Lawyer: It's Australian for 'Depressed,' Mate

If you’re looking for happiness, it might be time to think about switching careers.

The Australian media is busy reporting on a new study on depression among professionals in that country, and lawyers lead the pack by an unhealthy margin.

From the Herald Sun article:

“Nearly 16 per cent of lawyers who responded to the survey displayed ‘moderate or severe symptoms of depression’ with nearly a third of those using alcohol and drugs to deal with the problem. 

“Patent attorneys and insurance underwriters were the next most likely to suffer from depression, with professional workers overall having higher levels of symptoms than the general population.”

Do you find the results of this study to be:
a) A poignant picture of lawyers everywhere
b) Just an Australian fluke like kangaroos
c) Depressing

— Zusha Elinson

Comments

[Cesar]

im gonna have to go with b), the kangaroo fluke theory.

[Linda Schoen, Esq.]

Even when a lawyer avoids the inevitably depressing areas of criminal and divorce law, it is hard not to feel a sense of futility, disgust, and general unhappiness when in the practice of law each of us has to deal with ignorant, willful, deceitful, irresponsible, or nasty clients, not to mention the many who think they need not pay their attorneys because a few of us make a lot of money according to the media. Even in probate law, there is the unbelievably vicious behavior or the heirs or would-be heirs. There us no escape from the seedier side of human nature, and attorneys have to deal with them daily...so it should be not be a surprise that attorneys are more depressed than most people.