When I was in my 20s, I think I came close to having a compulsive shopping disorder. I had a job and had money of my own for the first time, my work schedule started at 1 p.m., so I had mornings free to explore the town and shop! It started out as fun and diversion but I remember the day I realized that I was walking around the mall and had walked around that very same mall looking at the very same salespeople and the very same racks the day before. I realized that if you're shopping often enough that the salespeople are beginning to recognize you, you're probably shopping too much.
I also remember what broke me of the habit. I saw a blouse, skirt and sweater set that I fell totally in love with. It cost some huge amount of money then -- I think $315 for the whole set, which was far, far out of my budget. But I tried it on, and I can honestly say I felt like i HAD to have it. Even though it didn't make sense, and even though I didn't need it, and even though at that same moment I knew it cost too much, I had to have it.
Long story short, I never did enjoy that outfit much. I think it was a bit like food poisoning -- once you have too much of something and it makes you sick, you have an aversion to that in the future. Sort of the same thing happened to me with that outfit and with my desire to be out shopping and seeing what I could find in the stores on any given day.
Now that credit markets are tightening up, it may be harder for people to come across enough credit to really get themselves in trouble. But I have seen stories of people running up $10,000, $30,000, even $75,000 in credit card debt due to their shopping problem. It wasn't that long ago that credit card offers kept pouring in through the mail, and people would pay one off with another one and go on that way for a long time. By the time it catches up with you, you have debts that take years to clear up and you still have to figure out what emotional need it was that you were trying to fill while shopping.
Here's a good page that identifies compulsive shopping symptoms and tells how to find help if you think you might need it:
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When I was in my 20s, I think I came close to having a compulsive shopping disorder. I had a job and had money of my own for the first time, my work schedule started at 1 p.m., so I had mornings free to explore the town and shop! It started out as fun and diversion but I remember the day I realized that I was walking around the mall and had walked around that very same mall looking at the very same salespeople and the very same racks the day before. I realized that if you're shopping often enough that the salespeople are beginning to recognize you, you're probably shopping too much.
I also remember what broke me of the habit. I saw a blouse, skirt and sweater set that I fell totally in love with. It cost some huge amount of money then -- I think $315 for the whole set, which was far, far out of my budget. But I tried it on, and I can honestly say I felt like i HAD to have it. Even though it didn't make sense, and even though I didn't need it, and even though at that same moment I knew it cost too much, I had to have it.
Long story short, I never did enjoy that outfit much. I think it was a bit like food poisoning -- once you have too much of something and it makes you sick, you have an aversion to that in the future. Sort of the same thing happened to me with that outfit and with my desire to be out shopping and seeing what I could find in the stores on any given day.
Now that credit markets are tightening up, it may be harder for people to come across enough credit to really get themselves in trouble. But I have seen stories of people running up $10,000, $30,000, even $75,000 in credit card debt due to their shopping problem. It wasn't that long ago that credit card offers kept pouring in through the mail, and people would pay one off with another one and go on that way for a long time. By the time it catches up with you, you have debts that take years to clear up and you still have to figure out what emotional need it was that you were trying to fill while shopping.
Here's a good page that identifies compulsive shopping symptoms and tells how to find help if you think you might need it:
http://www.recoveryconnection.org/addiction/compulsive_shopping.php
November 28, 2008 - 5:58pmThis Comment
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