To thrive as a trader on Wall Street, you must be a little bit crazy. A lot of people think that. But for an all new take on the concept, former Lehman Brother ETF trader Jared Dillian has come out with a new memoir, Street Freak, Money and Madness at Lehman Brothers.

To be open up front, I have not read the book, though I would like to, as it hits on something that is rarely featured in the never ending stream of feature stories about Wall Street "culture." While the book would appear to have the obligatory Wall Street anecdotes that would seem cliché if they hadn't of actually happened--when the author slams his phone and breaks it, he's given a standing ovation by his peers--the book plows new ground about a serious issue: Mental illness. The stress of life as trader, which would have been hard to deal with no matter what, was almost unbearable at times.

According to a profile in the New York Times, Dillian once swallowed a half-bottle of Tylenol PM, but he wasn't necessarily trying to kill himself. Dillian says he wrote the book in part to help others with similar issues, to allow them to realize that they aren't alone. The Times quotes one former Lehman Brother exec:

"There's a body-armor principle. If you were medicated, you'd never let anyone know."

These days, Dillian's making a go of life as writer. He pens The Daily Dirtnap, a newsletter for traders from Myrtle Beach. Here's to hoping his memoir fares well.

For more:
- here's the Times article

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