Reuters reports today that increasing numbers of bankers and business executives—stressed and traumatized by the financial collapse—are seeking treatment for addiction.  

“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.”

Robert Curry, founder of Turning Point for Leaders, a coaching and consulting firm in New Canaan that creates treatment programs for senior executives, told Reuters that the financial crisis was clearly a factor in more drink and drug use. ”We’ve got more than fifty 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.”

(And in a related story, it’s not only alcohol and drug use that’s on the rise during this crisis. Americans are also eating more sugar, which should only further cement our position as the world’s most overweight people.)