One thing that isn't talked about enough in crypto is mental health and depression.

The markets are open 24/7, and it can be really exhausting trying to catch all launches, airdrops and at the same time scout for new opportunities.

/THREAD

One reader wrote this to me:

"I haven’t been on a vacation since 2019, because I feel like the moment I leave for a week, the markets will pump without me. I’m sure others experience this too, not being able to fully live life due to FOMO".

Let's talk about stress and FOMO:

Trading may lead to stress. Stress creates chemical changes. 

Those chemical changes can slowly create a "new normal" state that actually feels uncomfortable if it changes. 

Your body is getting used to the stress, and if you try to relax you're getting anxious/uncomfortable.


Relaxing/not getting any stimuli can't be tolerated for long and we solve it by getting a "chemical" hit to help bring back the more familiar feel. 

Eg. check Twitter, make a trade, read crypto news, use some sort of drug, etc. 

Let's talk more about addiction.

Here's something I wrote on a recent flight I took: 

"I have no Internet connection during the flight. Somehow, it scares me to not be connected. I'm so used to just swiping up my phone whenever I feel bored for some seconds. 

To get some dopamine hits. Check Tradingview. Has the market crashed yet? Now I'm stuck on this plane for 6 hours and I can't see how the market performs. The only times I don't have "control" over what happens in the market is while I am asleep. I think I'm addicted".

But what is addiction?

A lot of people (including me) talk about “falling down the rabbit hole” and becoming so obsessed they cancel plans with friends so they can read crypto blogs, learn to trade, and binge-watch crypto YouTube videos. 

Another kind of addiction is the tendency to check crypto prices continuously throughout the day. The first thing you do when you wake up, before you go to sleep, after dinner, etc.

This survey may be biased, but 44% check the prices more than 10x/day:

https://twitter.com/Route2FI/status/1505135628312317954

You cannot be addicted to something unless you’re constantly rewarded for it.

For it to be an addiction it needs to check off 6 criteria:

1. The activity is the single most important thing in the person’s life
2. You use it as a way to modify your mood



3. You need to do more of it to get the same initial high
4. You get irritable if you can’t do it all the time
5. The activity is so important that it can cause conflict in your life and interfere with your jobs and relationships
6. It may affect your sleep


What can you do if you have an addiction? 

The first step is having the awareness that there is a problem to begin with and then having a desire to do something about it.

However, I'm not here to tell you that you have to quit it completely. 



Here are some good rules to moderate an addiction that I try to use for myself:

1) Set a schedule so that you only trade/check prices/check Twitter, Discord, etc. during certain hours or certain days. Way easier said than done and this is a note to myself as well.


Here are some resources to save you time for trading/DeFi-purposes: 

https://twitter.com/shivsakhuja/status/1493731877169119235

2) Accept that you can't catch all trades. You can't be the best at everything. Instead, focus on some key areas that you're good at/want to become good at. Eg. for me, I tried to master being good at trading, NFT's, and DeFi at the same time. Eventually, I ended up focusing on..

DeFi. But even DeFi is too big to catch up on everything, so you have to narrow it down.

My focus area is layer 1's, and especially Terra. But also $ETH, $AVAX, $FTM, $SOL, etc.

3) Find other healthy outlets such as meditation, reading, writing, getting out in nature...

exercising, and spending time with loved ones.

4) Be open about it. Tell family/friends that you may have an addiction. Having support is very important. Speak with a trusted support person or mental health professional about any issues you are experiencing.

5) Spend time with friends and loved ones. Take breaks from staring at screens all day.

6) Ask yourself if you're better off just holding a portfolio with $BTC and $ETH? Is all time spent researching the latest opportunities worth it? Remember, your time is valuable.

On Twitter, we see all the sunshine stories about people making serious wealth in crypto.

But we rarely see those who fail. 

Read this story to see one guy who opened up about his situation:

https://twitter.com/jirkabtc/status/1438063380074487812


After my tweet the other day about mental health in crypto, several people have reached out to me telling their stories about how they lost it all, and how much it has influenced their mental health and family life. 


We rarely see these stories on Twitter because of the stigma and how easy it is to be stamped as a "failure".

Men (yes, there are more men than women in crypto) have a hard time talking about feelings, and they would rather try to solve problems on their own than talk to...

friends/family about it.

Some tips to mentally recover from losses in crypto:

https://hackernoon.com/take-a-deep-breath-simple-ways-to-recover-from-crypto-losses-89eaa60d080e

Also, founders in crypto may experience extreme pressure.

As retail investors, it's easy to forget how much work is behind a successful crypto project.

https://twitter.com/TeamKujira/status/1504770812146036773

Andre Cronje wrote about the pressure being a DeFi founder: 

"Token goes up in value? No one is going to be giving profits to you or thanking you for their profits. Some exploit occurs? You are 100% to blame. You have 0% of the reward, 100% of the risk".

https://andrecronje.medium.com/building-in-defi-sucks-part-2-75df9ee7871b

But let's also talk about mental health for people that have already made it.

Why don't they just stop being in crypto? Why spend so much time in front of the computer if you don't have to? 

Because the perception of money changes as your net worth goes up.

When you reach $100K, you want $500K.

And when you get to $500K, you want $1M.

Then you want $5M, $10M, $100M etc.

This is called hedonic adoption.

When you make more money, expectations, and desires rise in tandem, which results in no permanent gain in happiness.

Also, if you've heard about IKIGAI you may be able to understand why the very wealthy people don't leave the crypto space.

Ikigai means "a reason for being" and crypto can fill all the 4 circles:

1. What they're good at 
2. What they can be paid for (eg. a good trader)

3. What they love (naturally becomes a love when you have the skill  that makes you money and people admire you for it)
4. What the world needs (can be argued, but a lot of them are teaching others how they can reach the same)

The mental health issues that can occur when you have great wealth is a feeling of isolation from the rest of society, the feeling of only being loved by their friends, partner & kids because of money, money obsession (every decision is taken out of a money perspective),...

a feeling of emptiness because life is "too easy", lacking meaning because you don't need ordinary work, etc.

Not everyone who pursues money, however, experiences lowered well-being.

For whom, then, does the pursuit of financial success lead to
negative outcomes?

I think the negative outcomes are more likely to come when you make the money game as a part of your everyday life. Spending most of your waking hours checking crypto prices, researching new investment opportunities, and basically ignoring the normal life around you. 

It's a little bit ironic, but when I researched for making this thread, I realize that I may have a problem myself. There's no doubt that I have become very obsessive with my investments during the last couple of years. Lately, I've also been having trouble defining some...

new goals for myself. What once was a steady journey in stock market index funds turned my life upside down in a lucky bet with leverage in March 2020 and buying Ethereum at the right time. 

I'm nowhere as rich as the crypto OG's, but wealth is relative and I'm happy with where I am. But after I quit my job 1 year ago I've seen friends less, spent more time with crypto, and in general lived less healthy. It has become obsessive. I will definitely see a therapist.

I think we all can agree that beyond a certain point, we can't buy more happiness.

You have to find your enough, and no one can give you that number.

Isn't the goal just to become free and to get your time back?

Because what makes you rich and unique is not the possessions you have, but how you have lived.

It’s in the stories you’ve collected, the lives you have touched. 

It’s in the memories you have to take with you.

Mental health is important, and if you find yourself spending too much time on crypto and that it influences your day-to-day life or that you may have a gambling problem, what can you do?

@theartistcoach and @gemsays have started a Mental Health Initiative for Crypto Twitter.

They have a Twitter Space that is held every Thursday evening at 8 pm (UK time).

This is a good podcast episode about addictions:

https://soundcloud.com/unminding/mental-health-space-addiction-episode-5?utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing https://soundcloud.com/unminding/mental-health-space-addiction-episode-5?utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

They have also started a Telegram Group and Chat where people will be able to get help and ask questions. 

You can be completely anon if you want.

Link to Telegram group: https://t.me/unminding

Link to Telegram Chat room: https://t.me/joinchat/fzFjrwwGqvNmMjk0

If you think you need to take a step back, there are a few options. 

From professional help, which can include rehab and therapy; to practicing dry trades (trading without using real money) and self-setting limits on how much you deposit into your wallet. 

You should also set a rule where if you get a serious profit in, you withdraw a good amount of it so that you don’t lose it all if shit hits the fan.

If you find you’re often breaking your own rules, there’s likely a problem that you need to address with the help of others.

If you're unsure if you should see a therapist, you could try this free crypto addiction test: 

https://www.logout.org/en/tools/responsible-crypto-trading-test/

While the test is originally made for addictions in crypto trading, the questions are equally relevant for DeFi, NFT's etc.,

Also, reach out to fellow people on Twitter and open up for each other.

Being addicted to crypto is more common than you think, and you're definitely the only one feeling a lot of mixed emotions with the crazy volatility.

Just know that you're not alone.

If you or someone you know suffers from mental health issues due to crypto, you could always reach out to me in the DM's too.

I can't help everyone, but I read all the messages I get. It's always good to open up. Also, maybe I can redirect you to someone for more help. 

This thread was extremely hard to write, and I feel like I have only touched on 1% of all the subjects relevant to mental health and crypto addiction.

I haven't drawn any conclusions, but I hope with this thread that we'll all be able to take mental health issues more seriously.

If you want to read some good science articles about the relationship between mental health, crypto, money, and happiness, then check out this collection of 14 articles a friend of mine has shared here: 

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1NJLojT--0K0P-mfZ56EfrZalkp7ZILYM


That was it!

You can read the unrolled version of this thread here:

https://typefully.com/Route2FI/W03as0B

If you want to learn more about DeFi and crypto follow @Route2FI 

I write threads 2x per week and I have a free newsletter where my goal is to break down DeFi & crypto so it becomes more understandable:

https://www.getrevue.co/profile/route2fi