A Tale of Sleep Apnea Destroying Professional Practice

Disbarred in 2002, but with his license reinstated recently, and with wide support from peers and colleagues, Vassilios Apostolopoulos, a Canadian lawyer, has lived through a tale that could have happened to any lawyer regardless of nationality. He was subject to a malady called sleep apnea, something that is commonly known and widely disregarded.
 

Few attorneys seriously consider the implications of sleep apnea upon professional and personal life, and this article tells the tale of Apostolopoulos as a wakeup call. If you want to survive and excel in the career of an attorney, may be it is time to take note of the hours when you are sleeping, as much as you are careful of what you do when awake.


The thing to watch out for, as a doctor described about the condition of this respected and popular attorney, is “one of the most hidden diagnoses,” a common case of sleep apnea being wrongly diagnosed and treated as clinical depression.

Ten years ago, in 2002, Apostolopoulos was lost: He was disbarred for professional misconduct, lost his family, his career, and his home in a continuing tide of depression – homeless, he slept outside the Canadian Opera Company building.

Talking to the media about his ordeals during that time, he said, “I was cast adrift. Basically, I lived in exile from others and from my own self. I had no explanation to offer to anyone — to my family, my mentors, my teachers, to my friends.”

External symptoms of sleep apnea

Apostolopoulos says he began experiencing the symptoms of sleep apnea long back in 1990, more than a decade before it ate up his life and practice like cancer.

He says, “I was a really driven person. All of a sudden I realized, somehow, my output has changed. With worsening of the situation he was admitted to a hospital in 1994, diagnosed with depression and exposed to therapy and medication for curing depression.

Finding no improvement, he stopped the treatment in 1998. However, by then, the treatment for depression combined with sleep apnea had taken its toll, and Apostolopoulos committed two indiscretions. He failed to file proper documents regarding a mortgage, and he misappropriated a large sum of money from a client. These two acts led to his disbarment in 2002.

The attorney says, “By the time my licence was revoked (in 2002), life had taken a catastrophic turn. I had lost my career, my marriage, almost all of my friends and I was estranged from my family.”

Don't decide everything by yourself, reach out for help

Attorneys have a penchant for doing everything by themselves, never reaching out to personal friends for help over medical conditions, and thinking that they would be able to do everything by themselves. It happens because of many reasons, including the fact that the social capital of an attorney is based on his/her reputation as a problem-solver for others in the same social network.

It was only after losing his license to practice law that Apostolopoulos finally felt he had nothing more to lose and contacted a friend for help. Typically, he says, “It was the first time I had ever asked for anything.”

The friend worked closely with Apostolopoulos' ex-wife and took him to a good doctor, who ultimately diagnosed sleep apnea. Change in treatment worked miraculously and brought Apostolopoulos' life back to former state. He says, after the treatment started, “I listened, after many years, to Mozart's The Magic Flute and it was once more a moving experience.”

He re-enrolled in law school with a specialty in medical law. Though he stood out academically and he completed his second law degree with distinction, life was merciless and he soon found himself bankrupt and homeless again. And he began to be pulled back into the abyss, because without a home, he could no more power up the sleep apnea breathing apparatus.

He went back to hospital. While still there, he applied for and was accepted to the PhD program at Osgoode Hall Law School.

The best thing is to never get into the trap at all

Even though Apostolopoulos' law license was reinstated by the Law Society of Upper Canada with huge support from peers, he says the struggle is continuing with a new twist, and that is from stigma. He has repaired his relationships with friends and family, but the mistakes that cost him his license in the first place are hard to remove. The stigma of disbarment continues to live on.

As he says, “Stigma makes a huge difference every day, in small and big ways,” he said, “because in the end stigma is an institutional impediment — to treatment, to full participation, to inclusion and to the exercise of meaningful citizenship.”

But, it all could have been avoided, if he had been diagnosed in the first place with sleep apnea and not diagnosed or treated for depression. And it is quite common for professionals to self-diagnose themselves with depression and start taking antidepressants, worsening their situations every day, when what they need is actually sleep apnea treatment.

This article is based on a story covered by the Toronto Star.
 

• See Law School: The Most Depressing Three Years of Your Life for more information.