Mindful Drinking?

• Author: Joseph P. Beckman

Published in Litigation News Volume 45, Number 3, Spring 20 20. © 2020 by the Ameri can Bar Association. Re produced with per mission. All rights re served. This info rmation or any porti on thereof may not be c opied or disseminated in any

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32 | SECTION OF LITIGATION

MENTAL HEALTH & WELLNESS

By Joseph P. Beckman, Se ction of Litigation Menta l Health & Wellness Task Force Member

Mindful Drinking?

s noted often, the leg al pro-

fession has perhaps a more

complex relationship with

alcohol than the average

line of work. A recent

journey, and some subsequent readi ng,

prompted me to wonder about the ip

side of the coin— our profession’s rela-

tionship with s obriety.

To refresh, the 2016 Hazelden Bet ty

Ford Foundation/ABA st udy of sub-

stance abuse, depre ssion, and anxiety

of over 12,000 l icensed and employed

lawyers and judges revea led some star-

tling facts. To begi n, over 23 percent

of respondents believed t heir use of

alcohol (or substances) was a problem

at some point during th eir lives. This

statistic does not i nclude lawyers who

are known to enjoy an adult beverage

(or several) on occasion, but who did

not self-identify a s belonging to the

23 percent who reported a lcohol as a

“problem” at some point. (The author

did not participate i n the survey.)

The Alcohol Use Dis orders

Identication Test (AUDI T) is a

10-item self-reporting instrument

developed by the World Health

Organizat ion to screen for hazardous

use, harmf ul use, and the potential for

alcohol dependence. T he AUDIT gen-

erates scores rangi ng from 0 to 40.

Scores of 8 or higher i ndicate haz-

ardous or harmf ul alcohol intake

and also possible depe ndence. Scores

are categorize d into zones to reect

increasing sever ity, with zone II

reecting h azardous use, zone III

indicating ha rmful use, and zone IV

warranting full diagnostic evaluation

for alcohol use disorder. For purp oses

of this study, the ABA st udy used the

phrase “problematic use” to captu re

all three zone s related to a positive

AUDIT screen.

Over 36 percent of those resp ond-

ing to the ABA st udy survey had an

AUDIT score consi stent with hazard-

ous drinki ng or possible alcohol abuse

or dependence, sugg esting that about

one-third of law yers who may have

an alcohol problem are not par ticu-

larly conscious of thei r plight. Let ’s

check that call w ith the replay ofcial:

Yes , over one-t hird of lawyers who

responded may, at best, be in den ial as

to how problematic their relationsh ip

with alcohol is.

Sober Curious : It’s How You Feel

about Alcohol

Type “sober curious” into your f avor-

ite search engine , and links to blogs

and inuencers w ill populate the

screen. Such websites t ypically do not

contain the ty pe of information that

forms the basis of an ex pert opinion

we litigators would endeavor to put

into evidence. Th at lack of hard sci-

ence, however, may be the point.

As Bustle’s Leah Wig gins said in

October 2018, “a new alcohol-related

trend has star ted to take hold that

dees all th at: The sober curiou s

movement. In a nutshell, ident ifying as

sober curious means you know from

experience th at alcohol doesn’t make

you feel great and you don’t drink it

often, but you’re not willing to put an

all-or-noth ing label on yourself.” That

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