Semaj

Following this week's reports of yet another informal investment club's apparent collapse, psychologist Dr Leahcim Semaj is advising people who have lost their money to not only seek financial counselling, but to make a special effort to get professional psychological help.

Several more people are likely to lose hundreds of millions of dollars if Olint Corporation Ltd's operations are brought under by the authorities.

Many losers

Many have already lost funds in other troubled informal investment clubs since the start of the year.

The reports have left many investors worried to the point of illness, with some informal reports of suicide and at least two persons suffering strokes after learning they might not be able to get back their savings.

Yesterday, Semaj told The Gleaner that the knowledge of losing such a large sum of money would trigger stress and the power of stress should not be underestimated.

Stress related

"Up to 90 per cent of visits to doctors are all stress related," he said. "Up to 80 per cent of all diseases have a stress component. So, we often underestimate the power of stress."

The two main sources of stress often have to do with money/work or intimacy.

According to Semaj, people should invest no more than 30 per cent of their assets in high-risk funds, and when people violate this rule, there is stress.

"When it looks like they will be losing those monies, the stress is now seen because the chance of them being able to make back that money is between slim and none. So, the real issue is just accepting any kind of loss," he advised.

Semaj said that while accepting the loss might not be easy, it was ultimately what investors would have to do.

"What they will have to do is seek professional help. Physical illness can occur, but more so things like depression, because the more you start worrying about what happened, the more depressed you become."