Silencing Stigma

Stigma is one of the biggest reasons people do not seek help. The belief that others will see you as less or weak or unworthy or damaged or whatever. This is particularly true in the legal profession where we are taught to hide the weaknesses in our cases. Yet one’s mental health is not a court case, and stigma needs to become a thing of the past.

As a profession the legal world is slowly starting to recognize the reality that our profession struggles with mental health. It isn’t a collective weakness, it is a failure on the part of the profession to not take care of the most valuable assets the profession has. We believe we will be passed over for partnerships, taken off cases, and even referred to disciplinary committees for seeking mental health support. It doesn’t help that Legal Assistance Programs (LAPs) are so often run by the bar association.

And even though LAPs are walled off from the disciplinary section of bar associations, the stigma and the optics still prevent people from seeking help. That is one of the reasons The LegalMind Society’s peer support is independent of any bar association and is judgment free, run by people who have actually been there.

And while pushing back against the stigma surrounding mental illness in the legal community is one of the missions of the LegalMind Society, it is not a mission we can accomplish alone. We need everyone to silence stigma. We need associates and partners, law students and law clerks and law professors to all recognize the stigma-inducing actions and comments that are all too common in our profession and push back against them.

Learning about mental illness can help. If your office or firm wants a presentation about mental illness from The LegalMind Society, feel free to contact us about how we can help educate your staff. And then, together, maybe we can silence the stigma.