Breaking Chains

We’ve talked a lot about the healing that happens at an individual level. But The LegalMind Society also seeks to reduce the stigma of mental illness in the legal community as a whole. And that requires some chain breaking.

It requires some chain breaking because the profession has continued to operate in a toxic way, overworking law students, overworking junior associates, and generally ignoring the mental health of legal professionals. Sometimes, the excuse given is that “that is just how it is done.” Except that we are the ones doing it, which means that we need to be the ones who change it. And like I said, that requires chain breaking.

No system changes overnight. But any change that is going to happen within the legal profession starts with us. But the fact is that chain breaking doesn’t have to be just about the profession. It can be about our own recovery as well.

In the individual sense, chain breaking comes from our own behavior. Often, that behavior is strongly influenced by our family. And if we had less than ideal models when we were learning our behaviors, those toxic traits can carry through into adulthood. Breaking those chains means doing the difficult work of identifying the behaviors and changing them so that we don’t continue to pass them along to future generations.

Whether chain breaking for the profession as a whole, or individually, the reality is that it takes hard work. But you don’t have to do that hard work alone. The LegalMind Society can be here to help.