You only realise losses when you sell.
Bought at the $280 bubble mid 2013, corrected into the $50-$60 range I believe. Held strong, I just stopped following bitcoin for a while, but had faith it will bounce back and higher just had to wait it out.
I did the same. Bought 17 coins @~250 and then it crashed. I also hold and forgot about bitcoin for a half year. And then we rised. But this only happened because of the Chinese. I´m not sure if this can/will happen again with so much/fast growth in such a short time period.
And the later (or higher price) you buy, the less growth you will get. Buying @$10 and at $100 you have a growth of x10. Now buying @1000 and we need to go to 10000 to have a 10x growth wich is really hard to achive. Early adaptors won again. For late adapters the price could be too high. Why should somebody buy 1 Bitcoin for $10.000 on such an risky market?!