Today, Wall Street has a decidedly cleaner image.
The people who run investment banks and hedge fundsare more likely to be up late at night workingthan partying.
Many of these people were granted anonymity to protect their careers.
The one exception, he said, is when he’s entertaining clients.
The rise of deadly fentanyl is also changing some behaviors.
“He was like, ‘You should just smoke.
You’re always so stressed and depressed.
I don’t know how you survive this job without doing anything.'”
The other was it supposedly makes you feel like cocaine makes you feel.
People are definitelyaddicted to Adderall."
Joe, the banker in his 30s, said Adderall was passed around like candy at his office.
A private-equity banker said Adderall had become more accessible now than ever at his workplace.
“Nobody is shy about offering it or talking about it,” this person said.
Jaime Blaustein, an investment banker turned mental-health professional, has seen the negative side of Adderall firsthand.
“If you get to higher doses of Adderall, your thinking actually becomes a bit crazy and delusional.
You start to lose touch with reality,” Blaustein said.
“I experienced this before getting sober and then saw it happen to others.
“I actually flagged the issue about Adderall being tossed around like water.
After 30 seconds, my gums were tingly, and my saliva tasted like acid.
After a few minutes, I felt my stomach acids gurgling up my trachea and my heart pounding.”
I do it at my desk all day,” he said.
He added: “There’s a real community around shared vices.”
Trading, the person said, is a job that requires intense levels of concentration and fast thinking.
you better besuper focusedand often have mere seconds to make decisions, the person said.
People who move too slowly lose out, and the competition can be intense.
“I was exhausted,” this person added.
They have to, said Shull, who considers herself a risk-psychology or decision coach.
Their jobs choosing investments and managing their securities portfolios areextremely demanding, and partying will only slow them down.
Why do I panic when something goes against me?'"
For many, hallucinogens are considered “safe” drugs, especially when compared with alcohol.
In 2020, a 40-year-oldstar trading executiveat Credit Suisse died after taking cocaine that was tainted with fentanyl.
“It scares the shit out of people,” an executive at a sell-side bank said.
“A lot of people I know have given up cocaine for quote-unquote safer drugs.”
“Everyone is scared of doing coke now,” a buy-side fundraiser added.
“The worry alone has turned some people off.”
Of course, if bankers and traders are good at anything, it’s assessing risk.
And for some on Wall Street, fentanyl is just a threat that needs managing.
There’s no perceived softness in getting your drugs tested now," Joe said.
But some financial-industry employees still refuse to acknowledge the danger.
“I know very, very few people that test their drugs,” the private-equity professional said.
These people believe their “coke guy only deals with fellow upper-tier folks,” he said.
Then there’s the entertainment.
Wall Street is all about relationships, which often means spending big money to show people a good time.
“They rewarded you with business,” he said of institutional-trading clients.
“I’m a facilitator.”
“Addiction, it doesn’t discriminate.”
Alcohol-addiction cases have declined by 3 percentage points to 64%, she said.
“The most deadly drug on Wall Street is probably alcohol,” Lembke said.
“And it’s deeply embedded into the culture of business and finance.
It’s part of how business is done.”
Take as much time as you need.
At business dinners, the equity trader would “white-knuckle” a club soda, he said.
But everyone who spoke with BI agreed that there were limitedresourcesdirected specifically at finance professionalsstruggling with addiction.
Peet attends Alcoholics Anonymous meetings in New York City.
Other high-stress industries have developed programs totreat addiction.
The program, known as HIMs, has an 85% success rate.
Physicians have a similarly intensive treatment program with a success rate of 78%, one study found.
“I loved my career.
I would have done that in a second,” Laird said of the HIMs program.
