alcohol, drugs or mental illness and found that 17 percent personally knew of an impaired or incompetent physician within their circle in the past three years.
• A 2009 study by Mayo Clinic researchers observed a cohort of 904 physicians enrolled in physician health programs over five years. They found that 50.3 percent of the doctors misused alcohol, while nearly 36 percent abused opioids.
  • Half of the cohort admitted to misusing multiple substances, and 17 percent reported undergoing previous addiction treatment. The research pointed out that the rate of incidence of addiction was higher in professions such as anesthesiology, emergency medicine and psychiatry. Despite the prevalence of alcohol addiction, only 10 percent of anesthesiologists sought treatment for their alcohol use disorder.
  • In a 2014 Journal of Addiction Medicine study, all doctors who misused prescription medications had a history of illegal drug and alcohol use. In fact, 94 percent of the doctors who admitted to prescription drugs misuse consumed alcohol at least once in their lifetimes.