I work in the Airline industry and back in 1986 the company...

I work in the Airline industry and back in 1986 the company offered "packages" to people who wanted to leave. 14 of the guys i worked with took the "package" and of the 14 people 10 of them used the same financial advisor and so ended up all using pretty much the same strategy for investing their "package" money PLUS most of their superannuation money.
Long story / short version........ 8 of the 10 panicked when the market crashed in 1987 and were desperately trying to sell all of their holdings at some BIG losses , some lost virtually everything they had , others lost a lot but were not totally devastated and 2 of them held their nerve and kept most of their shares only selling a small percentage where they didn't lose too much % wise.
7 of the 8 came to our company asking for their jobs back and over a bit of time they all ended up getting back in where they had to start again. The 2 who kept their nerve are now sitting pretty with extremely good lifestyles and making plenty ( last i heard anyway ) . When i spoke to the 2 of them they both said the same thing ........ " we were only going to make a loss if we sold or if the companies we invested in disappeared and we knew that eventually the market would bounce back over time" .
Therefor i hold with the theory that whilst i may experience a paper loss i don't actually lose anything unless i sell ( or the company folds ) ........ and that is the cash reality.