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Wall Street’s relentless grind has driven young bankers to the brink, with some resorting to snorting crushed Adderall at their desks to survive gruelling workdays that can stretch beyond 22 hours, according to the Wall Street Journal.
According to the Journal, the use of stimulants, including prescription medications like Adderall and Vyvanse, as well as high-caffeine energy drinks, is prevalent among young bankers. The report suggests a desensitization to the use of such substances within the industry.
Mark Moran, who scored an internship at investment banking giant Credit Suisse in New York managed to get a prescription for Adderall from a local pharmacy even though a psychologist in his family didn’t think he had ADHD. He shared that he needed something to get through the gruelling 90-hour week.
“They gave me a script, and within months, I was hooked,” Moran, 33, told the Journal. “You become dependent on it to work.”
The gruelling demands placed on Wall Street workers came under scrutiny earlier this year following the death of 35-year-old Bank of America investment banker Leo Lukenas III from acute coronary artery thrombus.
In the weeks leading up to his death, Lukenas, a former Green Beret, was regularly working 100-hour weeks to complete a $2 billion acquisition project.
A Wall Street Journal investigation revealed that Bank of America frequently disregarded its policies designed to prevent employees from taking on dangerously heavy workloads.
The expose prompted companies like Morgan Stanley to implement stricter measures, including limiting junior bankers to a maximum of 80 hours per week.
Many industry professionals interviewed by the Journal admitted to relying on stimulants to cope with the job’s demands. Trevor Lunsford, who works in the mergers and acquisitions division of Ascend Capital in Washington, DC, shared that he has been taking Adderall for the past seven years.
“It’s a very core, integral component of my life, and to me, something that is a very, very important tool,” he said.
Lunsford described a gruelling travel schedule that involved frequent business trips from Washington, DC, to Denver. For an entire month, he would wake up at 6 a.m. to catch an early-week flight to Detroit, followed by a connecting flight to Denver.
Upon arrival in Denver, he would meet with clients and then attend an eight-hour management presentation.
“For a couple of days of the week, it was very regularly a 20- to 22-hour day,” Lunsford told the Journal.
“That’s something that I would not have been able to be on for, be focused and be quick with decisions if I wasn’t able to take Adderall.”
Jonah Frey, who worked as a healthcare investment banker for Wells Fargo in San Francisco in 2020, shared that he relied on Adderall to manage his demanding schedule. His days often started at 4 a.m. and stretched until around 2 a.m. the following morning.
In 2021, Frey transitioned to a role at Leerink Partners, the former investment banking division of Silicon Valley Bank, based in New York.
“My workload went up at least two- or threefold, and that’s when things started to go south,” he said.
To manage the intense demands of his job, Frey increased his dosage of Adderall, which he had obtained through the online healthcare provider Teladoc.
The medication’s effects left him disoriented, often unaware of what day it was. He also experienced a loss of appetite, leading to a weight loss of approximately 25 pounds.
“I started taking it once in the morning and then once in the afternoon, at first for five days a week, and then it became seven days a week because I was working most weekends,” he said.
In 2022, Frey decided to leave the job and discontinued his use of Adderall.
“I went in understanding the downside risks” of using Adderall, he said.
“But the reward was making managing director and pulling in a seven-figure salary. I felt that I had to have an edge to make it.”
