Chasing Highs In High Stakes: The Addiction Paradox of Modern India

Scraper
Apr 11
4 min read

Addiction begins with the hope that something 'out there' can instantly fill up the emptiness inside. – Jean Kilbourne

Person in a white shirt pointing at a large screen displaying a colorful stock market chart with candlesticks and lines. Dark room. — Credit: Tima Miroshnichenko

The rush of green candlestick rising, the thrill of a winning bet on a cricket match, the ping of a notification that says 'you've earned a new reward', these are not just harmless dings of modern excitement. They are dopamine triggers, often indistinguishable in how they affect the brain, whether the source is a trading app or a poker table. And for many young indians, they are fast becoming symptoms of an addiction camouflaged as ambition.

Welcome To The Addiction Paradox

Just another addiction, this one wears a suit sometimes to dress up fancy. The indian stock market has seen a meteoric rise in young investors, particularly post 2020. With trading apps like Groww, Upstox, and more gamifying the investment experience, it's no longer a far stretch to say that stock trading is mimicking gambling patterns. A study published in ResearchGate even highlighted that a significant portion of the indian public views stock markets as nothing more than a legalized gambling den.

And maybe they're not wrong. When you're spending hours analysing patterns and betting on outcomes designed to be a uncontrollable, what's the real difference between picking a stock of a firm you dont even know about or their practices and picking a number on a roulette wheel? One has a tie and the other, a deck of cards. But the addiction? It's the same.

Glamour, Greed And Gen Z

No point to pretend as this is accidental. Indian media has turned success stories of stock market millionaires into overnight folklore. Combine that with influencers flaunting profits, fantasy sports platforms like Dream11 exploding in popularity and even your smart watch turning into a gambling device. And viola, you've got yourself an ecosystem where the lines between investing, gaming, and gambling blue into a loop of addiction.

Even the Times of India acknowledges how youngsters are falling prey to this high speed lure, with many ending up in debt or worse, risking mental stability.

Is It Just The Markets?

Behind every addict is a deeper story, trauma, perfectionism, loneliness, burnout, capitalism. And addiction isn't just about substance anymore. As explored in another piece

about what's bottled up

Addiction today is about filling the gaps in a life that feels like a treadmill. You're always running, never arriving. So when the promise of quick returns pops up, it feels like a lifeline. But it's a noose. If your body jolts at a market dip or a bet lost, that's not strategy. That's Dependency.

But It Doesn't Get Worse Than This, Right?

Wrong. India's youth is not just under pressure, they're being crushed under the expectations of generations that never taught them to deal with failure. Financial risk taking is romanticized but addiction? Naughty.

There's little to no conversation about behavioral addiction in trading. The Economic Times, tries to draw the line, but it's thin, subjective and easily crossed. The regulators and and platforms know it, and profit off of it. Outlook Business called out how India's booming derivatives market in inching toward a national gambling problem.

A Public Health Issue In Disguise

The Alpha Healing Center in Gujarat treats behavioural addiction with the same urgency as substance use. That's because the underlying neurological response, craving, risk taking, reward seeking. Is virtually identical.

According to a study in MDPI, gambling and high frequency trading show overlapping signs of impulsivity, obsession and social withdrawal. The consequences? Anxiety, depression, and in some cases, suicide.

The holistic approach taking by Alpha Healing Center focuses on holistic recovery, helping individuals understand not just the behavior, but the psychology behind it.

Real stories, Real Damage

We don't talk about the 17 year old who jumped off due to debt, or the 20 year old who picked his own route out of gambling debt leaving a note to warn about gambling addiction. These aren't fringe cases, according to Sigma World, there's been a sharp increase in youth driven speculative activity and loss.

The gambling epidemic is no longer about cards in a shady room. It's in your phone, your finance influencers, and yes. Even your investment community on reddit.

Alpha Healing Center now include digital detox and cognitive therapy for behavioral addictions, acknowledging how normalized, and dangerous, this behaviour has become.

What Can Be Done?

Addiction literacy over financial literacy - Knowing a stock's P/E ratio is less useful than recognizing compulsive behaviour.
Community Support - If someone's spiraling, don't say 'just stop'. Say, 'Do you need help finding a rehab as Alpha Healing Center or a local therapist?
Stop Glamorizing hustle porn - Every 5AM trading routine post is a silent nod to burnout.