r/dogecoin • u/I_want_your_hat • Apr 23 '21
Opinion piece Advice from a Gambling Counsellor
Hi Everyone,
Certainly been a roller coaster the past week hasn't it. We had some pretty big highs and oh boy some lows. I really like the idea of Dogecoin, a crypto that encourages being good to people and the fact that a community of 1.5 Million people have gathered to promote a coin with a Shiba on it tickles me to my core. I have Diamond hands and hope to be sipping beers on Mars someday.
Having said that I have noticed some pretty concerning messages and comments on this subreddit and wanted to offer some advice as a social worker who has done some gambling counselling. I have seen a lot of red flags that there are people on this subreddit that are hurting themselves for Dogecoin and that it not what Dogecoin is about.
If you are having thoughts of hurting yourself or suicide please click on the link I've posted below. It's a website with international Suicide hotlines. There are people who are there to talk to and can help keep you safe. If your country is not on the list than googling suicide hotline should bring up a local resource.
https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlines
So to continue on I wanted to cover some pitfalls and hopefully educate people so you can make an informed decision about Dogecoin. Doge would want you to take care of yourself.
- "Dogecoin is not gambling"
ANY crypto currency is gambling, simply by the token that We don't know what it is going to do next This is not a flaw in crypto but it is a realty. Let me give an example to illustrate:
You are making a bet on a boxing match. You've done your research and Big Mic is the clear favorite. Big Mic has DESTORYED his last 100 opponents, his at the top of his game and all your friends are also betting on him. His opponent is Widdle Macgee, who has never won a match and is in his 80s.
Pretty obvious who to bet on right? you've looked into it, you've watched past matches and you could make some nice profit on the bet. The Bell rings and Widdle gets a lucky punch knocking Big Mic out in a second.
This is referred to as the Hot Hand fallacy. The idea that if something has happened alot in the past then it will happen again in the future. This is the heart of Crypto. Amazon could announce Dogecoin tomorrow sending us to the moon or Elon could tweet "Lol jks Dogecoin is bad". We don't have a crystal ball so we cannot know 100% what a crypto will do. I believe Dogecoin will go up but I need to accept I might be wrong.
- I can't afford to miss out on those MOON gains!
Look FOMO is a sonofa but its really important to not let yourself get sucked in on hype. If you find yourself feeling a need to invest more into Doge to "not miss out" I highly suggest walking away, calming down and work out if you can afford to invest that money. It's soo easy to invest money only to look at your bank account after with regret. The is a reason that emotions and business don't mix.
- I've lost too much money I should put more in to try and offset the loss
This is called "chasing loses" and its a warning sign of a issue with gambling. It is always better to lose $500 than to try and get that money back and losing $1000. You might get the money back but you are likely to lose more thus increasing your anxiety. Sometimes you need to take the L.
- I'm YEETING MY LIFE SAVINGS TO THE MOON
If you are spending money that is needed for bills/rent/food STOP and give yourself permission to walk away. As much as I want to get to the Moon to drive in my Tesla space car I would rather you sell your Dogecoin and look after yourself. Also only spend money that if you lose IT ALL you won't lose sleep over it. My investment in Doge is tiny compared to others but if Dogecoin tanks and I lose my investment it would suck but hey I'm just seeing my investment as my ticket aboard the rollercoaster of Dogecoin. I've seen several posts about people being anxious about the potential profit they are losing. What I would say is if your mental health is suffering you need to reevaluate your position. I've had to be honest with myself and know that I will never be a big player throwing thousands into crypto because it would make me a nervous wreck!
- I can't let my fellow Dogeanoughts down!
Listen this might be controversial to say here but you have to look after YOU first. for the following reasons 1. You don't owe anyone on here a single doge. 2. If Dogecoin is ground zero for a mental health crisis its not going to be a good look for Doge is it? So walking away even for a little bit will be better then staying and crashing. I'm holding with both my diamond hands but would gladly shake hands with anyone who walks away for their own health and wellbeing. If you feel stuck sell all but a small amount so you can still be part of the fun because 100 Dogecoin at $1 is still $100 you can take to the bank.
- I believe in Doge but could never tell my friends or family how much I've invested
Holy Red flag batman, this is a sign that your spending it getting out of your control. If you feel compelled to buy more, or feel guilt and shame then that's okay talk to someone you trust and consider maybe selling or having friends support you in not buying more than you can afford.
- I can't get addicted to crypto
Gambling is addictive because of a chemical in our brain called Dopamine. This is a great chemical that's designed to make us feel good, so we repeat the action. Lots of things in our life such as eating a pizza stimulate our brains to produce dopamine. Ever wondered why Pokies have lots of noise and lights? that's because they are designed to give you that sweet sweet dopamine high so your brain keeps you spending. Visual stimuli has a huge impact on Dopamine production. So all those graphs with its constant refreshing can literally be addictive. If you find yourself losing sleep or skipping work to watch a graph that should be a red flag that you might need to put the phone down or walk away from the computer for a bit. Dogecoin will truck along without you monitoring it.
To conclude Dogecoin is at its best when its a community sharing memes and collectively enjoying this rollercoaster together. Dogecoin says to do good to each other. So your kind act to me will be look after yourself. Write a comment about what none Doge related thing you are going to relax. As a treat for being an absolute legend.
Doge be with us all.
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u/FlOtati0n battledoge May 05 '21
I am relaxing by applying for college... and looking for money to pay for it.
I'm thankful that I found this post. Maybe I'll invest $300 instead of $1000. :)
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u/I_want_your_hat May 05 '21
Happy you got something out of it! What are you looking at studying?
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u/FlOtati0n battledoge May 05 '21
Computer Science. Planning to become a U.S. Air Force officer and make it to Cyber Command.
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u/MakeMeChortle May 05 '21
“I’m yeeting my life savings to the moon” is one of the funniest sentences I’ve ever read
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u/Letsmakemoney2gther Apr 28 '21
I was addict buying. Had to cut my position down from 20k coins to 500. Now I’m happier.
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u/Sagittariuuuh Apr 27 '21
I'm late but this is a great post! Most of my issue the last couple of weeks has been jealousy I don't have thousands of dollars to throw around like (seemingly) everyone else. But it's been so fun! I can see how people can get addicted to this.
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u/I_want_your_hat May 10 '21
I’m with you with the jealousy, but I can only imagine if I had put that money in this last few days would have made me go grey!
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u/420Katra May 01 '21
There’s a lot of good advice here that I needed to read. Commenting here so I can keep it to further reference when things get a little too crazy. Thank you for this.
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u/I_want_your_hat May 10 '21
Thanks for the feedback, I wrote this post hoping it would be helpful so it makes my day to know it did!
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u/fliesenschieber May 16 '21
This is such a good post, I just want to say thank you for the effort you put into it! You're awesome!
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u/Potential_Square_392 May 06 '21
I love this! Thank you for posting not just for me but especially for the young guys who dont have enough history in their lives enough to know this isn't the end of the road and THINGS ALWAYS get better. Life is a roller coaster ride the wave
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u/Show84 May 06 '21
Why you betting on Big Mic when you can put it into Dogecoin?
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u/haikusbot May 06 '21
Why you betting
On Big Mic when you can put
It into Dogecoin?
- Show84
I detect haikus. And sometimes, successfully. Learn more about me.
Opt out of replies: "haikusbot opt out" | Delete my comment: "haikusbot delete"
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u/PaleStructure1998 Ð 🚀🌙 May 07 '21
Thanks for sharing such amazing piece. This is the way of the Doge. This is the ONLY way.
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u/Replyafterme May 10 '21
Thank you for this. After the dips lately I've had to reevaluate my approach and play smarter for my finances and mental clarity
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u/SuperCoolAwesome Apr 24 '21
Sound advice! Very much needed for the Doge community, especially with a younger generation getting into Crypto.
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u/I_want_your_hat Apr 26 '21
Yeah I saw some posts in New from clearly young people. Gotta keep yourself mentally safe to enjoy the moon afterall.
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u/alpaca_boy15 Apr 25 '21
I really needed this post. I know all these things and I was feeling great about my investment. But then the last couple of days happened and i lost 40 bucks or something and it sucks. Ive bought at some highs because i wanted to get in as fast as possible, but right now i learned this isnt the way. Anyway, thanks
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u/I_want_your_hat Apr 26 '21
Not a worry, a big reason I made the post was that I could feel myself falling into the same pitfalls. I've had to give myself permission and reminders that these things take time and it may take a long time for my investment to be worth much. Hope you are doing better.
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u/alpaca_boy15 Apr 26 '21
Definitely doing better, the money I invested is money I can lose and just like you, I sometimes need a reminder that Im not going to be instantly rich, the world doesnt work like that
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u/I_want_your_hat Apr 26 '21
It is fun to dream though. Glad to hear you are doing better. Keep rocking!
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u/JacksitoPE May 06 '21
I invested a bit of my money, I don't have a lot of dogecoin and I didn't buy at best but it's still fine, I remember when I spoke with some of the dogecoin colleagues and they told me that it was a currency that would never go above 0.050 and that it would never reach $ 1 and here this incredible step above 0.50, I hope that one day I can reach the moon and much further and if not, it has been wonderful to see how this coin silenced many and continues to make history.📷
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u/LeanneMulti Jun 28 '21 edited Jun 28 '21
This is an important “slow down” message for me. I have ADD and chasing dopamine hits sneaks up on me.
What betting on crypto does is scratch my gambling itch but in a better way than lotto, scratchers or casino betting does.
Seeing the crazy ups n downs also pushed me to put some small $ into stocks, which I feel is a real investment, THOUGH STILL GAMBLING, too.
That FOMO section; I have to remember not to put $ into crypto or stocks that I might regret later. It was about 6 mos ago that a surprise real estate tax increase left me scrambling for single dollars to cover my checking overdraft before the day was out. I’ve since started a savings acct (DUH.DUH.DUH) and am remembering how that destitution felt. It helped me not binge on on Prime day shopping and more stock/crypto buying than makes sense for me.
What doge-related thing will I do to help relax myself? Go for a walk and pick up trash as I do to help make the world a very little bit better today.
Thank you so much for this post!
And I love being part of this community.
QUESTION……I STILL DON’T KNOW THE ACCEPTED PRONUNCIATION OF “DOGE”, or “DOGECOIN” though. I want to use “doughz”, “doughzcoin” but what did the community settle on?
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u/chaotic-painter May 18 '21
I needed this and am probably going to come back to reread it multiple times. Thanks for this. ❤️
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u/I_want_your_hat May 18 '21
Not a worry! Was there anything else that you reckon would be helpful for yourself or others?
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u/midhilajbasheer May 26 '21
Consider Amazon accepting doge for puschasing
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u/MasterBlivio poor shibe Jun 11 '21
You can already use doge to buy Amazon gift cards. Pretty much the same thing.
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u/MasterBlivio poor shibe Jun 11 '21
I'm going to have to use a chunk of my Doge to pay for my internet. I'm down about it but working my brain around the idea that I can utilize my internet more appreciatively, and that I will have new motivation to replace that Doge.
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u/Tvekelectric Aug 05 '21
Still pretty amazed the bowl guy called the pattern months ago. Well my fellow shibs i hope you all are doing very well this beautiful night at the bottom of the bowl. It will be a fun time as our food starts filling our bowl and we become big and strong on our way to the moon.
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u/Fantastic-Grocery107 Apr 23 '21
Great post thank you very much. I've made some mistakes. I feel sadness and I feel like I let the team down. I forgot everything I've learned when i saw it slip that far. I dont even know what I was afraid of. I've been on a schedule for months, I was willing to lose that money. I dont really know what the emotion/feeling was when it happened. But i typed it all in and clicked sell. And i feel like im going to regret it forever. Life will go on, it will get easier, other things will happen. I will get over it. But today, i feel ashamed for not being stronger in my conviction.
I appreciate your outlook. And it made me feel a lot better. Have a great day.