Top Warning Signs a Colleague or You May Need Help
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If you know what to look for, the signs warning of impairment are there. While it may seem easy to pick
up on warning signs exhibited by colleagues, it is also important to know what to look for in yourself.
Here is a list of the warning signs of impairment in a colleague:
Absenteeism
- Unexplained or repeated absences or tardiness for court appearances, depositions, etc.
- Peculiar or improbable excuses for absences.
Confusion or Difficulty in Concentration
- Difficulty in recalling instructions, details, etc.
- Increasing difficulty in handling complex assignments.
- Difficulty in recalling own mistakes.
- Work requires more effort than it should.
Spasmodic Work Patterns
- Alternate periods of high and low productivity.
Generally Lowered Job Efficiency
- Missed deadlines.
- Mistakes due to inattention or poor judgment.
- Making bad decisions.
- Complaints from clients.
- Improbable excuses for poor performance.
Poor Interpersonal Relationships
- Overreaction to real or imagined criticism.
- Wide swings in morale or mood.
- Unreasonable resentments or hostility.
- Excessive suspicion.
Physical Problems/Symptoms
- Complaints of fatigue.
- Back pains or other vague medical problems.
- Complaints of stomach problems or nausea.
- Repeated hospitalizations and/or accidents.
- Observable physical signs such as bleary eyes, wobbliness, shakes, flushed face, widely dilated or
tightly constricted pupils, bloodshot eyes, staggering, blank look/expressionless, standing or sitting
immobile (as if in a trance), hand or leg tremors, downcast or disheveled appearance, slurred speech,
lethargy, restlessness/nervousness/anxiety, panic reaction, facial tic, excessive talking, disoriented
thoughts (word salad), silence.
Financial or Legal Problems
- DUI's
- Client complaints such as failure to communicate or return telephone calls, failure to appear at
hearings or depositions, or missing statute of limitations dates.
- Trust account violations or misappropriation of client funds.
- Appearing in court or elsewhere in an obviously abnormal condition.
Here is a list of questions to help you assess your own impairment:
Within the past 12 months, have you:
- Tried to control or stop drinking or using?
- Needed more to achieve the same high, or gotten less effect from the same amount?
- Experienced withdrawal symptoms or continued to use despite having problems stemming from drug use?
- Driven a vehicle or operated machinery under the influence of drugs or alcohol?
- Experienced a blackout?
Is alcohol or drug use:
- Your primary method to relieve stress?
- Interfering with work? Are you missing appointments, court dates?
- Causing decreased ambition or efficiency?
- Disrupting personal relationships?
Addiction is a chronic progressive disease of the brain. It can significantly alter areas of the brain which
are crucial to decision making. The stigma is not in having an addiction problem but in failing to get
appropriate help.
Did you know?
- Addiction affects every aspect of ones life?
- Lawyers are twice as likely as the general population to develop problems with substance abuse and
other addictive disorders?
- People struggling with addiction are incapable of connecting the drug use and the unmanageability in
their lives.
- Family members, friends and colleagues know there is an addiction problem way before the addict
knows.
- Addiction is a treatable disease.
As with any medical illness, education and prevention can save lives. The earlier that you help a colleague
or yourself identify signs and symptoms, the sooner appropriate measures can be applied to help.
For more information, contact the New Jersey Lawyer Assistance
Program at 800.246.5527 (24 hours) or the
ABA Commission on Lawyer Assistance Programs. |
