(ECNS) -- Increasing numbers of Chinese women are seeking online help to handle their husbands' obsession with making money on the surging stock market, Hubei Daily's cnhubei.com reported.
Li Dan, a woman from Wuhan, capital of Hubei province, said her relationship with her husband has deteriorated sharply since he started buying shares in March.
The couple had enjoyed a sound relationship and were known as a model family among her friends. Li's husband became fascinated with the stock market in March at the suggestion of his colleagues.
According to Li, her husband devotes his time at home to reading popular books on the stock market, checking market data on his smartphone, and participating in discussions at online forums to learn how to invest.
On several occasions, her husband has fallen asleep on the sofa late at night, and also used 120,000 yuan ($19,000) the couple had reserved for buying a car, without Li's agreement.
She has quarreled with her husband and failed to persuade him to mend his ways despite additional pressure from her mother-in-law. On WeChat, a popular social networking app, Li was dubbed by her friends as a "stocks widow," a term inspired by "World Cup Widow" to describe women ignored by their husbands while the soccer World Cup was raging.
The report said more and more women were seeking assistance on the Internet to get along with their partners who had become addicted to playing the stock market.
Hu Yiwen, director of the psychiatry department at a hospital in Wuhan, said there is an instinct for human beings to chase profits, though dealing with an addiction needs good communication.
The number of new accounts in China's A-share market hit a new high in March. A buying frenzy has sent Chinese stocks surging in recent months.
Read more: Number of A-share investors hits record high over optimistic market
