Due to its nascency, volatility, and ongoing market trends, it is not practical to depend solely on cryptocurrencies for our livelihood. Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic, people have come up with several innovative ideas by which they can earn money in the comfort of their homes.
While cryptocurrency is one of the methods, and with the quick success stories of some, others are also drawn towards this world. They start with a small amount of money and then expand it to an extent where crypto trading becomes a major source of their earnings, ultimately affecting their mental health in situations like crypto winters.
Due to its volatile nature and the ongoing crypto winter, making cryptocurrency the sole source of income is a no-no. In fact, during this period, with the bearish trend extending into winter blues, it is obvious for that fear to build in people's minds. And with this, would we witness the emergence of several mental health problems like stress, depression, sleep deprivation, anxiety, addiction, etc? This article talks about crypto winter, the mental health issues associated, and how we can deal with the mental health problems amidst the crypto winter.
Crypto winter refers to a long-term trend in the crypto marketplace where the market is underperforming. It is mostly considered a negative event that results in a significant decrease in the price of some crypto assets. While the situation is pretty much similar to that of the bear market, there are certain differences between the crypto bear market and crypto winter.
The two are not entirely related. A bear market is a specific time frame within which the value of assets depreciates due to various economic conditions. Crypto winter has no specific time frame, and it might extend up to a few years, even until the value of certain cryptocurrencies goes down to zero.
According to the research, the crypto winter events are likely to stimulate and worsen the mental health conditions of the crypto investors and traders who depend somewhat on their crypto investments to make their living.
Cryptocurrency addiction is an obsession that has emerged due to constant crypto trading and efforts to make earnings through it. It is a situation where you keep playing with the crypto projects at the cost of your sleep, appetite, and sometimes even money. To add to it, when you're exhibiting these symptoms, you don't even realize that you should stop this. You suffer from an uncontrollable urge to monitor the market movements and stay up-to-date on every cryptocurrency news you need to execute your trades.
If you spend a lot of time researching or trading crypto assets or monitoring charts, you show signs of a mental health issue called cryptocurrency addiction. The indication of an even worse mental condition is when you cannot stop your trading habits and are increasing your risk without any potential strategy. Other symptoms include loss of interest in social interactions, stress, depression, mood swings, anxiety, insomnia, etc.
The fastest and most effective way to deal with crypto addiction and the associated mental health problems is to delete all crypto-related apps and distance yourself from news articles that target digital currencies.
Secondly, you can try to limit the amount of money you'd put into crypto investments and ensure that crypto trading is not your primary income source at any point in time.
For some time, get away from anything remotely related to cryptocurrencies and their trading, and take a trip to some holiday destination you always wanted to go to.
Traders have different attitudes regarding losing in crypto trading or investing. Especially when the market is featuring bearish trends and is going through a crypto winter, it is normal for the nascent crypto traders, and at times, even the experienced ones, to be unable to cope with their losses.
This adds to their restlessness; as a result, they suffer from mental health problems like anxiety, stress, depression, etc. Even experienced traders can sometimes suffer losses when they give in to their emotions, leading to a series of immature decisions and further increased losses. The phenomenon is termed "loss aversion."
When it comes to trading, whether of share market assets or in the crypto world, making hasty decisions based on emotions often leads you to decisions that are not based on any logical perception.
This condition of taking illogical yet emotionally meaningful decisions is mostly triggered due to two behavioural factors: FOMO (fear of missing out) and FUD (Fear, uncertainty, and doubt.) As a result of such a condition, the chance of making unwise decisions and the resulting failure increases. Thus, it is important to control your emotions to avoid investment losses and unnecessary risks.
The best way by which you can ensure that you don't let emotions take the better of you is by asking yourself how purchasing a particular cryptocurrency fits into your overall financial plans. How will you deal with the volatility and risks in the crypto market? What percentage of your income is based on the crypto trading industry? Answering these questions would make you aware of your situation and whether you must further indulge in cryptocurrency trading during crypto winter.
This is not the first time the crypto universe is going through a crypto winter. Since its introduction, the crypto market has regularly witnessed crypto winters at uncertain points. While the crypto winter tends to stay for a longer duration, extending up to several months to even more than a year, the trends have shown that the market pulls itself together again and even reaches its new height.
Thus, cryptocurrency traders need to keep calm and learn how to deal with times like these to stabilize their assets and look after their mental and physical health.