How Many Bitcoiners are Mentally Ill?

[pereira4]

A lot of people here is partially traumatised at missing the 2013 bubble.

[bitcoin_bagholder]

It's an area that at present attracts people that others might consider not completely normal in their outlook. Some might call it mental illness. Others might call it thinking for yourself. Perhaps it's somewhere in between.

I look at it as five groups into Bitcoin:

1) Libertarians
2) Anarchists
3) Gamblers
4) Computer geeks interested in the tech
5) Capitalists involved in Bitcoin startup companies

Of the five, anarchists and gamblers by definition are considered to be mentally unbalanced.

[cellard]

A lot of people here is partially traumatised at missing the 2013 bubble.

There should be a foundation based on assisting victims of not buying on the 2013 bubble.

[AnswerQuestion]

I think that a lot of people are probably more paranoid then they need to be about protecting their bitcoin, however some level of paronia is necessary as once someone steals your bitcoin there is essentially no way to get it back and there are a lot of people out there who will be more then willing to steal your bitcoin. I don't think the people who take extreme precautions with their money are suffering any kind of mental disorder, at least not in any significant higher rates then the general population).

I have however noticed that a lot of newer users (especially spammers who participate in signature deals - especially over the last summer) do seem to show traits of some kind of mental disorder, although it is possible this is because of bitcoin's popularity and the fact that people with mental disorders tend to have a lot of free time (for a number of reasons) so they would naturally migrate to this forum.  

I would also add something to my above statement:

The ability to make your private keys the most secure is almost like a contest between bitcoineers. People seem to almost want to one-up eachother in terms of making their private keys excessively secure. I would say this results in some people appearing to be more paroniod then they really are.

[sakira]

are you one of them? Xixi 

[ABitNut]

about 23.135% of the total pool of bitcoiners is mad. I know I am right...

And the remaining 76% are trolls. Also, I'm part of the 0.865% that doesn't bother to make sure percentages add to 100%.

This thread was gold.

[Beymond]

All of them.

[vapourminer]

Anyway if there are any normal members here you might want to commission a social worker to survey this forum for potential suicide/homicide risks or a psych researcher to try to and determine what factors of the bitcoin system are selecting for dredges. Cheers! 

since you seem to claiming you are "normal," perhaps you should be the one to commission a social worker and/or psych researcher for this survey.

we wont waste our money (er bitcoins).

BTW that Alex Huxley quote is great.

edit: have you met many social workers? I have (Im in the medical field). I have not been impressed to put it mildly.

[funkenstein]

The figure for fiat users is undoubtedly a factor of 10 larger. 

[BitCoinNutJob]

Just briefly glancing through here it seems like anywhere from 15-25% could be diagnosed as morbidly paranoid, with 5% of that as full bore schizophrenia.

Anyone having a bad day/week/month can get labelled with alsorts of disorders.  The field of psychology isn't very advanced yet, the brain is highly complex.

[turvarya]

Just briefly glancing through here it seems like anywhere from 15-25% could be diagnosed as morbidly paranoid, with 5% of that as full bore schizophrenia.

Anyone having a bad day/week/month can get labelled with alsorts of disorders.  The field of psychology isn't very advanced yet, the brain is highly complex.

Sure, it is advanced. They developed so many meds, that will fuck up your brain chemistry or your hormons. Anything else just isn't that important.

[gogxmagog]

I'm perfectly normal, totally sane, really nice guy.
Just ask me.

[solf]

I had very low self esteem since 12 years old, also was living in constant fear. When I was 20, I started thinking "I must make a lot of money on stock swings and outsmart the others". When I was 24, bitcoin appeared. I was amazed by the 'swings' of bitcoin. Made only about 80 USD profit, though. I started fantasizing "I'll wait till it drops to 10 USD, then I'll make millions". And then a bad thing happened in my life. I do not want to explain in detail now. But now I believe only in those things:

* Warren Buffet "Stay away from bitcoin as far as you can" - so 100% true

* Charlie Munger: "Bitcoin is a rat poison" - so 100% true!

* There is no shortcuts

* You can only be happy when you contribute to the society.

[ronaldo40]

All of them.

not all  just a man who lost thousands of BTC in an instant 

[herzmeister]

genius and madness, it's nothing new.

almost all great artists and scientists were somewhat bi-polar.

i believe it's an evolutionary thing. Not everyone who is close to madness can manifest their genius. Only the "fittest" ideas (and implementations) survive.

also, people who are considered normal by social standards do not have the motivation or guts to foray into experimental territories such as this.

and:

[rpietila]

The thread indeed is gold. +1 to so many of the previous posts

[oblivi]

rpietila predicting 1 million per coin doesn't make him a mentally ill individual! he's just a misunderstand genius

[Beliathon]

If 1 BTC equals $1,000,000 then the worst problem will have been the collapse of the dollar...and probably the USA, which means the world would have gone to shit too.

For most people on the planet today, the world already is shit. If it's not to you, congratulations now check your privilege. For the billions of poor, global capitalism is sucking the life from them.

Not so long ago the average person would believe that the loss the Divine Right of the King, and subsequent (ongoing) slow death of religion would be "the world going to shit". All the fruits of the age of reason would have been forsaken if the nobles and priests of the middle ages could have prevented the failure off Divine Right.

They could not prevent progress then, just as the banksters (our modern "nobles") can't stop bitcoin or the slow death of capitalism in our generation.

[pereira4]

If 1 BTC equals $1,000,000 then the worst problem will have been the collapse of the dollar...and probably the USA, which means the world would have gone to shit too.

For most people on the planet today, the world already is shit. If it's not to you, congratulations now check your privilege. For the billions of poor, global capitalism is sucking the life from them.

Not so long ago the average person would believe that the loss the Divine Right of the King, and subsequent (ongoing) slow death of religion would be "the world going to shit". All the fruits of the age of reason would have been forsaken if the nobles and priests of the middle ages could have prevented the failure off Divine Right.

They could not prevent progress then, just as the banksters (our modern "nobles") can't stop bitcoin or the slow death of capitalism in our generation.

This. Bitcoin is the only hope to scape the bankster mafia. If we have a mentally retarded population in the first world that will stick suck banker cock for some decades, at least outside our borders people will find use on BTC.

[gargantuar]

Not an excuse; just an explanation:

http://www.davidsongifted.org/db/Articles_id_10554.aspx

Perhaps many here fit the Debrowski definition of gifted.  Debrowski himself hid Jews during the Second World War and was imprisoned for it.  Apparently he was deviant or not well adjusted to his society (according to the Nazi's) but I believe he was more sane and more human than any Nazi could have been.