Few workers have survived the recent economic turmoil without feeling overwhelmed, overworked and underpaid. But for some executives, the stress of a floundering economy has lead to an even bigger consequence: substance abuse problems.
Treatment specialists say they see the effects of the recession in the white-collar clients coming their way, who say the business pressures of recent years have led to drug and alcohol issues, or exacerbated existing ones.
“I’ve seen a lot more escapism since the economic meltdown,” says Dr. Kevin Fleming, an executive coach who specializes in treating addiction — and says he’s been counseling a growing number of Wall Streeters.
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BOSS’S HELPERS: Executive rehab programs cater to the needs of white-collar substance abusers.
The volatile market has had a particularly dangerous effect on his patients, says Fleming, who calls his consultancy, Grey Matters International, a “boutique executive addiction treatment firm.”
“Especially [for] the financiers I work with, it’s very tough to get any sense control of this market,” he says. “Most them of have, in some capacity, developed a learned helplessness state. They’re withdrawing.”
Joe McKinsey, the CEO and founder of the Dunes, a ritzy rehab center that opened in East Hampton in 2010, has launched an “executive treatment program” in response to the high number of Manhattan business execs coming his way.
“There’s been a definite uptick,” says McKinsey, who likewise points to market-driven anxiety as a factor.
“With this economy, pressure at work is obviously more difficult for everyone,” he says.
And, notes Madeleine Narvilas, executive director of the Dunes, those in charge have a unique set of pressures.
“We’re seeing people that feel more heavily the responsibility of the people they employ,” she says. “These are people who run their own companies and corporations, and are feeling intensely that personal responsibility of being the CEO.”
Arnold Washton, an addiction psychologist whose New York and New Jersey practices focus on treating white-collar professionals, says he’s seen a shift in the substances his clients are turning to.
“I’ve seen perhaps fewer people using cocaine, and more people drinking heavily and using prescription narcotics like Vicodin, Percocet and Oxycontin,” says Washton. “I see a lot of executives and professionals going to multiple doctors and getting multiple prescriptions. These are not people who go out and buy drugs on the street.”
Washton notes another difference between his clients and street users: Those with high-powered careers and professional reputations to maintain are not generally inclined to drop everything and enter a detox program,
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Kevin Fleming, addiction treatment, economic turmoil, Madeleine Narvilas, substance abuse, Arnold Washton, addiction
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