Rehab Center Treating Crypto Trading Addiction
Whether you like it or not, there is no denying that crypto trading is popular. Millions of people around the world swap cryptos for other cryptos or fiat currency all the time, whether to make of profit or for personal use and this is not stopping anytime soon. But could crypto trading become an addiction?
A rehab facility in Spain certainly thinks so as it now offers treatment for crypto trading among other additions. This facility, called ‘The Balance’ has experience in offering treatment for drug and alcohol dependency but as per a recent BBC report, has seen demand from those struggling with crypto trading issues.
The Big Crypto Addiction
In the BBC report, an example of a former crypto trading addict called ‘Don’ was cited. Noting that the pseudonymous ‘Don’ works for a company that processes central bank digital currency (CBDC) transactions, he reportedly fell into a downward spiral in mid-2022 where he was constantly checking crypto market movements and this began to affect his sleep cycle and overall daily life. Needing a change, Don checked himself into the Balance for a four-week program after which he was ‘weaned off crypto’.
The facility believes that it can help others like Don with its program which includes everything from therapy to yoga. However, this program has been a bit polarising among experts. For starters, it does not come cheap as Don paid about $75,000 for his four-week stay, and some have branded this sort of pricing as exploitative.
“They are making money off desperate people,” says Lia Nower, director at the Centre for Gambling Studies at Rutgers School of Social Work. “Whether you’re ‘addicted’ to trading crypto, betting on sports, or playing the lottery, your symptoms and treatment will be largely the same.”
According to Anna Lembke, a psychiatry professor at Stanford University and chief of the Stanford Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic, the treatment for crypto addiction should parallel how other addictions are handled. This would include not viewing or trading crypto for at least four weeks and giving the withdrawal symptoms some time to pass.
But some have also argued that crypto trading addiction can be worse than gambling because the market is so much more volatile. This means that the ‘highs’ that an addict can get from a trade are intensified and so are the lows. And while there is some societal stigma towards gambling at this time, cryptocurrency trading does not, which makes it harder to identify problems. And when problems arise, they can be very costly for victims.
Another former crypto gambling addict interviewed by the BBC said that her crypto gambling benders were so intense that her partner was convinced that she was having an affair.
“The fact that I couldn’t tell him what I was actually doing made it worse. Even though the truth is out now, our relationship never fully healed, adding, “In the beginning, I was only investing a couple of thousands, but by the end, I could put hundreds of thousands down on just one trade.”