Cryptocurrency Drug Addicts

Would cryptocurrencies be dangerous for mental health?
Is there a real addiction to Bitcoins and other virtual currencies?
Some seem to think so.
Indeed, if one observes the compulsive buying and selling movements one is entitled to wonder if the crypto investors have not fallen into the irrational obsession.
For example, Scotland in Peeblesshire County is thought to have identified Bitcoin? drug addicts. And we have developed the same treatments as those for gambling addicts.

Cryptocurrency? dependence

Castle Craig Hospital in Scotland is a hospital that treats addiction.
This place has been designed to bring calm and serenity to addicts of all kinds, in a bucolic area.
Recently, Castle Craig Hospital has developed a program specifically for Cryptocurrency? addicts.

Christopher Burn is a therapist in this hospital and specialist in addictions to the game.
He explains how highly volatile and therefore high-risk markets attract problem gamblers. "It gives them an escape from reality," he says.
The spectacular gains and losses caused by the speculation of crypto currencies recall the "classic bubble situations".
Burn does not pretend to be an economic analyst.
He simply observes extreme behaviors that are not just market speculation.

For example, this 21-year-old Canadian who lives in his car to save money to buy crypto currencies.
Or again, the cases of these adults in their thirties, parents of three children, who sold their home to speculate on the rise of Bitcoin? Core.
Can we speak in these two cases of addiction, or simply people who know what they do and who have information that we do not have? ...

Cryptocurrencies, the way to escape from the real world

Another Castle Craig Hospital therapist, Tony Marini, is also talking about escape in the case of some speculators.
Tony Marini has long been involved with patients struggling with cocaine addiction and gambling.
He explains: "Having lived this experience myself, my addiction experience gives me insight and empathy for others who have the same problem. I see cryptocurrency? as a way for people to escape themselves in another world because they do not like the world they are in. The first step in treatment is to join other addicts. It helps them to identify and realize that they are not alone. "

How to define this new phenomenon?

The word that comes up most often in the mouths of therapists is that of "escape".
But it seems that it is especially the fact that the mind of an individual is occupied by crypto to the point of chronically ignoring real life, which is the true definition of this phenomenon.
As a result, when we observe on the markets fortunes quickly acquired and just as quickly lost. And again acquired and lost. These movements seem to indicate that this new addiction does exist.

What treatment for these new addicts?

To cure this addiction, the Scottish hospital uses proven methods to deal with alcohol and drug problems.
It is in this spirit that they approach the dependence related to Crypto currency.
They also use the methods applied to addicts to the game, which have been proven.

It is true that more than 10 million people around the world are trading virtual currencies. Of these 10 million, what is the percentage of people with addictive symptoms?
For the moment, there are no studies that can give us precise figures or percentages.