Compulsive Shopper

We all love shopping, don’t we? I mean even if we don’t, we have to do it anyway. It’s the way to get the necessities like food and clothing, and other stuff like cell phones and home decor. Fascinating how the internet changed our life, and made tasks so easy to accomplish, but when did the simple act of shopping become a buying disorder?

Compulsive Shopping disorder also known as shopping addiction is a mental health issue that consists of the impulsive, excessive and uncontrollable purchase of products that we usually don’t need. This disorder has a lifetime prevalence of 5.8 % in the US general population. About 6% of the U.S. population can be said to have compulsive buying behavior with 80% of compulsive buyers being women. Many women have been socialized from a very young age to enjoy shopping with their mothers and friends. However, the shopping disorder is likely to increase for men with the evolution of digital commerce. It is much faster and easier now to find what you are looking for.

We shouldn’t take this disorder as a joke since it’s a serious matter, it is as serious and alarming as any disorder you have heard of before such as binge eating and gambling. More than that, compulsive shopping can be associated with other mental illnesses like depression, anxiety, and eating disorders. Compulsive shopping mostly develops in the 30s when the person achieves financial independence, unlike other addictions, that take hold in the teens.

Let’s dive deeper and see what are the primary causes of these disorders? CBD often has roots in early experience. Perfectionism, general impulsiveness and compulsiveness, dishonesty, insecurity, and the need to gain control have also been linked to the disorder. It seems a little too harsh to associate compulsive shopping to mental illness, so let’s find out how this disorder is related to mental illness.

As we have said before people who have this disorder often meet the criteria for other mental illness as well such as mood disorders, anxiety disorders, substance use disorders, eating disorders, and a variety of impulse control disorders. The disorder is often driven by feelings such as sadness and low self-esteem.

Now that we have seen how serious this disorder is, let’s talk about how it can be treated? There are ways to treat this disorder, first of all, the old fashioned way, which is medicine and therapy. But you can heal with some small steps that have such a huge impact on your behavior, such as reading self-help books in order to understand how to overcome this disorder, keeping track of your spending can make you aware of the amount of money you are spending on a daily basis, setting a limited a budget to whatever things you need. Baby steps right? But they show great results with time, just be patient.