After surreptitiously accumulating up $180,000 in debt as a result of his crypto trading activities, a man who admits to being addicted to cryptocurrency trading and who is also a father of two faces the terrifying potential of losing his family for ever.
Reddit user “u/Leather Opposite2135” posted his account on the forum r/relationship advice on February 21. In the post, the user indicated that he began experimenting with trading cryptocurrencies around the year 2021.
Fast forward another two years, and we find him living on the street now, having been booted out of the house by his wife and owing at least $180,000 in debt.
“At first, it was nothing more than a hobby,” said Leather. Since it deals with technology, I thought that aspect of it to be rather fascinating. Joined a number of online communities, including Discord, and after some time, saw a few individuals engaging in bitcoin trading. Afterward, I was instantly hooked.
After just one year, he had already “burned” a total of $50,000 by trading cryptocurrencies, with the majority of the monies lost coming from his software company.
“Fast ahead another year, and it got very awful,” said Leather, adding that his addiction had begun to take root as he began to support his trading via other methods, such as personal loans and credit cards. “Skip forward another year and it became really bad,” added Leather.
“I’m sure you’ve heard it before, but I found all kinds of methods to finance it, including acquiring personal loans, credit cards, and lying about all of it,” the speaker says. “I’m sure you’ve heard it before.”
“I gambled on my phone when I went to the restroom, while the kids were asleep, and on my computer when I wasn’t busy working,” the gambler said. “When I wasn’t busy working, I was gambling on my phone.”
Leather said that around three weeks ago he finally told his wife the truth about the debt they owed. His wife did not react well to the news and threatened to divorce him and seize control of the home they shared together.
Since then, he has cut himself off from the cryptocurrency market, given his wife management of their trading accounts, and has been meeting weekly with a gambling addiction counselor. However, he admits that it was initially difficult for him to break the addiction to gambling.
“Emotionally, the first two weeks were a mess for me. I was all over the place. I had to quit something cold turkey that I spent at least ten hours a day doing. While all this was going on, a still little voice on my shoulder kept encouraging me to go look at some charts.
Although Leather Opposite2135 has since removed the original post from Reddit, it is not the first nor the last tale to draw light on the potential consequences of being addicted to trading cryptocurrencies.
Alongside the treatment of addiction to alcohol and narcotics as well as mental health issues, rehabilitation clinics all over the globe have started offering treatment for compulsive behaviors like cryptocurrency trading addiction.
“In a manner similar to gambling, many of them will claim that it interferes with their day-to-day lives, that they spend a great deal of time thinking about it, and that as a consequence, they may also be suffering financial difficulty.”
Dr. Hronis pointed out that addiction to cryptocurrency trading is comparable to that of online gambling since both include a “easy of accessibility” that may be “very harmful for people.”
It is possible to see a person going about their typical day-to-day activities, such as going to work, spending time with family and friends, participating in hobbies, and so on, while at the same time trading alongside those activities. This indicates that a person’s addiction may genuinely progress to a significant level before anybody else in that person’s life becomes aware of it.
“Considering how recently cryptocurrency trading has emerged, I believe that therapy is still playing catch-up to some degree. “While the broad concepts of treating an addiction may undoubtedly be applied here, there are peculiarities with crypto trading that would benefit from being better understood in order to better advise clinical therapies,” Dr. Hronis noted. “There is a lot of room for improvement in this area.”