Stress can be almost anything that produces anxiety or tension, and different people experience different stressors. However, some common causes of stress in the legal profession include deadlines, high stakes, high expectations, constant scrutiny, conflict, malpractice threats, assumption of clients’ burdens, anticipation of the negative and an expectation to solve others’ problems.

We can’t eliminate stress in our lives, but we can change our reaction to stress, and learn to develop healthy coping techniques and strategies.

While stress doesn’t cause the condition known as burnout, it can indeed accelerate it.

Burnout is a type of depression in which people feel physically and emotionally exhausted, chronically impatient and irritable, and acutely resentful and apathetic toward people, places, and things about which they once cared deeply.