I just saw this article which immediately rang a bell, which it shouldn't because I found it under the Google's "news" section. For the record: I don't use nor trust Google's watered down/manipulated search results, but I do use it to see what is considered mainstream or what "they" want me to know since it is also in many ways personalized to your internet behavior. Two separate searches with your standard connection and another via VPN/private window should fix this issue.
So to get OT: "Luxury rehab centres now offer therapy for crypto addiction". Great, another mainstream media fear campaign targeting crypto, but I guess since these centers emerged just "now" as you say, you have a journalistic responsibility to share this with your readers right?
Let's highlight some of the key phrases and examples it described. "Don (not his real name) works in a company that processes central bank digital currency (CBDC) transactions...He says he went on a "downward spiral" in the middle of 2022 - and that's when he decided to seek help." Oh really, "Don" works with CBDCs and is now warning us about (decentralized) cryptos?🤨 And I like how "Don" here thinks he was the only one in crypto who went through a downwards spiral in 2022. But guess what "Don", the vast majority of us did not end up in overly priced luxurious addiction centers. Now why is that?
"Don lived in a private villa and was attended to by his own butler and chef. His treatment comprised therapy but also massages, yoga and bike rides, all for a hefty bill: upwards of $75,000." No comment. No wait, on second thought I will comment because this oddly enough reminds me of those scam institutions and websites that emerged back in 2018 trying to leech off those that succeeded in crypto and offered ridiculous items like those 100 Euro "limited edition" paper wallets or "authentic Bitcoin key chains" for 50 Euros. Except that here, these centers are leeching off those that failed in crypto.
"The treatment for crypto addiction is similar to other addictions," says Anna Lembke, a psychiatry professor at Stanford University and chief of the Stanford Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic...It's a biopsychosocial disease so it requires a biopsychosocial intervention. Uhhh, yeah, that's the core criteria of an addiction. Some get it with drugs, others never do drugs but get addicted to the highs and lows of gambling, others do neither but still get addicted to work or food, and since crypto came along some get addicted to that as well. Why even mention this as a so called "psychiatric professor" without clarifying the obvious?
"But, she adds, the cost is not always justified"....They are making money off desperate people, says Lia Nower, director at the Centre for Gambling Studies in Rutgers School of Social Work. Whether you're 'addicted' to trading crypto, betting on sports, or playing the lottery, your symptoms and treatment will be largely the same." LOL, I am writing the responses as I read paragraph by paragraph, so I promise I did not read this part here when I wrote the exact same with the 2018 comparison above. So yes, I agree these centers may be helping these people, but they are doing so while simultaneously taking advantage of them.
"The centres argue that while crypto addiction has strong parallels with gambling, it's also more addictive - for one, it's more exciting because it's so unstable". Wow, crytpo is more addictive and unstable than gambling? Yes I'm afraid I have to agree on this one, I remember often screaming in front of the screen and smashing my PC set up and even sh!tting in my living room because of "crypto".🤡
Jane (not her real name) started buying crypto in 2014....She eventually sought help from Paracelsus Recovery, where programmes for crypto addiction range from four to six weeks, at a weekly cost of $104,000 (£85,000). Online therapy sessions cost $650 an hour. OK this time I really have no comment.🤦♂️
I honestly can not believe these "news" outlets are not targeting these centers more viciously and somehow think this article puts crypto in bad light as oppose to themselves and these centers. Seriously this is almost predatory behavior, lurking for the weak and vulnerable to take advantage of. But to make the main point I actually wanted to make when I started writing this:
