Shillong, May 2: In an unusual example, a person from Bengaluru sought medical assistance from a de-addiction clinic at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) to get rid of his addiction to stock market trading and investing.
After losing more than Rs 30 lakh in trading, he made the choice to seek advice from specialists at the Service for Healthy Use of Technology (SHUT) clinic. After assessing his predicament, the man’s family requested that he seek therapy for the same.
It was a first-of-its-kind case for us psychologists as well. “Unlike other cases like gambling or gaming addiction, we had to take a fresh approach to address the patient’s situation by understanding his problem in detail,” said Dr. Manoj Kumar Sharma, professor of clinical psychology and coordinator of the SHUT clinic.
The trader, who had already sustained significant losses, utilised all of his life savings and had taken out loans from others to fund his subsequent trades. His family life was severely affected, and he was compelled to seek therapy. He has gone to two sessions so far for his therapy.
According to the experts at SHUT, stock trading addiction cases do not come into their purview; instead, this is a dysfunctional issue.
“Treating stock trading fixation is difficult for us since it requires a very thorough and meticulous approach, and the patient doesn’t have any impulsive problems that call for medication. Two important concerns arise in this situation: whether the person should engage in trading entirely or only to some extent”, according to a psychologist.
