If You Don’t Have Enough Vices, Add Cryptocurrency Addiction to Your List

Addiction. It’s a human weakness even the most staunchly disciplined among us wrestle with. You may not struggle with the urge to crack open a Heineken at 9 a.m., or light up a cigarette when you’re stressed. But if you check the status of your cryptocurrency portfolio every five minutes, Houston, we may have a problem.

We’ve all seen the memes making the rounds on social. Infuriated women accusing their partners of cheating, when they’re really checking the value of Litecoin. Hilarious. With just enough sprinkling of truth and self-congratulatory boys’ club mentality to make them sit a little uneasy.

Tech addiction is very real and has already become a serious problem with teenagers spending upwards of nine hours a day staring at screens. Their grades are suffering, attention spans are dwindling, and too much dependence on Facebook is causing severe depression and anxiety. But what about cryptocurrency addiction?

Is Cryptocurrency Addiction a Thing?

Most of us joke about our HODLing habits and share our (sometimes epic) trading mistakes. And we’re all guilty of staring at our phones too much, willing prices to go up. But there’s a fine line between healthy interest and real addiction that starts to take over your life.

If you’ve moved beyond being glued to your smartphone to having regular heart palpitations, grinding your teeth, and losing money hand over fist, addiction to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies could be having a seriously detrimental effect on your health (as well as your wallet).

ICOs and cryptocurrency investing have been championed for democratizing investment, bringing new people to the investment world. Anyone with an internet connection and a credit card can get in and join the game – which means that more and more people are. And they’re often ill-equipped to deal with the consequences.

So, the good news for crypto addicts (if you think you might be one) is that you no longer have to go it alone. At last, a hospital in the UK is opening up a treatment center for cryptocurrency addicts.

Rehab for Crypto Addicts

With the sheer volume of scam ICOs and opportunists seeking to make money, it’s curious that we haven’t seen a white paper for a cryptocurrency that incentivizes people not to invest in crypto.

While RehabCoin may be the next big crypto on the horizon, it seems the first of many an establishment to capitalize on the Bitcoin trend is the Castle Craig Hospital in Peeblesshire. That’s somewhere in Scotland, if the name doesn’t ring a bell.

Since this medical facility already offers treatment programs for alcohol and drug addiction, it’s perfectly suited to treat the same symptoms from which crypto addicts suffer. And it will use the same techniques developed for gamblers.

Indeed, with calamitous lows and skyrocketing highs, the volatility and uncertainty of cryptocurrency investing is rather like playing Russian Roulette. It’s not hard to see its appeal to gamblers.

Chris Burn, a gambling therapist at Castle Craig Hospital, said: “The high risk, fluctuating cryptocurrency market appeals to the problem gambler.” He also postulated that purchasing Bitcoin provides “excitement and escape from reality.”

As with everything surrounding this nascent industry, there are no official studies or predictions yet on the number of people dealing with crypto addiction. The only thing that’s certain is that the number of rehab centers associated with this growing vice will surely rise.