Psychological Disorders Caused by Online Trading

Online trading is a stressful activity. No one has any doubts about this. Not even beginners or aspiring traders. After all, they are bound to understand it soon, and on their own skin. Nothing insurmountable, let's be clear, if one is equipped with the appropriate willpower, iron determination, and the necessary technical baggage. In the worst-case scenario, however, more than one mechanism can risk breaking down. Mental mechanisms. In fact, online trading can lead to some disorders. We are not facing real psychiatric illnesses, let's be clear, but some symptoms can resemble borderline situations. We discuss this in the following article.

Burnout

The term burnout indicates a situation of emotional emptiness, often accompanied by apathy, which follows a relatively happy period characterized by enthusiasm and a desire to do things. It is typically found in workers, especially in the tertiary sector, often newly hired who make considerable efforts in a new activity, expecting results from it that, instead, do not arrive. At a certain point, the awareness takes hold that the efforts have been in vain, and one easily passes from an "enthusiastic" state to the clinical condition just described. Well, some traders experience a similar situation. In the vast majority of cases, these are beginner traders who have just started. It's easy to understand what the efforts that precede burnout consist of in this case: training, practice, intense study. Similarly, it's easy to imagine the (obviously positive) expectations that crowd the mind of the beginner. Then, however, the moment arrives to face reality, and if this - as often happens - turns out to be less happy than expected, disillusionment can emerge, which is the antechamber of burnout. How is burnout in online trading resolved? Exactly how burnout is resolved in real life? With rest and a re-elaboration of expectations, of the meaning that the trading activity covers or should cover. Of course, prevention is better than cure. Therefore, the advice is to not delude yourself, to face the training path with the right enthusiasm but acquire awareness of future difficulties, which are simply inevitable.

Trading addiction

There is a side of the coin that is often ignored, both by those who trade and by analysts. The playful side. Yes, online trading can be fun. After all, it is one of the greatest challenges that anyone with a bit of capital can face. It is no coincidence that the most competitive personalities are the ones who feel the desire to try a career in trading. The problem is when the genuine feeling of fun degenerates. Can it do that? Yes, and the mechanism resembles that of gambling addiction. Just as there is an addiction to gambling, there is an addiction to online trading. The reward and punishment mechanisms, if a person is predisposed, can compromise the relationship between trading and the trader, going on to design something incredibly similar to a clinical picture. The symptoms are evident and do not differ from the symptoms of any other addiction. The need to practice the incriminated activity, withdrawal syndrome, anxiety, a sense of emptiness, and so on. How is it fought? It must be said that if the picture is truly clinical, there is little the trader can do: he must turn to a specialist. If, however, the addiction is mild, and is more similar to habituation, one remedy, although drastic, proves to be better than others: detachment. To "cure" trading addiction-habituation, there is nothing left to do but suspend the activity. During the period of forced rest, which certainly at the beginning will create some headaches, the trader will have all the time to think about his relationship with trading. It is not an easy path, even when health is not at stake but "only" the risk of losing one's capital and compromising one's social life. The biggest risk, however, remains that of capital. Those who are addicted to online trading generally do not operate wisely. First of all, for a merely physical reason. A trader who operates for hours and hours, and therefore suffers from chronic fatigue, cannot think clearly. Secondly, because those who are addicted tend not to be lucid, to make wrong decisions. In short, the issue is still serious: if you feel the symptoms of trading addiction, or even just habituation, say enough to the activity for a while.

Trading stress

Difficult topic, stress. Also because it is not necessarily a disaster, an element to abhor. Indeed, in a certain sense, and under certain conditions, stress can be good. This is the case of "acute stress", which is simply a response that evolution has given to man to cope with emergency situations, with the unexpected. The problem is when acute stress becomes chronic. When the concern extends not only to the unforeseen event, but to a specific context, or to an activity. Such as online trading. It generally happens when difficulties are perceived as insurmountable, and at the same time the bar of objectives is kept high. In short, when an individual, in this case the trader, feels continuous pressure, "bad stress" can emerge. There are different degrees of stress, from the mild one, which almost does not affect performance. To the severe one, which instead affects performance, and how. If the stress is severe, it can compromise trading activity. It can impact the ability to make decisions, read situations, analyze the market. In extreme cases, it can become so unsustainable as to drive the trader away from his activity, precisely in order to avoid a source of suffering. How is stress defeated? It is very difficult, also because the conditions for it to develop are always there. In addition to working on oneself and one's personality, stringent money and risk management activities can help.

Trading anxiety

Anxiety is a condition that causes a lot of suffering. It is a chronic disorder, which can have both a behavioral and a clinical value. In the first case, we speak of anxiety as it is understood by the collective imagination, that is, a state of latent concern but not serious, which often translates into an attitude prone to complaining. In the second case, we are faced with a serious disorder, potentially limiting, compared to which stress seems like a condition of nothing. Anxiety, the real one, can truly worsen life. It also affects health, since it generates physical symptoms, ranging from palpitations, to excessive sweating, to the common - but evidently psychosomatic - stomach ache. In online trading, anxiety is not such a rare condition. It arises when the trader does not react well to difficulties, when he allows the stress situation to degenerate. How to cure anxiety? It is very complicated. Certainly, it is not a question that can be answered with an article, since we are dealing with a condition that, if not pathological, is close to it. The only remedy is therapeutic, so there is nothing left to do but turn to a specialist.