We all indulge in guilty pleasures from time to time. Whether it’s chocolate, alcohol or something completely different, everyone has something that tantalizes their senses. For some people, that “something” is cryptocurrency. Now, a hospital in Scotland is working to help those who have taken their love of crypto a bit too far.
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Castle Craig Hospital — Scotland’s largest addiction treatment facility — has developed a center specifically dedicated to help cryptocurrency addicts. Representatives explain[2] that “cryptocurrency users can get hooked by the volatile fluctuation of prices online which creates a ‘high’ when they buy or trade a winning currency” and that “this can be exciting but also addictive and … financially disastrous.”
Individuals addicted to crypto-trading show all the same signs and behaviors as gambling addicts; only this time, they are dealing with a 24/7 urge to mix and match digital assets despite suffering consistent (and occasionally devastating) losses.
“The high risk, fluctuating cryptocurrency market appeals to the problem gambler,” says Chris Burn, a gambling therapist at the hospital. “It provides excitement and an escape from reality. Bitcoin, for example, has been heavily traded and huge gains and losses were made. It’s a classic bubble situation.”
Josh Olszewicz[3], a popular crypto-trader and price analyst, agrees with the gambling analogy and says there are definite similarities between the two. Speaking with Bitcoin Magazine, he stated, “Many of the newer market participants treat crypto like a giant casino, and bet the farm on the equivalent of penny stocks only to lose all their money. It’s certainly no different than run-of-the-mill gambling addiction. You have people risking their rent money or lunch money and then it spirals out of control very quickly. Too many people treat crypto as a binary option,
