Mental Health Tips for Legal Professionals: A conversation with Dr. Elizabeth Eckhardt & Christina Dumitrescu

Yeah, I think that, you know, one is to break it down, right? Even if we look at problem solving and the nature of problem solving, problem solving is very different than catastrophic thinking or worrying, right? Catastrophic thinking is going down the rabbit hole of all the terrible things that can happen.

Worrying is just this constant repetitive loop of things that could happen and what's going to go wrong.

If we look at just the framework of problem solving, it's an action, it's action oriented.

So It's reality testing, right? Is this a reality test? is this likely to happen? Even if we just take our kind of objective brain and put it into the equation.

Am I thinking too far ahead? What is real, right? What is real evidence here versus what I have now attached to this negative thought? It's not likely.

I think most people will know that if there is one small mistake or one minor criticism in a otherwise stellar evaluation, We're not going to be fired.

But there appears for people who are chronic warriors and people who have anxiety, and really the definition of anxiety is often linked to intrusive thoughts.

So that's very much what we're talking about.

This kind of like, I can't control it.

These thoughts just come up.

So it does require a little bit of reality testing and stopping and slowing down.

How do I solve this problem? The problem is I'm overthinking about the negative things that could happen here.

So how can I... just kind of check myself and the likelihood of things that could go wrong.

You know, and you might have some other suggestions about strategies for specifically these intrusive automatic thoughts.

Yeah, yeah.

So I think what's great is that lawyers already have the tools and the skills and the know-how, and it's just about reframing it to work for our benefit.

Yeah.

So when a stress-inducing thought comes up, the first step is to really build awareness about it and write it down.

So approach it like you're approaching a problem at work.

What am I thinking verbatim? What is this thought? What are the feelings associated with this thought? Am I feeling panicky? Am I feeling a sense of overwhelm? Am I feeling really stressed about this? What am I worried about? And then also note the physical sensation.

I think we often don't realize that there is a very strong connection between the mind and the body.

And you experience stress in the body.

So maybe that's a racing heart.

High blood pressure, shortness of breath, getting really hot, palms sweaty.

You need to create some air in the blazer.