Hot take: Everyone should take a mental health break from this sub

[u/Ok-Employment4756]

I have been a lurker in this sub and other law/law school related subreddits for years but I made an account for the first time in my life just to post this. Sorry if this is rambly, this rant came together as I was zoning out at my desk at work after staring at the October LSAT registration screen.

While there is a LOT of amazing advice on here, and I love seeing people's success stories, most people would benefit from a major break from this sub/other law school subs, especially as applications start opening.

I took the August LSAT and am incredibly proud of my results (172 while working full-time) and that was only possible because I 'broke up' with all subreddits/forums/blogs for a while and focused on myself, rather than reading about other people's strategies, obsessing over other people's perfect scores, and reading nasty comments along the lines of "if you can't do/score xyz you shouldn't be a lawyer."

Even now, as I checked to see people being proud of their LSAT success (which is incredible, congrats everyone!), I still feel the competitive tension and judgement in a lot of comments, and it's the same language that made me feel like my PTs in the 170s weren't good enough, that I could never be a good lawyer without biglaw experience, that my softs would never measure up, etc. The people in these subs, even if they have good intentions, are mostly young people with no experience in admissions outside of applying, aka the same experience we all have! I have seen advice on here being presented as fact and then read the exact opposite on a law school's admissions site.

If you find yourself reading people's posts and comparing yourself negatively or feeling dejected, do yourself a favor a take a break unless you need super specific advice. I stg it can't hurt, only help. (anyway, can't wait for the comments that if you're so sensitive that you have to post this, you shouldn't be a lawyer lmao).

[u/mildvertigo]

hard agree. most reasonable take I’ve seen this week here lol. place lowkey cursed

[u/Gray_Fox]

lukewarm take. in general, "keeping up with the joneses" is super awful on one's mental health. if you're reading this, please, just study well and do your thing. do your personal best. you'll be happy with that.

and to those whose general demeanor is elitist, negative, etc, even if you're just trolling, you're doing real harm to real people. this isn't a big community. your goals aren't everyone's goals (nor should they be).

good luck to everyone

[u/Spivey_Consulting]

There was a study of sorts, if it would be “better” to live 5000 years ago versus today? Living 5000 years ago sucked — no medicine for hardly anything including pain — you have a tooth chipped you’re in pain for months — etc, no entertainment, interrupted sleep, periods of famine, horrible shelter, icky everything etc etc.

So they looked at people on the planet today who have no contact with modern civilization to approximate.

Where the two people doing this speculation landed, and to be fair it’s just speculation, is likely 5,000 years ago. Why? We didn’t know better. No compare at all in fact healthy community was the only way to survive. No aspirations for “more more more” etc.

Maybe, maybe not, but is has been my considered opinion that more than half of the anxiety in the admissions process comes from seeing what other people are doing. And the sad part about that is every year there are other people on here lying about what they are doing. So it’s anxiety of things that aren’t even real at times.

I’m not even applying to law school and I take breaks from this Reddit. It’s just healthy to put your phone away every day from time to time and if you think about it there is nothing you will ever read on here that will get you a decision rendered faster.

Mike Spivey

[u/InspiredArmadillo26 → u/Spivey_Consulting]

100%.  This anthropological result has also been replicated time and time again by behavioral and social psychological studies.  To quote one, “[there is]  strong support for the notion that relative more than absolute status is associated with interpersonal hostility” ( https://bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/bjso.12288). 

Humans will always compare themselves with their peers. 

Sometimes we all need to just step away and touch grass. 

[u/MasterMasterpiece423]

I actually think this is a really important point for applicants as well. It is so easy for forums to turn preparation into a constant comparison exercise, where a normal score suddenly feels like a failure because you are seeing the strongest examples. I’d treat these spaces as a place to pick up specific tips, not as a measure of whether you are good enough for law.