Contact Us	Volunteers		Privacy Policy
Make a Donation	Education		LawCare News
Annual Report		Case Histories

LawCare News Winter 2007

Seasonal Affective Disorder
The SADness of S.A.D.
by Colleen E. Swan M.A. Counsellor

I cannot but remember,
When the year grows old,
October, November,
How she disliked the cold!
Edna St. Vincent Millay.

Throughout the ages, winter has been associated with darkness, cold, and bleak isolation. When Shakespeare’s King Richard III speaks of the winter of his discontent, he refers to his ultimate depths of despondency. Yet, despite the fact that countless people worldwide suffer from despair during the winter months, this cyclical dysfunction has gained relatively recent recognition as a prevalent, treatable disorder.

SAD’s symptoms include many of those encompassed in depression: lethargy, impaired concentration, diminished acuity in performing routine tasks, withdrawal from social interaction, increased appetite resulting in weight gain, and its consequent loss of self-esteem and well-being. The immune system becomes depleted, rendering the sufferer more susceptible to infections and other illnesses. SAD generally appears between the ages of eighteen and thirty. Often beginning in young adulthood, the sooner SAD is diagnosed; the quicker a treatment plan can be implemented, forestalling recurrence in later life.

Reportedly, SAD is more common in women than men, in a four-to-one ratio. This, however, may be due in part to a reticence on the part of men to admit to despair. While a growing number of men seek counselling for various types of emotional pain, it remains more difficult for men to concede being plagued by inner turmoil than it is for their female counterparts. This residual machismo may be seen in that, while relieving stress via alcohol, men tend to pride themselves on not taking pills, perceiving the ingestion of tablets as an indication of weakness.
What are the optimal treatments for SAD? The well-known methods are available: antidepressants and counselling. Once SAD has been diagnosed by a physician, it may prove vital to begin taking antidepressants more than a month before the onset of winter, as it often requires as long as six weeks for these medications to become effective. Counselling can be utilised in conjunction with antidepressants, or as an alternative treatment modality. Thus, it is sometimes advisable to contact a counsellor before SAD has an opportunity to take hold, in order to make a tentative appointment, ideally forestalling the need for medication. In terms of counselling, it often proves fruitful to be aware that an empathic ear is available, should the need for such support arise and intensify.

SAD may begin in the form of prevalent unhappy thoughts and memories, exacerbated by increasing darkness and cold. If you feel you might be a SAD sufferer, there are some additional recommendations.

Lay in a supply of books which you have been meaning to read, but have yet to get to. View these books as mental/emotional firewood; the echoes of some of them may outlast the winter-might even become a part of your soul. Books are friends; invite them to sit at your fireside.

While scientific research is still being conducted into this field, it is known that when the body’s absorption of light is decreased, sleep patterns can be disrupted, disturbed. Light boxes, also called dawn simulators, can provide that crucial light of which we are deprived during winter. It is known that, the further one lives from the equator, the higher is the percentage of SAD. Often, SAD is caused by the absence of light reaching the body through the retina. Thus, the replicated sunlight delivered through light boxes, operates in the same way as does the sun during the spring and summer months, aiding the metabolising of Vitamin D.
Some SAD sufferers enjoy setting a light box timer a quarter hour before their day begins, allowing them to awake to the sun. Others prefer to switch on a light box shortly after awakening, in order to glide into the day in a sunlit ambiance.

It may also prove useful to have a CD of birdsongs at hand, along with floral fragrances reminiscent of spring and summer. A drop of one or more of these oils, poured onto a tissue to sniff when desired, can contribute to the spring-like sense of sun glowing, birds singing, buds opening and blossoms in bloom.

An opposite but pleasing idea is to embrace winter, with all the warmth the word can evoke. Why not, of an evening or at any leisure hour, wrap yourself in a comforting quilt, put a heating pad under your back and/or feet, place a log on your fire, or relax to a CD or DVD of a bright, crackling fire? Enjoy a cup of warmed cider, Ovaltine or hot cocoa?

Speaking of chocolate, an ever-enticing thought, brings us to winter’s hormonal effects. The hormone Oxytocin, its name derived from the Greek “quick birth”, has been called “the cuddle hormone” because it floods mothers’ systems during labour, just prior to their giving birth. This hormone continues to be secreted during the nursing process, stimulated by the sucking motion of the infant’s mouth on the mother’s nipple. Chocolate is a major source of Oxytocin. (Chile peppers contain it as well, but have far less universal appeal.) Experiments are being conducted into the value of oxytocin in tablet form, but to date, no reliable information has become available. Ideally, oxytocin will, in time become, like caffeine, a legal mood-lifter. In botanical lore, the herb lad’s love derived its name because, placed in a nosegay, it was thought to spark a lady’s libido. Perhaps chocolate is our modern lad’s love, the chocolate-box the alluring bouquet.

In any case, scientific research makes clear that chocolate, as a carrier of Oxytocin, encourages us to feel happier and more responsive to those around us. This endorphin is also sparked by the affection of those we like and love. For this reason, in addition to sipping hot cocoa in winter, let’s hug those we love, during winter and all year round-both parties will benefit.

But what about winter weight gain? While hugs have no calories, chocolate has loads. Ingestion of chocolate, combined with the lack of exercise often a bi-product of winter, makes it hard to wake from winter’s cocoon without a dispiriting layer of flesh.

To prevent or minimise this distress, limit your mugs of hot chocolate to a treat to celebrate a festivity, or a comfort during the depths of cold doldrums. Indoor exercise can provide a sustaining means of weight maintenance during winter. Creating and then adhering to a daily exercise programme will bring you a sense of achievement while jump-starting your brain’s feel-good hormones. A treadmill and indoor bicycle are worthwhile; they will prove sound allies. At a lesser cost, a stepper and wrist and ankle weights are fruitful assistants. These weights are invaluable in that you can benefit by wearing them while engaged in everyday tasks. Amazingly soon, (I speak from experience) you may forget you are wearing them, but during every second you do so, with even the slightest movement of arm, leg, finger or toe, you will shed calories.

There is, as yet, no definitive solution for SAD. It is hoped that, for many, utilising the above suggestions, those days each year, lasting from the end of autumn till the beginning of spring, can become, if not the season of choice, a time of contentment.

Colleen Swan is a counsellor in Dorset: www.timetotalkto.me.uk

From the Chief Executive's Desk

Headline from the Daily Mail, 23^rd October 2007 - “Alcohol abuse claims twice as many female lives as 15 years ago”

LawCare has been in existence for 10 years now and in that time, there has been quite a sea change in the case files that we are opening. When we started out, it was predominantly men who were calling us about alcohol issues, but now women, too, are beginning to find alcohol abuse a problem. The current split is:-

As can be seen, our experience is that women still tend to resort to alcohol less than men as means of solving their problems, but when they do, the results can be just as disastrous:-

Case study (identifying details have been changed)

Kate was a self-employed lawyer who had a severe alcohol problem. As a result, she was not getting any work and was encountering acute financial difficulties. Due to her drinking, her husband had asked her to leave a year before, so she had had to move into rented accommodation, leaving her children behind. When she called us, she had no food in the flat and had just spent the last of her money, which was set aside for rent, on whisky, and was being threatened with eviction. LawCare initially put her in touch with a local volunteer, but the volunteer reported that having spoken to Kate, he felt that inpatient treatment was vital. LawCare contacted a treatment centre where costs were below £500 per week and was able to arrange funding of the course of treatment through a Benevolent Association We even sorted out kennelling for Kate’s dog. The volunteer drove Kate to the station and put her on the train, and she was met at the other end by staff of the treatment centre. At the time of writing Kate has completed her treatment, has been sober for some months, has got a job and is feeling much more positive and confident that she will be able to rebuild her life.

Of the women lawyers ringing our free and confidential helpline to ask for help, 50% have been qualified for less than 5 years and only 5% have been qualified for more than 21 years. With male practitioners these statistics are 23% and 25% respectively. This seems to suggest that the main pressure (whether it leads to coping by use of alcohol, drugs etc or not) is felt by women when they are first starting out in practise. There could be numerous reasons for this:-

(i) the typical stress of not being able to control one’s professional work when young and inexperienced

(ii) financial pressures carried into practise in the form of student loans, business development loans etc.

(iii) juggling setting up a home as well as developing a career

(iv) juggling the demands of a relationship and / or children with maintaining and developing a career

(v) finding that practise does not live up to the student’s starry eyed vision

most or all of which have receded by the time that the individual has been in practise for over 20 years, or the lawyer has simply thrown in the towel and left the law by then.

80% of lawyers consulting LawCare for help with an alcohol problem relate their starting to drink to pressure at work. Recent figures from the Office of National Statistics indicate that in the last 16 years, drink-related deaths have doubled. The pressures in life, both work and home related, are not going to reduce in the years to come, so these figures are only likely to worsen. Thankfully LawCare is here to help.

Best regards,

Hilary

Lawcare News Summer 2007

MindTime

by Peter Thomson

The Pocket Oxford Dictionary defines stress as “Pressure tensions; compulsions; demand on physical or mental energy.” Stress comes when you are subjected to too many inputs at any one time; too many demands for action - physical and mental. The symptoms include tiredness, headaches, stomach cramps and palpitations. If you don't get to grips with the situation fast prolonged stress can lead to nervous breakdown or heart attack.

Work is a major cause of stress. I often liken the courtroom to a theatre, and those within either as performers. The better their ‘performances’, the better their chances of success. In the theatre, a bad performance can result in bad reviews. In the latter, a bad ‘performance’ can rob a client of their freedom.

Much of the time stressful situations come into being because of something in our physiological make-up and outside influences. Quite simply, it isn't our fault if we love the legal work, but don’t have a head for figures, and the matter we are being pressured to complete involves a great deal of complex number-crunching.

However, a lot of the time stress is down to our lifestyle. All work and play, with no respite in between. “Work hard; play hard” the saying goes, and so there are lawyers who, after a very long and difficult day at the office, will then hit the gym for an hour, and barely have time to shower, change and grab some unhealthy fast food before they are out on the town with until the early hours. This does little to combat the stress of work. If you “relax” by being busy doing something else, you are not really relaxing fully. Using activity to provide your “down time” will not alleviate the burden of stress. That’s not to say that you can’t be active and indulge your hobbies, just that you need to learn to really relax in order to counteract stress.

Believe it or not, relaxation takes time, effort and practice. Relaxation is an act of stilling the body to calm the mind. I call this MindTime. Giving yourself time to keep still and think and regain true and correct perspective.

Try closing your eyes for sixty seconds. I tend to think you'd open them in thirty seconds, if not less. Time can seem a long time at times. When giving yourself MindTime, keep a small clock at hand so that you can be sure you really have taken the time you need to recover and relax.

Any health centre worthy of the title will offer classes in Yoga, Transcendental Meditation and other tried and tested ways to be still and relax. But should you want to do it alone, in the privacy of your own home, the following should be of both interest and benefit to you.

Basic Relaxation Techniques

Before starting on any of these techniques, make sure you will not have a need to answer a call of nature for half-an-hour or so. As and where possible, try and have the lights low, and don't try to consciously ‘empty your mind’ (it's not that easy). Just allow your thoughts to come and go, come and go. Allow them to simply drift. Do your utmost to keep negative and “naughty” thoughts OUT!

Have a small clock close to you. Note the time before an exercise (just before you close your eyes) and when you finish an exercise and open them again.

The Chair

Sit upright in a straight-backed chair. Palms of hands flat on your thighs, feet flat on the floor. Take a few deep breaths, note the time, then close your eyes slowly and .... be still. Just that. No more, no less. When you feel you've been still long enough, or move, or open your eyes, that's it. Note the time on the clock. You can try this exercise a few times, but allow about ten minutes between each try. Do the exercise the next day, and the next day and so on. Practice makes perfect.

The Bed or Couch

Lay flat out, face up, arms at your sides. A few deep breaths, a quick look at the clock, then into normal breathing, closing your eyes slowly. For the rest, as before. Allow your thoughts to come and go, come and go. Drift gently in and out. Be still. You're stilling the body to still your mind.

In any such exercise, never leap out of the chair, or off the bed or couch once you're done. You'd be just as likely to keel over. Get up slowly and enjoy the feeling of stillness.

The Wall

Only do this if you have good, natural balance. Stand flat upright against a wall, shoes off. The backs of your heels, your bottom and shoulders as flat against the wall as you can. A few deep breaths, a quick look at the clock, then .... close your eyes slowly. Imagine you're on the bed, only instead of horizontal, you're vertical!

When you've had enough, open your eyes slowly and note the time on the clock. Now for the weird bit. Slowly, carefully, try and take a step away from the wall. At first, you'll feel as though you're stuck! When you do move away, just make it one good step forward and remain both still and upright. You'll feel as though you've been detached from something. You have: the wall. You may even feel a little isolated.

The more you do these exercises the better. The longer you'll be able to remain still. In time, you'll be able to take a single concern you may wish to think upon and do so, only with a mind that is still, calm, clear and focussed and from which a clarity of thought can form.

PETER THOMSON trained as a Hypnotherapist, later taking a postgraduate degree in Counselling & Interpersonal Skills. He also took a Diploma in Criminology. His practice is based in Central London.

Contact details:

Natureworks: 020-7-629:2927

Evenings: 020-7-582:5481

Mobile: 07947 750 066

email: fox.pro@virgin.net

LawCare Celebrates Tenth Anniversary

On 17th May, representatives of all areas and levels of the legal profession gathered at the Canary Wharf offices of Clifford Chance to celebrate the achievement of LawCare’s 10th birthday.

The speaker was Clarissa Dickson-Wright, a well-known TV cook whose “Two Fat Ladies” series (with the late Jennifer Patterson) was the most successful TV cookery programme ever, watched by 70 million people worldwide, and even being subtitled into Inuit.

Prior to becoming a professional cook, Clarissa had a successful legal career. She was the youngest person ever to be called to the Bar, but was also an alcoholic. She noted that she was “the sort of person LawCare was founded for” but that it came “ten years too late for me”.

From an extremely well-to-do but alcoholic family (her father was alcoholic, as are all her siblings) she started drinking when her mother died, and spent “an obscene amount of money” on alcohol.

She was struck off, and eventually found sobriety through the PROMIS treatment centre and AA. In concluding, Clarissa urged those listening to support LawCare in order “to help others like me go on to enjoy the sort of life I now enjoy.”

Since 1997, LawCare has helped hundreds of lawyers, their staff and family members towards sobriety, as well as a supporting a further 1,500 suffering from other problems such as stress, depression and bullying.

Our thanks to Clifford Chance for hosting the event, and to all those who attended.

Noticeboard

Many thanks to Manchester Law Society, the Blyth Watson Trust, and Gloucestershire and Wiltshire Incorporated Law Society for their kind and generous donations. These are very much appreciated.

If you or your firm or organisation are thinking about holding a charity event or making a donation to LawCare, a new leaflet is available explaining how such donations are used and how your generosity can help LawCare help lawyers. Please phone 0870 774 3663 or email admin@lawcare.org.uk for a copy.

A study by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development has shown that mental health problems, including stress and depression, are now the second largest cause of time lost to sickness, following muscle problems such as bad backs. Depression sufferers are taking an average of 30 days off sick.

A trading Standards Institute survey has discovered that fewer teenagers are drinking alcohol than two years ago, with 28% of children aged 14-17 reporting that they had bought their own alcohol, compared with 40% in 2005. However, 29% of those who reported that they did drink were regular binge drinkers, and half of them had been involved in violent incidents as a result of drinking.

LawCare maintains a database of qualified practising counsellors who have experience of the legal profession. Generally this means those who were formerly lawyers, or who have a close family member who is a lawyer. Many of our helpline callers feel it would benefit them to be referred to a counsellor who has this understanding of the profession. However, we are always looking for more such counsellors for our database. If you know of a counsellor with experience of the legal profession, please ask them to get in touch by calling 0870 774 3663 or emailing their cv / qualifications / experience to admin@lawcare.org.uk.

LawCare Literature

LawCare publishes a variety of free literature on the subject of health issues and other problems which affect callers to our helpline. The following is a complete list. These can be obtained by calling 0870 774 3663, emailing admin@lawcare.org.uk, or for download on our website, www.lawcare.org.uk/freedownloads.htm.

· Adrenaline Addiction: includes a test to identify whether this is an issue and self-help steps for dealing with it.

· Alcohol Information Pack: includes a questionnaire to assess whether there is an alcohol problem, information on the effect alcohol has on the body, how to identify an alcoholic and suggestions on overcoming this addiction.

· Alternative Careers: outlines ways of assessing strengths and interests, reviewing the situation, advises on career counselling and includes a list of 100 alternative jobs which a lawyer might consider.

· An Alcoholic in the Firm/Chambers: covers identifying the alcoholic, and different approaches to the problem including treatment options. Includes sample office policies on alcohol.

· Anti-Stress Desktop Workbook: this little booklet contains tips for managing your day to avoid stress, and includes a daily work planner.

· Back to the Beehive: intended for firms, this discusses the effect stress has on staff, what problems this can cause for the firm, and how to respond when a member of staff is off sick due to stress.

· Beating the Bully: outlines types of bullying and reasons for it, gives suggestions for dealing with it, and includes sample office policies on bullying and harassment.

· Caring about a Problem Drinker: looks at the way alcoholism affects a family, and how the family or friends can respond to the problem whilst protecting themselves.

· Counselling: discusses what counselling can and cannot do, what it costs and how to select a counsellor, and has contributions by professional counsellors about their therapy approach – counselling, psychotherapy, hypnotherapy, life coaching and CBT.

· Debt: covers debt management programmes, IVAs and bankruptcy

· Gambling: includes a questionnaire to assess whether there is a problem, advises on options for the firm or family who wish to help, and covers treatment resources.

· Grief and Bereavement: outlines the stages of grief and how it is experienced, what others can do to help, and practical matters such as arranging a funeral and seeking specialised bereavement counselling.

· Returning to Work after Recovery: advises both employees and employers on getting back into work following an extended period of absence due to addiction or mental health problems.

· Stopping Smoking: looks at why people smoke, the health risks and reasons for not smoking, and offers suggestions on stopping and staying stopped. Also covers pipes and cigars, and a workplace smoking policy in view of the smoking ban.

· Stress/Depression Pack: discusses the dangers of stress, some practical ways to relieve stress and better manage your time and how to work alongside a stressed person. This pack also includes information on depression including a questionnaire to assess whether you might be suffering from depression, an explanation of exactly what the illness is and some tips on overcoming depression.

We are also in the process of preparing documents about drugs, panic attacks, eating disorders and coping with SRA/OSS disciplinary procedures and intervention. We would be pleased to hear from anyone who has any experience of these.

Leaflets are also available about the work of LawCare, the free presentations and seminars, and how donations can be used to help LawCare’s work with suffering lawyers.

LawCare News Spring 2007

A Happy Lawyer is Good for Business

“Happiness is the meaning of life and the purpose of life, the whole aim and the end of human existence”

Aristotle said that 2000 years ago and he was right. So how can it be that lawyers are so unhappy? Studies in both North America and the UK confirm that lawyers are amongst the unhappiest of professionals.

Despite such reports, in 2005 record numbers of students (13,504) signed up to study law. That year also saw the numbers of Solicitors on the Roll top 100,000. Once these students qualify they can expect salary levels in the city of £50,000 so the financial rewards are there, but Lawyer attrition levels are rising. City firms are beginning to introduce different career structures for Associates not destined to become Partners, in an attempt to get the attrition rates down.

So what happens to people once they qualify to make them so unhappy? The law is a stressful profession. Long hours are the norm, with lawyers routinely working till 8/9pm, and even through the night. Couple to this the lack of time and energy to take exercise or eat properly, and ill health, stress, burn out and depression ensue. However, stress and depression are symptomatic of unhappiness and not causative.

Why bother about happiness?

Because it matters. Not just on financial and productivity levels, but perhaps most importantly on emotional and social levels. A 2005 study by Laura King, Sonja Lyubomirsky and Ed Diener concluded that overall, happy and contented individuals are more satisfied with their family life, romantic relationships, friends, health, education, jobs, leisure activities and even their housing and transportation, compared to their less happy peers. The researchers conclude that happiness therefore leads to successful outcomes.

What does this mean for the legal profession? Perhaps at its most rudimentary level, it illustrates what many people believe anecdotally, ie. that people do not go to work just for the money and status. Those are simply not enough. People strive for what Abraham Mazlow called self-actualization, an instinctual need to make the most of your own unique abilities and to strive to be the best you can be.

Why are lawyers so unhappy?

In a recent study Professor Martin Seligman identified 3 possible reasons for lawyer unhappiness:

1. pessimism;

2. low decision latitude;

3. win-loss game

Pessimism

Lawyers training inculcates that in legal practise, pessimists do better than optimists. To see troubles before they arise, to foresee every potential disaster are traits that are valued in a lawyer. However, such pessimistic traits then overflow into other areas of a lawyer’s life and pessimism in any other realm of life is not good.

Low decision latitude

This refers to the number of choices a lawyer believes he has. It can be a particular problem for junior lawyers who have limited choices available to them in high stress environments. Often in the first few years of practice, young lawyers are isolated away from clients, with only limited contact with their superiors. A heavy workload combines to make the lawyer feel that the choices they have are limited if they are to progress towards partnership.

Win-loss game

The adversarial nature of the English legal system opens up a win-loss game at every turn. The win-loss mentality is systemic and becomes ingrained in the people that work within it. Added to this is the need to bill incessantly to improve the bottom line. This creates an atmosphere where the pursuit of the common good is side tracked. The compensation and blame culture attracts lawyers to it. The failure to take personal responsibility creates a culture where win-lose proponents prosper. Seligman believes the win-loss personality trait is the deepest cause of lawyer unhappiness.

So what can be done to turnaround lawyer unhappiness?

Firstly, firms need to make a commitment to improving the happiness of their lawyers. Happiness is a subjective value that can be objectively measured. People view happiness in different ways. Seligman suggests that it is important to understand a person’s strengths and to develop those strengths rather than make them work on weaknesses.

To counter pessimism, Seligman suggests using adaptive pessimism together with optimism in other areas of life. Getting rid of once and for all thoughts like “I’ll never make partner”, “My husband is probably unfaithful” is helpful in cultivating flexible optimism and can have positive effects on lawyer morale.

Pressure is an inevitable consequence of practicing law. Giving lawyers more decision latitude can make them feel more satisfied. Give them more control over their working day. Reduce repetitive tasks. Allow junior lawyers to see the whole picture by meeting clients, and, mentored by senior lawyers, get them involved in pitches to clients. Make them feel part of the bigger picture rather than a cog within it.

The win-loss scenario is systemic and there is no easy answer. The 1998 Civil Procedure Rules introduced more mediation and cooperation among parties and this can only help in bringing together more win-win scenarios. A potential longer term solution is to identify the “signature strengths” of your lawyers. Each lawyer you employ will be intelligent and have high verbal and reasoning skills. But each lawyer comes with unused strengths such as emotional intelligence, leadership, and social intelligence. When people feel that they use their particular strength they feel respected, their morale increases and so does their happiness. As Seligman points out “There is a clear correlation between positive emotion at work and high productivity.”

The Future

Law firms have to act before lawyer unhappiness reaches epidemic proportions and depression, stress and ill health become the norm. By taking proactive action law firms can increase the social and emotional well-being and happiness of their lawyers, which in turn helps to increase productivity and increases the bottom line. What law firm wouldn’t want that?

Simon Price

Price Professional Development is a learning and development practice specialising in skills training and coaching to lawyers. It is run by lawyer Simon Price and all training and coaching programmes are accredited by the law society. 0870 157 7680 www.pricepd.co.uk.

Report on 2006

As has been reported in the legal press, the number of new files opened by LawCare in 2006 was 25% higher than in 2005, the third year in succession to show a 20% (or higher) increase.

We do not speculate as to the reasons for these increases. It is possible that the profession continues to become more stressful, especially in the light of current changes both within the Law Society and to publicly funded work. It may be that lawyers now feel more able to talk about the problems they face, or that increased publicity about LawCare is having an effect in making the profession aware of the help that is available.

A Message from the Chief Executive

How many times have you walked away from an encounter with a colleague or employer feeling that whilst lip service has been paid to that meeting, in reality, only a small part of the other person’s attention was on what you were saying? Perhaps your counterpart was checking emails as you talked, or answered the phone when it rang, or looked over your shoulder at others in the room whilst you were talking. Inevitably, even if you achieved the required end result from such a meeting, you walked away feeling somehow demeaned and diminished because you were apparently not worthy of their entire attention.

Stephen Young, co-founder of Insight Education Systems, describes the causes of this negative feeling as “micro-messages”, barely perceptible nuances in our language, tone, body movements etc. that indicate to the person to whom we are speaking how we really feel about them, regardless of what we are saying. “It has little to do with the words we use and everything to do with the nuance, the subtlety, the implication, the tone, the gestures. Those things reveal what is really beneath the words”.

Thus, whilst the messages you are giving or receiving may appear to be positive, because of the micro messages/subtle undercurrents that accompany them, the end result is actually negative. In the workplace, over a period, this can lead to poor morale, reduced motivation and difficult interpersonal relations. In the home, it can lead to strained interaction with spouse, partner and/or children. The person sending these micro-messages is unlikely to realise that they are doing so, whilst the person receiving them will be left dissatisfied and unhappy, but without really knowing why.

This does not mean that you have to walk on egg shells every time you talk to someone. What it does mean is that you should take care to treat everyone you speak to with the common courtesy of holding eye contact, devoting your whole attention to them, and refusing to be distracted.

If you are the one suffering from the consequences of negative micro-messages then you need to ensure that the perpetrator understands what they are doing and its effects on you, and to insist that they afford you the courtesies set out above. Simple enough things to remember and do, but so worthwhile in terms of ensuring a positive outcome to any interaction in the home or workplace.

Regards,

Hilary

Noticeboard

The date for LawCare’s 10th Anniversary Lecture has been set for 17th May. The speaker will be former Barrister, recovered alcoholic and celebrity chef, Clarissa Dickson-Wright. The event will be held at the Canary Wharf offices of sponsors, Clifford Chance, at 6 for 6.30pm..

In a survey by insurance firm Royal/Sun Alliance, one in six people admitted that they had been under the influence of alcohol at work. The cost of alcohol abuse to businesses has been estimated at around £2 billion per year, with the cost to the UK as a whole, including the NHS and crime, at £3.3 billion.

A team at Marseilles University have discovered a previously unknown molecule in the brains of alcoholics. This molecule has been identified as a complex sugar, "present in the brain of alcoholics and absent from the brains of others". The appearance of this substance is explained by a disturbance of the metabolism of glucose (the lubricant of the brain) and seems to characterise the brains of chronic alcoholics. It always disappears after a period of detoxification.

Sitting at a desk for hours working at a computer may be bad for your health in yet another way. Doctors have coined the phrase “E-thrombosis” for cases of deep vein thrombosis which occur because patients still for lengthy periods in one place because of their work. DVT is most commonly seen in long-haul airline passengers and can kill an otherwise healthy person in a matter of hours. Apart from immobility, the main risk factor is dehydration. So get up and walk to around every hour or so, and try not to lunch at your desk.

On the Lighter Side

Badly-phrased Laws

"No dog shall be in a public place without its master on a leash." (Belvedere, California)

"Any vehicles meeting at an intersection must stop. Each must wait for the other to pass. Neither can proceed until the other is gone." (New Hampshire)

"No person shall knowingly keep or harbour at his house or her house within the city any woman of ill-repute, lewd character or a common prostitute, other than wife, mother or sister." (Ashland, Kentucky)

“It is illegal to do anything illegal.” (New York)