Hi there!
This thread shall be about the mental aspect of coping with Loss.
(In this case loss of money, but I think advice can be generalized)
I lost a lot of money (compared to my belongings), am struggling to dealing with the loss mentally (no life in danger:)) and felt the need to make this thread.
My story (optional reading):
I bought bitcoins about more than 1 year ago, at average price of 530. Then for some months I was in the plus, then the last few months of course in the minus and more and more minus.
I bought bitcoin with about 3/4 of all the money I had. I earn very few but saved money month by month over 5 years. Now I am in the minus (if I sold my bitcoins now I would have a loss of) of 10 months of income.
It is extra-bad because I have such a low-income low-expense lifestyle – where I consider 50euro purchases – while losing thousands through this bitcoin thing.
I knew I was a newb and I knew there was a chance I got burned. And I ‘tried’ my best but it seems I got burned.
Sure I was ‘stupid’ now the price being down so much (210 at time of this post).. but I don’t say ‘how could I be so stupid’. Because I made a decision then – I believed sooner or later in the next about 2 years that there will be the next bubble.
Of course now I wished I would have sold when it was in eg the 600’s. But i also wanted to wait at least 1 year for the whole thing being tax-free + I did not think it would sink this much this long.
Anyway, every time when Bitcoin crashes hard I feel it in my body. My self-worth goes down, my shame goes up. At the recent price fall I felt nervous and jittery for 2 days.
Ideas:
- Old advice: Don’t invest more than you can mentally handle = the amount where you can’t sleep good anymore at the thought of losing it all
I did not do this.. one reason is greed, another is probably wanting to believe. Once in life I wanted to be a winner. I came by Bitcoin by accident and thought I had a time-advantage over others.
- Telling friends. A counter to shame and towards processing is telling it.
I am telling it here, I guess it’s a small thing. Right now I am also looking for some self-help group or men’s-group or psychological support group right now in my area. I told two friends the whole story in detail and especially the second talk felt very good. I had moments where I could laugh about myself.
- Being thankful for what I have. All kinds of more bad stuff could have happened to me. Eg car accident, becoming disabled. Could be drug addicted. Could be gambling-addicted. Could have been not born in rich Europe. In my case I ‘don’t even’ have debt. My lifestyle doesn’t even change, it basically just the number in the bank account that changed.
- Time heals. Basically we humans are built that we always go back to our basic ‘happiness-level’ after something very good or bad happens. Eg you win a car, 3 months later you go back to happiness level before the win. They made some studies about this.
This Thread is for:
- Ideas and stories how to cope with losing a lot of money
[the rest of the whole sub-forum is about when to buy and sell..]
- On the other hand feel free to comment whatever (if i find it totally unconstructive i will delete it, am gonna try that self-moderated thing)
This Thread is not for:
- telling me that I have made wrong decisions, am making wrong decisions and am stupid. (let’s say that’s a given)
- Telling that all that do like me have made wrong decisions, am making wrong decisions and are stupid. (Many threads about that already)
- current price discussion or where it’s headed (much better other threads for this)
