A self-selecting group or a foregone conclusion?

Two notable stories came through my blog reader today. The first, reported by Legal Blog Watch, discusses a story about drug use among various types of professions. It's perhaps not surprising that the creative professions report an affinity for marijuana. Richard Florida writes in The Atlantic,

"Occupations sort relatively neatly along the lines of marijuana versus cocaine use. The short of it is that marijuana use is more positively associated with science (.35), education (.38), artistic professions (.35), and engineering and architecture (.29)"

But that's not all. Florida goes on to say

"[...]cocaine use is positively associated with lawyers (.41) and, to a lesser extent, with business and finance occupations (.27), computer jobs (.25), and management fields (.26)."

I must admit that I am a (so far) lifelong drug abstainer. But my superficial research (just here and here ) on the interwebz reveals the following:

The short-term effects of cocaine are:

Immediate euphoria, a feeling of invincibility, intellectual and physical power and numbness to pain and exhaustion. The intense high lasts 10-15 minutes, and remaining effects dissapear [sic] within an hour. The user may repeat doses to maintain high.

It's not surprising that the intellectually rigorous legal profession invites use of a substance that produces such feelings of prowess. The long hours of lawyers, who, I'm told, regularly work 70-hour weeks, also may lead to use of a drug that provides numbness to pain and exhaustion.

Cannabis is less intense. The same website reports:

[...]it will produce a light euphoria, relaxation, a feeling of peace, feeling of hilarity, a slight drowsiness, a sense of well being.

Wikipedia notes:

"Some effects [of marijuana] may include an altered state of consciousness, euphoria, feelings of well-being, relaxation or stress reduction, increased appreciation of humor, music or art, joviality...""

It's no surprise that lawyers don't go for the drowsiness and relaxation. I've been informed that the profession is rife with sometimes cut-throat competition and a drive to produce ever more billable hours. No breathing room there.

In somewhat related news, disbarred attorney David Moskal was found dead in his home at age 54, reports Legal Blog Watch, discussing a post on MinnLawyer Blog. While no information on the cause of his death was revealed, his obituary urged that memorial contributions be sent to two suicide prevention organizations.

It's long been noted that law has one of the highest percentages of mental illness of any profession. Lawyer and social worker Terry Harrell writes

In an early 1990s Johns Hopkins University study comparing rates of depression among twenty-eight occupations it was found that lawyers had the highest rates of depression and that lawyers were 3.6 times above the average rate of depression for the occupations compared. A study of 801 lawyers in the state of Washington found that 19% of the lawyers surveyed suffered from depression. A survey of 2,570 lawyers in North Carolina revealed that 25% reported clinical symptoms of depression such as loss of appetite, lethargy, suicidal thoughts, or insomnia at least three times a month during the past year.

The question here is whether lawyers bring a higher susceptibility of mental illness (depression and addiction being just two) with them to the profession or if the profession makes lawyers more susceptible to mental illness.

Law school AND the legal profession are fierce, rigorous, and at times exhausting. At least that's what my source tells me. In addition, attorneys (and, presumably, law students) seem to be riddled with self-doubt. At least that's what my source tells me. Doesn't a person who voluntarily enters the world of law have to be just a little unstable? It appears not. It seems that the move toward emotional distress may, for many, begin in the first year of law school.

Andrew J. McClurg, law professor and author, writes of what he learned while authoring his book, "1L of a Ride." He notes that incoming 1Ls show emotional distress levels that are similar to the general population but the stress of law school is responsible for bumping up the percentage of depressed students to three to five times that of the general population.

"To the extent law school is responsible for causing emotional distress in law students, one doesn’t have to look far for plausible explanations: the make-it-or-break-it single-exam format, the heavy emphasis on grades and corresponding worries about failure, the competitive environment, high student-teacher ratios, intimidating instructional methods, brutal workloads, burdensome debt-loads, lack of performance feedback, the adversarial nature of the legal system in which law students are constantly immersed, the emphasis on objective analytical thinking over personal values and emotions, strains on personal relationships, doubts about whether law school is the right career path, and, of course, for 1Ls, general fear and uncertainty about what to expect."

All of this should worry those who are entering law school. Which is great, because we didn't already have enough anxiety.

Please see my original post here: http://lauramcwilliams.wordpress.com/2009/08/15/a-self-selecting-group/