Mentally coping with Loss - Thread

[Roccker]

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)

[Raystonn]

Ideas and stories how to cope with losing a lot of money

Everyone who has held US Dollars over many years has lost a great deal of money due to inflation.  Fiat is designed to encourage you to spend, not save.  So, do nothing and lose money.  Invest in Bitcoin and possibly gain a great deal of money.  Choices...

[gentlemand]

I'll start to sweat about potential losses around the end of this decade. In the meantime I'll expect there to be periods of sorrow and euphoria.

[btbrae]

hodl

Losing is a lesson, if nobody ever lost then nobody could get on top. The real winners very likely lost many times. It is our ability to learn and understand our failures that makes the difference between ourselves and joe trader.

[gustav]

Maybe surprises you but i didn't loose. But then again: i don't baghold a lot bitcoin either.

[Assad]

hodl

agree with you.

You only lose if you sell

[gustav]

hodl

agree with you.

You only lose if you sell

This is wrong. You loose if you don't sell soon enough in case market goes against your expectations. Ask a margin trader, they know...

Tight stop loss instead of bagholding, my friends  
Daytrading 101

Coins don't run out. Market is open 24/7. You always have access. No need to baghold during a bearmarket.

[ParabellumLite]

hodl

agree with you.

You only lose if you sell

Typical delusional hodler mentality. The funny part is that you, and many other people with you, have been claiming this all the way down from 1000 dollars to where we are now. Selling would've made sense multiple times on the way down, but then again hodlers are known for shutting off their ability to rational thinking. Too many efforts involved of course.

[btbrae]

Selling would've made sense because you have the benefit of hindsight, not because it made sense at the time. There has been a lot happen between then and now.

If you believe that Bitcoin will be successful at becoming an established widely used currency then there is only one trade to make and that is buy, and buy all the dips. If you're wrong... well, you lose everything. That's the deal. All the people that hodl will either be right or all the people that hodl will be wrong.

However, most people that try to trade it because it's just another market will lose (exceptions apply). Probably 90%.

Take your pick.

[Assad]

hodl

agree with you.

You only lose if you sell

Typical delusional hodler mentality. The funny part is that you, and many other people with you, have been claiming this all the way down from 1000 dollars to where we are now. Selling would've made sense multiple times on the way down, but then again hodlers are known for shutting off their ability to rational thinking. Too many efforts involved of course.

It is all or nothing mentality.

Works good if you follow the don't invest more than you can afford to lose advice

[twiifm]

Guys he wants ideas on how to cope not more stupid advice.

I lost a bunch of money when I started trading stocks a while ago.  Yeah it's depressing.

All you can do is keep moving and take it as lesson learned.  I think you should think about the positive things in your life and forget about Bitcoin.  Work and save then do safe investments.

[BrewCrewFan]

hodl

agree with you.

You only lose if you sell

Typical delusional hodler mentality. The funny part is that you, and many other people with you, have been claiming this all the way down from 1000 dollars to where we are now. Selling would've made sense multiple times on the way down, but then again hodlers are known for shutting off their ability to rational thinking. Too many efforts involved of course.

Why the fuq do you and the likes of you just assume that everyone here "got in" around 1k+? There are tons of us who have seen the very bad side in declines in price, and there are a few here that have seen much worse even before many of us got around to BTC.

You want to place blame I would more so on the media at the time glorifying BTC and "massive profits" during the bubble. Anyone with a lick of sense would have known you dont go in with more than you can afford to lose... and that is with and damn investment... BTC, stocks, bonds, anything.

As for the subject, you learn. Actually, you learn to cope. Panic one time soon you become used to fluctuation in prices. The main thing is that you learn from whatever you lost money in, and try to understand why. Its not that taking risks later on in something else is not worthwhile, after all some of the richest people had to take huge risks in investing and now look at them. Its just growing pains.

[williamj2543]

I lost 2.5 btc, and my customers lost 13 btc because my idiot partner ran away with the money to support this "health problem" that suddenly came up. I now have to fucking pay back this money, and for some reason I'm taking shit for it.
I honestly need some help coping with this.

[pjviitas]

Just sell what you have left and walk away...it will be a huge weight off your back...lesson learned.

[Bitcopia]

A lot of us have been through this cycle a few times now. The ones who make it with BTC are the ones who understand volatility in an incredibly uncertain marketplace. The first experience of a drawn out crash is hard. If you think BTC is the same technology that you understood a year ago, then you should try to not worry so much. Look at the history. Compare past fundamentals to past price action and do the same for more recent events. The exercise should create a more positive and realistic long term outlook. This experiment is going to take a little bit of time to unfold, so try not to panic. An emotional investor is nearly guaranteed to lose. Create a strategy to separate your emotions from your trading. You'll feel much better.

[homo homini lupus]

Altcoins have been a mess!
Most participants in the market have been whiped out months ago.

The forum is dead.
And to ad insult to insury you get some socialist distribution on the main coin that keeps all of coins down because Bitcoin is dropping like a rock by design. So now we are stuck with that shitcoin ... hope it gets dethroned ASAP to save the last bits and pieces of this promising new tech!

Note for future use: Do not let the programmers or any of these hobos decide on miningrewards - they don't have the skills for it.

Being good with cryptography and some coding doesn't make you an economist! Bitcoin has fundamental issues and it is choking on it but people prefer to ignore it! From the viewpoint of an economist or philosopher this Bitcoin and attached community is an utter failure.

Never before in my whole life have i seen so much FAIL in one place in such a short time. I have seen exculsively FAILURE. You people FAIL more reliably than the sun rises.
I can't remember a single post i have been reading outside 'offtopic' that wasn't a fail!

Yet, after all the failing you fail to see the sources of your fails and you fail again. Keep talking the fail into the newbs failcoin-community. Your hype is fail too. The arguments too. IT'S A COLLECTIVE FAIL!
Bitcoin fails harder than the Titanic.

edit: looking away from the charts 5 minutes to type this comment and it sells off again. FAIL!

AND I'M GOING TO PREACH THE FAIL DURING THE BULLMARKET (if that ever comes), BECAUSE YOU DESERVE IT!

It's likely dead now after another panic ... been sitting all day in my short. Took forever to sell off ... at least the selloff is a thing that Bitcoin doesn't fail to do!

Dump it to 10$ and let it rest! No need in pumping soon.

[abs350]

I would take the lost money as an expensive lesson in investing.

What did you do right?

What did you do wrong? (I'd suggest going all-in was probably one thing).

Look at your biggest bitcoin trades and analyse the good and bad ones.

See if you learnt anything from your experience. Who knows, bitcoin may go up again at some point in the future. If you learn from your bad experience, maybe you will make the money back.

Don't get too worried about it. You're getting a lesson in dealing with hardships and we all know failure is the key to success, right? You got an experience from this that many people who didn't know about bitcoin didnt get. Better to have ventured and lost than not to have ventured at all.

The stress of loosing a ton of a money is actually a good experience that hardens you to deal with other difficulties. Many people cant deal with loosing even a small amount of money. Who knows when this experience might come in useful in your life? In business, investments, etc. You dont know whats around the corner.

It sounds like you need a break. You can always sell your coins now if you dont want to worry about them going down, and then buy them back later.

Oh yeah dont listen too much to the peeps on these forums who have got their head in their asses  

[kwukduck]

Altcoins have been a mess!
Most participants in the market have been whiped out months ago.

The forum is dead.
And to ad insult to insury you get some socialist distribution on the main coin that keeps all of coins down because Bitcoin is dropping like a rock by design. So now we are stuck with that shitcoin ... hope it gets dethroned ASAP to save the last bits and pieces of this promising new tech!

Note for future use: Do not let the programmers or any of these hobos decide on miningrewards - they don't have the skills for it.

Being good with cryptography and some coding doesn't make you an economist! Bitcoin has fundamental issues and it is choking on it but people prefer to ignore it! From the viewpoint of an economist or philosopher this Bitcoin and attached community is an utter failure.

Never before in my whole life have i seen so much FAIL in one place in such a short time. I have seen exculsively FAILURE. You people FAIL more reliably than the sun rises.
I can't remember a single post i have been reading outside 'offtopic' that wasn't a fail!

Yet, after all the failing you fail to see the sources of your fails and you fail again. Keep talking the fail into the newbs failcoin-community. Your hype is fail too. The arguments too. IT'S A COLLECTIVE FAIL!
Bitcoin fails harder than the Titanic.

edit: looking away from the charts 5 minutes to type this comment and it sells off again. FAIL!

AND I'M GOING TO PREACH THE FAIL DURING THE BULLMARKET (if that ever comes), BECAUSE YOU DESERVE IT!

It's likely dead now after another panic ... been sitting all day in my short. Took forever to sell off ... at least the selloff is a thing that Bitcoin doesn't fail to do!

Dump it to 10$ and let it rest! No need in pumping soon.

My goodness... I haven't seen so much apparent anger here in a long time... You must have lost quite a bit more than OP i guess...
I can't even imagine a reason why you want to be involved with this tech or this community really if it causes you so much anger... I mean, sure you try to make a buck, but if this much frustration and anger is the price I'd seriously advice you to reconsider where you try to make your profits.

@OP you only lose when you decide to take that loss and sell at that point.
You did this for a well thought reason which is still valid.
Why not stick to the original plan? Forget about your stash for a while and just go about your life and use bitcoin as a currency where you can without looking at the chart or your savings stash.

[twiifm]

@OP you only lose when you decide to take that loss and sell at that point.

This is bullshit stupid advice.  No experienced trader will tell you this.  Your problem was you had no trading plan

But I'm not here to tell you shit that will get you down.  Sell it all and walk away for a month.  Then learn a bit about trading.  Do simulations and get used to market movements.  Learn how to manage risk and manage position sizing.  Practice a year or two with virtual money then try again

[homo homini lupus]

My goodness... I haven't seen so much apparent anger here in a long time... You must have lost quite a bit more than OP i guess...
I can't even imagine a reason why you want to be involved with this tech or this community really if it causes you so much anger... I mean, sure you try to make a buck, but if this much frustration and anger is the price I'd seriously advice you to reconsider where you try to make your profits.

My losses are minimal to what others must have suffered. What frustrates me is the commenly shared inability to think around here!
The utter stupidness and arrogance everywhere, that's what pisses me off.
It's one thing to be stupid and another to be arrogant - but being both and in that density like it is around here is astounding.

Also how far removed from reality everyone is ... the false hype (lies) ...