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  1. #1
    April
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    Rehab centers see bankers driven to drink

    By Claudia Parsons

    NEW CANAAN, Connecticut (Reuters) - Cocaine and martinis On Wall Street? Nothing new there. Masters of the Universe admitting they have an alcohol problem? Not so common.

    Experts say more and more people in finance are seeking treatment for addiction as the global economic crisis sinks its teeth into a high-stakes industry where confidence is the name of the game and nobody wants to admit to a weakness.

    "We absolutely do see more people coming in naming either a job loss or huge financial reversals or big investments with Bernie Madoff," said Sigurd Ackerman, medical director at Silver Hill Hospital rehabilitation facility in New Canaan, Connecticut.

    "They're being admitted with depression or increases in substance abuse, or both."

    Ackerman said there was a high concentration of financial professionals in the town, 40 miles from New York, whose main streets are lined with high-end boutiques catering to the well-heeled wives of hedge fund managers and bankers.

    "You're supposed to be a master of the universe, you're supposed to be on top of everything," said one financial services executive who began alcohol rehab in August.

    "There's not a lot of sensitivity training or meetings where you sit around and ask how everyone is feeling," said the Connecticut executive, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "No one walks around saying 'I feel your pain.'"

    Alcohol has long oiled the wheels of commerce on Wall Street, where bankers working long hours will entertain clients over dinner and drinks, or let off steam at late-night clubs with hard liquor and drugs.

    Robert Curry, founder of Turning Point for Leaders, a coaching and consulting firm in New Canaan that creates treatment programs for senior executives, said the financial crisis was a factor in more drink and drug use.

    "We've got more than 50 homes in foreclosure in this town and that's unheard of," Curry said. "Domestic violence incidents have spiked, and that is very closely tied to substance abuse."

    Struggling with a divorce, the Connecticut executive sought help at Turning Point. A residential rehab program will be just the first step in a program that would last at least a year and include follow-up counseling, therapy and support groups.

    Curry is a former financial executive who started working with substance abusers two decades ago, around the time his alcoholic father died and he realized he had a drinking problem of his own. Despite the recession, demand is growing.

    "Companies are downsizing," he said. "Budgets are being trimmed, and yet we're seeing an increase in our business."

    Clients include bankers, businessmen and doctors and are overwhelmingly male.

    ADRENALIN JUNKIES Continued...

    Harris Stratyner, a psychologist with Caron Treatment Centers, a leading non-profit addiction treatment foundation with offices in Manhattan, said stars of the financial world were by nature more prone to risky and extreme behavior.

    "There's an adrenalin rush that's connected to economics," he said. "Why are so many people attracted to that world? Not all, but many, already are adrenalin junkies, and are looking for the high highs and the low lows."

    Stratyner said economic anxiety can push people over the edge, but also allows addicts to rationalize their behavior, blaming stress or claiming they can't afford treatment.

    "There's a lot of people out there who are unconsciously ... grateful that there's a problem going on, so that someone really and truly has an excuse to get high," he said.

    Stratyner said mental illness and addiction, which often occur together, cost the United States $171 billion a year in lost workplace productivity.

    Joseph Califano, a former U.S. secretary of health who founded the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse in 1992, said anxiety clearly raised the risk of substance abuse in all socio-economic groups.

    People drink more in hard economic times, Califano said, but banks and other financial firms have traditionally not done enough to help employees cope.

    "There's still tremendous stigma and shame," he said. "This is not a moral failing, it's a disease."

    Another recovering alcoholic, aged 64, who works on Wall Street also requested anonymity because of the stigma.

    "It's not so easy to get somebody to recognize their problems," he said. "If you have a series of occasions where you don't remember parts of the evening, that is a bit of a warning sign that maybe you should be seeking some help. The other is if embarrassing things happen to you."

    A month in rehab costs from $25,000 at Caron up to around $60,000 at high-end private facilities. Curry said most of his clients pay out of pocket for privacy reasons.

    The Connecticut-based executive was paying his own way.

    "It's more than I'd like," he said. But "it's less expensive than losing your job ... less expensive than losing a client or losing your family, or losing your home or getting in trouble with the law."

    http://www.reuters.com/article/domestic ... dChannel=0

  2. #2
    Senior Member crazybird's Avatar
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    It was 40,000 when I went in the early 80's. It was filled with well to do's.

    Just from my own personal experience....it was unsustainable expectations, making people do things deep down, to be a success, that challenged their morals and values, feeling trapped and without options, work owned you 24/7, to where your family life was gone. Anything you did, even if it was supposed to be "fun" always had a "business aspect" to it ( like Thurs. Golf) where you never got to relax or get away from anything. Million dollar deal or your wife giving birth? Please, women birth babies all the time, but this million dollar deal comes once in a lifetime. Go to your kids game? And miss this deal? Pick, your daughters wedding or this job! Excuse me, ya your parent died, but we'll run you out there for an "apperance" and jet you back so you can sign this paper. Stuff the emotion, you're not human anymore. I swear, I do vividly remember what it was like. Being poor, I thought having money was the answer. Even though I had things and got to do things I would only have dreamed of......it was THE most unhappy point in my life. I had a home to die for and not a soul to call a friend....everyone was wanting something from you. You were "acting" all the time. Doing what someone else told you was the thing to do and someone out there ready to pick you apart like a vulture. Some get caught up in it and thrive I guess......but others are literally torn apart and can't handle it but have the smile in concrete plastered on their face. I remember getting awards for the most supportive wife.......I could hob nob with the best, but had that uncanny ability to reach the commoner. LOL.....except, really, she needs to have her boobs done, she shouldn't be going to grocery store in jeans....I mean dress up or get some "help" to do it for you. I wasn't the right "image". Then to know if you were caught at anything.......your "circle of friends" would turn on you in a heartbeat. It was so phony, empty......guess that's why what GlennBeck is doing and such hits me.....coz that was my downfall....going against everything I knew was right to be accepted by people I could care less about. All for my (ex) husbands desire to be rich. If anyone watched Titanic....I was like the "Molly Brown".....got the game, but wasn't as strong as she was. I was living a lie and hated it. Many were exactly like me, or so lost their entire identity and became something based by their check book, what car they drove, what club they belonged to. That's when I realized, we all aren't so different. Rich, poor, black white or anything else. They lost their moral ground. They did have openings at this place for "government funded" people.....so we even had a hells angle in with us. Something to see him ream a new one for some movie star on the hot seat.
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  3. #3
    Senior Member crazybird's Avatar
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    I knew back then, that their new "war on Drugs" they implimented later, was reacting, not really acting to why people do it in the first place. They missed the boat. There's something wrong when so many have to get high to make it through a day. Rich, poor, any color. They had an article in the paper today about some Dad who took a video about his son David and his trip back from the dentist. They had drugged the kid up pretty much and he was in his car seat and not really liking what "high" was. "Daddy, this isn't reality is it?" "What's happening to me?" I honestly don't think we like high when life is going as it should. This poor kid was upset. My belief is when we are expected to go beyond what we are able to do, that we use whatever is there to deal with it. I did speed, in order to go to school full time and work. The body isn't ment to go 24/7, but I was expected to. That led from one thing to another to be what I was expected to be, not what I was.
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  4. #4
    Senior Member crazybird's Avatar
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    Where are you people? i SPILL MY GUTS AND YOU ARE ALL SILENT!
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  5. #5
    Senior Member Bowman's Avatar
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    Maybe they should try going to church, to meet and follow the real Master of the Universe.
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  6. #6
    April
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    Quote Originally Posted by crazybird
    Where are you people? i SPILL MY GUTS AND YOU ARE ALL SILENT!
    Thanks for sharing CrazyBird.

  7. #7
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    Wow crazybird! Very well said! I as well used to thing that wealth is measured in material objects. God showed me that as long as we wake up in the morning, we have wealth. No boob job needed

    As far as getting high, humans have been doing it since the dawn of time. They started with plants that God provided naturally like marijuana, salvia divinorum, etc. Later, alcohol was created and was added to the mix. Brain chemistry is the key element in this equation. Sometimes, at the end of a long week, I just want to pop open a good Belgian beer and relax. It doesn't make you lesser of a person, it makes you human.
    We see so many tribes overrun and undermined

    While their invaders dream of lands they've left behind

    Better people...better food...and better beer...

    Why move around the world when Eden was so near?
    -Neil Peart from the song Territories&

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