Sutton described the experience of a young lawyer who worked for a federal judge as part of a two-year clerkship. Her coworkers and boss were incredibly hard to deal with, but if she quit, she would have been committing career suicide. What's more, she wouldn't have been able to pay off her student laws.
Sutton said the young lawyer coped by using a cognitive behavioral trick — imagining herself at the end of her clerkship.
"When you're in a difficult situation, if you can say to yourself, 'If I can just get through tonight and look back on it over the weekend, six months, a year from now,' stressful situations actually do much less damage on our mental and physical health," Sutton told Business Insider.
Another example of cognitive distancing that Sutton recommends is trying to find humor in terrible situations.
"That always helps," he said. "It's amazing. You start laughing at people. That's certainly what I do with some of my more difficult colleagues at Stanford."