Lawyers, research and experience show, default more into substance abuse than the average population.
There is endless chatter why that is so. Some contend the already tormented tend to go into the field of law. Others claim the lack of control over the situations lawyers deal with do them in. For example, there are the law firm partners, those partners, of course, are accountable to demanding often powerful clients, legal precedents, judges, facts of the case, time constraints, strategies of the other side, and the increasingly formidable court of public opinion.
However, even when lawyers find their way into 12-step programs they still seem to, well, suffer. A lot. The problem might be that "addiction" is defined too narrowly. Instead of simply related to booze and pills, it can include whatever lawyers grab for when they feel pain.
The Grabbies is the focus of the Thursday evening recovery meeting at the Shambhala Center, New Haven, Connecticut. What the addicted grab for could be more work, more status, more square footage for a house, more articles published, more exercise, or even more people to feel superior to. The Grabbies is very different from leaning toward. The lawyer wants to become more skillful so there's a reach for certain kind of difficult cases to argue. The lawyer's family is growing so there's a need for a larger residence. The lawyer wants recognition for a theory and publishes articles and even a book to accomplish that.
Perhaps the most simple way to view the grabbies as that it is embedded in the brutal pain of must-have versus why-not. Here is information about the Thursday Recovery Meeting. The structure includes meditation instruction, about 15 mintues of meditation, a reading, then discussion. Last Thursday's reading was a chapter from the book "Light Comes Through" by Dzigar Kongtrul.
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