What is “shopping addiction”?
Shopping addiction is nothing more than another manifestation of a process in which someone overengages in a particular activity to the exclusion of others to perhaps even the detriment of themselves and it manifests itself in the involvement of shopping, not too far away from gambling. The individual doesn’t anticipate a reward like a gambler does with a slot machine but the idea that you shop. You own the prized object and there is an exhileration, an excitement, an optimism. Let’s say you were blue before you went into the store or let’s say you were sitting at home and watching TV and the shopping channel is on and you buy this thing and there’s an excitement. That excitement, it feels so good inside and it becomes a central dominating force where you continually look to shopping to guide your actions and guide your day-to-day world to the exlusion of other more healthy adaptive ways of coping with uncomfortable feelings or difficult life circumstances.
Omniomania, compulsive shopping (or what’s more commonly referred to as shopping addiction), is perhaps the most socially reinforced of the behavioral addictions. We are surrounded by advertising, telling us that buying will make us happy. We are encouraged by politicians to spend as a way of boosting the economy. And we all want to have what those around us have –- consumerism has become a measure of our social worth. Although widespread consumerism has escalated in recent years, shopping addiction is not a new disorder. It was recognized as far back as the early nineteenth century, and was cited as a psychiatric disorder in the early twentieth century. Almost everyone shops to some degree, but only about 6% of the U.S. population is thought to have a shopping addiction. Usually beginning in the late teens and early adulthood, shopping addiction often co-occurs with other disorders, including mood and anxiety disorders, substan
Omniomania, compulsive shopping (or what’s more commonly referred to as shopping addiction), is perhaps the most socially reinforced of the behavioral addictions. We are surrounded by advertising, telling us that buying will make us happy. We are encouraged by politicians to spend as a way of boosting the economy. And we all want to have what those around us have –- consumerism has become a measure of our social worth. Although widespread consumerism has escalated in recent years, shopping addiction is not a new disorder. It was recognized as far back as the early nineteenth century, and was cited as a psychiatric disorder in the early twentieth century. Almost everyone shops to some degree, but only about 6% of the U.S. population is thought to have a shopping addiction. Usually beginning in the late teens and early adulthood, shopping addiction often co-occurs with other disorders, including mood an
