Shopping addiction
Shopping can become as destructive as any other addiction and result in a financial nightmare for the shopper and family alike. This is referred to as compulsive spending or compulsive shopping. Research shows that shopping addiction affects mainly women while alcoholism affects men. Items which top a woman’s shopping list are clothes, makeup and jewelery. If you are an internet shopping addict that means that you spend a major part of your time online shopping for alluring products that seem just a mouse click away.
Compulsive Shopping
Compulsive or addictive shopping is a form of behaviour designed to avoid unpleasant reality, and is accompanied by a high which causes the sufferer to lose control and buy many items for which they have no need. People who shop or spend compulsively get a feeling of being “high” from the experience.
Compulsive shopping and spending are defined as excessive, and out of control. As with other addictions, the spending addict continues to spend and shop in the face of adverse consequences. Sometimes referred to as “shopoholism”, shopping addiction can create massive financial, marital, legal and family problems. The consequences of shopping addiction are obvious: high levels of debt, fear of discovery and retribution leading to more denial and desperate acts to cover up the behaviour.
Causes Of Shopping Addiction
Shopping addiction is rooted in complex psychological reasons. Shopping may just be a means of escapism from the realities of life and its accompanying problem - an outlet to anger, depression, anxiety, boredom or loneliness. Shopping cures none of your woes. It just seems to provide some instant relief. The long-term effects of shopping addiction can include debt and damage to close relationships.
Shopping Addiction Treatment
As with all addictions, the resulting overwhelming sense of shame, remorse and guilt accompanied by feelings of hopelessness and helplessness, lead to despair. The despair can be ended through successful treatment and people can be restored to normal life.
Most people suffering from a shopping addiction need the addition of other specific tools for changing the behavior, including a shopping diary and a spending plan. Group therapy for shopaholics has been reported since the late 1980s. Couples therapy for shopaholics is an extremely important treatment modality, because couples act as a financial unit and generally blend income as well as spending
The major premise of counseling for shopaholics is the idea that insight alone will not stop the behavior. All stages in the shopping addiction cycle must be identified: the triggers, the feelings, the dysfunctional thoughts, the behaviors, the consequences of the behavior, as well as the meaning of the shopping addiction.
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