Possible reason why lawyers often drink more than gen. pop Forum

[throwaway990192038]

Lawyers don't drink, drinkers Law. Or something like that.

Here's why: who goes to law school? People with skills in analysis, logic. People who are intelligent beyond the median of the general population. These people are likely to be very aware of their existential status. These people are likely to over analyze their own personal and professional lives. Verbal skills go hand in hand with cynicism, because language is the primary communication vehicle of humans, and if you read and hear enough, and actually understand most of it on a deep level, a lot of it blends together. You realize there aren't a lot of original ideas, and that most everything people do is dictated, even predetermined, by a very base set of evolutionarily developed mentalities. And you reduce things to biology, then chemistry and then energy etc. You think people are fake, you think you are fake. And so you drink. (And go to law school.)

I think it has something to do with math too-- specifically how we're bad at it.

[BigZuck]

Cool

[throwaway990192038]

Cool

Oh you

[BigZuck]

Cool

Oh you

Story

[TLSModBot]

If all of that is aspie for 'overworked stressed introvert staving off depression/suicide' then sure.

[throwaway990192038]

If all of that is aspie for 'overworked stressed introvert staving off depression/suicide' then sure.

I don't think most lawyers are introverts.

[Mack.Hambleton]

[Cobretti]

Cool

Oh you

Story

bruuhhhh

[BigZuck]

Cool

Oh you

Story

bruuhhhh

[DrRighteous]

Strangely, there are all kinds of stats out there on lawyers and substance abuse, and none agree with each other. Some recent stats indicate that people in a "legal" occupation have among the lowest incidence of drug use (note, drug use, not just alcohol abuse), whereas other publications claim lawyers are among the highest in alcohol abuse (I did not find any numbers on that, though). In the scholarly literature, a quick perusal does not yield any studies since 1997 on lawyers and alcohol abuse. So who knows - maybe things have changed since the original work came out.

[pancakes3]

A little learning is a dangerous thing.

Also, this thread cites 2 of the most irksome lawyer stereotypes - (1) lawyers are smarter than other professions, (2) lawyers are bad at math

[A. Nony Mouse]

If all of that is aspie for 'overworked stressed introvert staving off depression/suicide' then sure.

I don't think most lawyers are introverts.

Why?

[serdog]

I think for some its working in a area that one had no interest in because it pays the bills

[FirmBiz]

What did I just read?

[lukertin]

Lawyers drink because most of them hate their jobs. People who hate their jobs are at a higher chance of developing mental illnesses like depression than even the unemployed. People often cope with depression by drug abuse. Ergo, alcohol being the one legal intoxicant, lawyers are more likely to use that instead of say, heroin or marijuana.

[03152016]

lot of good thoughts in here

[throwaway990192038]

Not going to lie I was intoxicated when I wrote this and it is pretty fedora-ish. There's some good points made though.

And "lawyers drink because they hate their jobs" is maybe true, but that's a superficial reason and the product of components, ie it can be deconstructed into more base reasons.

And yes I do think that lawyers have better verbal skills and intelligence than the median. The median is like the dudes that get 23 on the ACT.

[TLSModBot]

Not going to lie I was intoxicated when I wrote this and it is pretty fedora-ish. There's some good points made though.

And "lawyers drink because they hate their jobs" is maybe true, but that's a superficial reason and the product of components, ie it can be deconstructed into more base reasons.

"Lawyers drink because they hate their jobs"
- Law school is an expensive and exhausting exercise in mindless hoop-jumping
- Upon graduation, new lawyers are generally unprepared for what actual practice is like
- New lawyers are also unqualified to do pretty much anything and have to learn/adapt quickly
- Getting fired/pushed out before you pay your loans is a possibility hanging over your head
- The work can be grueling, boring, and sometimes seem pointless
- Lawyers have no time to unwind, have a social life, or see their families
- Long-term career planning can difficult and uncertain
- Evaluation criteria can be opaque

Other jobs have some of these characteristics but I think law consistently has most or all of these and thus really sucks for a lot of people. This is obviously generalizing across practice groups, markets, and types of practice, but I'm willing to bet a fair number of these hold true across the majority of firms out there.

[jkpolk]

Not going to lie I was intoxicated when I wrote this and it is pretty fedora-ish. There's some good points made though.

And "lawyers drink because they hate their jobs" is maybe true, but that's a superficial reason and the product of components, ie it can be deconstructed into more base reasons.

"Lawyers drink because they hate their jobs"
- Law school is an expensive and exhausting exercise in mindless hoop-jumping
- Upon graduation, new lawyers are generally unprepared for what actual practice is like
- New lawyers are also unqualified to do pretty much anything and have to learn/adapt quickly
- Getting fired/pushed out before you pay your loans is a possibility hanging over your head
- The work can be grueling, boring, and sometimes seem pointless
- Lawyers have no time to unwind, have a social life, or see their families
- Long-term career planning can difficult and uncertain
- Evaluation criteria can be opaque

Other jobs have some of these characteristics but I think law consistently has most or all of these and thus really sucks for a lot of people. This is obviously generalizing across practice groups, markets, and types of practice, but I'm willing to bet a fair number of these hold true across the majority of firms out there.

On the negative side: The shift to a firm is abrupt. Career students encounter a few unpleasant facts. Life is not a meritocracy. Life can be lonely. Motivation can be difficult to find (internal and external).
On the positive side: Smarter people drink more than dumber people. People with money are able to drink more than people without money. People with access to social events are more likely to drink than people without that access.

I'm not sure the headline is anything earthshaking tbh (or that anything can/should be done about it).