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How to Stop a Shopping Addiction

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While a. lot of people like shopping at weekends, during holidays, or whenever they have some time off, others may experience an urge to keep purchasing items all the time. This condition, known as shopping addiction, may seem harmless initially, but it can adversely affect the overall life with time. To satisfy their cravings, a shopping addict may routinely overspend or take out several store credit cards, ultimately leading to financial debt.

The compulsion to shop is either seasonal or indicative of an ongoing disorder and can affect your life as any other addiction, such as alcohol abuse. Stretching beyond simply going for a shopping spree now and then, if you fall into a shopping addiction, you may struggle to control your urge to spend money constantly.

If you or someone around you is suffering from this behavioural issue, remember that help with shopping addiction is readily available. Multiple rehab centres deal exclusively with this type of addiction through various evidence-based treatments. Keep reading this article to learn more about stopping your shopping addiction.

Shopping addiction usually comes with a distinct set of symptoms and specific patterns of behaviour related to shopping. While most addicts experience euphoria and pleasure following a shopping trip, these feelings are short-lived and usually subside with time. Soon, the long-term symptoms include financial issues due to constant spending beyond one’s means, feelings of guilt due to excessive shopping, and a strain on personal relationships.

Other signs and symptoms of shopping addiction include the following:

Using shopping, either online or in person, as a way to manage high pressure, stress, or other negative experiences in life
Experiencing improvement in mood due to the temporary euphoria following a purchase
Frequently overspending beyond your budget while shopping
Continuing to purchase new things despite knowing that you do not have the financial capacity to continue
Shopping impulsively not because you need something but simply because you have an intense compulsion to do so
Throwing away or hiding the things you have purchased in an attempt to hide your shopping from family members and friends
Trying to limit your shopping trips but constantly failing to do so
Feeling shame or guilt about the money, you have spent on shopping

Each shopping addict is different: some may focus their efforts on purchasing a particular class of products, while others may pick up literally any item they feel attracted to. One addict may obsess over collecting tech products, while another may go crazy over buying new clothes. Like with any addiction, each individual has a unique set of traits and a different story associated with their addictive behaviours.

To simplify understanding and treatment, experts have categorised shopping addiction into different types. Mentioned below are the common types of a compulsive spenders:

Bargain Seekers

This type of shopping addict will keep purchasing items on sale or at a reduced price for any reason whatsoever. After making these purchases, the bargain seekers may feel like a winner.

Show-offs

Such addicts are a sucker for high-value purchases, and their self-worth is often associated with their financial extravagance.

Trophy Hunters

These addicts are always searching for the best and most unique items on the market. Such items may not be the most expensive but must be rare enough to attract their attention. The satisfaction they obtain after finding and purchasing something unique satisfies their urges.

Collectors

Such addicts seek different versions or iterations of the same items, such as different series or versions of one particular product class.

Self-medicators

This class of people resort to shopping as a way to deal with adverse situations or negative moods. They usually have little interest in what they are buying specifically and are only concerned with the relief that comes with it.

Shopping Bulimics

Just like people with bulimia nervosa eat to an uncomfortable extent before purging themselves to control their calorie count, shopping bulimics follow the same pattern. Such individuals go for large or frequent purchases before returning them to get refunds. Such behaviour is their own way of ensuring that their original behaviour does not cause any financial troubles for them.

Depending on the severity of addiction and its duration, a rehab may offer various bespoke treatment plans to help clients overcome these dangerous behaviours. These treatment plans include a broad range of medication-based and therapeutic options that can relieve the compulsion to shop. Some of these interventions include:

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)

CBT involves closely working with a therapist better to understand the negative impacts of shopping addiction on life. A therapist can also make the client view how their emotions, behaviours, and thoughts contribute to their urge to shop excessively and compulsively. The therapy either takes place in a one-to-one setting where the client communicates directly with the therapist or may involve a group setting where several people facing similar issues come together to help each other out.

Regardless of the choice of setting, regular CBT sessions will help clients learn positive coping techniques to manage their urges. At the same time, they can also learn other methods to enjoy the same pleasure that shopping gives them without harming their everyday life.

Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT)

Because shopping addiction directly associates your thoughts and feelings with repeated behaviours, DBT can help overcome it. DBT aims to help clients manage their compulsive shopping urges by combining individual therapy and group-based skills. It also relies on emotional regulation and mindfulness as methods to resist shopping temptations.

Medication

Shopping addiction co-occurs with other mental health issues, such as depression and anxiety. For people with a dual diagnosis, experts may prescribe medications to relieve the symptoms of these psychiatric ailments first, which can benefit the subsequent addiction treatment. Clients may use antidepressants or anti-anxiety medications alongside CBT and DBT sessions, depending on the individual issues.

12-Step Addiction Treatment Programme

Some severe cases of shopping addiction that may not respond to medications or therapy may benefit from the 12-step addiction treatment programme. These programmes equip clients with the necessary tools to practice sobriety. Such programmes can also prevent relapses after getting initial treatment and positively affect other aspects of life, such as relationships and finances.

Support Groups

Clients can also keep in touch with several support groups to maintain sobriety and seek continuing support. One such support group is Shopaholics Anonymous UK which follows a 12-step approach to help clients achieve their long-term goals and stick to the path to recovery.

FAQs

Why do shopping addicts keep spending their money?

Just like an individual with a substance abuse disorder, a person with a shopping addiction disorder experiences intense cravings. These cravings disappear only when the person feeds himself with the experience of buying things. If they cannot make purchases due to a lack of money, inaccessibility to shops or whatever reasons, their tension levels begin to rise. These rising levels of tension only dissipate when they resume their purchasing. Note that this dissipation is temporary as the temptation may begin to build again shortly after the most recent purchase. This tension and its negative feelings may also be created and exacerbated by experiences and events that affect the addict’s mood. For example, an awkward situation at work, an argument with a loved one, or a recent loss may make an addiction unhappy or frustrated. In such circumstances, they may shop or buy things to relieve their minds of these negative feelings. This is comparable to the ways in which an external factor may drive a drug addict into engaging in substance abuse. However, the difference is that the relief that an addict feels after shopping is due to neurochemical changes. This is opposed to the psychopharmaceutical effects that arise after using a drug.

What causes shopping addiction?

There is no particular cause of shopping addiction. Most experts believe it to arise due to a combination of various environmental and biological factors. Studies reveal certain behaviours, such as shopping, trigger the brain in a manner similar to how alcohol and other illicit drugs induce changes in the brains of addicts. From an environmental perspective, experts believe that some people indulge in compulsive shopping behaviours to cope with the stress of pain associated with a particular situation.

How do I know if I have a shopping addiction or a fondness for shopping sprees?

It may sometimes get difficult to understand the differences between a shopping addiction and a fondness for going on shopping sprees. While both conditions do share certain similarities, two key factors set them apart. In the case of a shopping spree, you are likely to spend large amounts of money or buy more items than you normally would; however, the amount of money you spend is well within your budget. These sprees also happen around an approaching occasion, such as during the Christmas season or close to a birthday party. Shopping addiction, on the other hand, may occur at any time as a part of a routine rather than as an activity different from normal behaviour. Moreover, a typical sign of a shopping addiction is spending more money than you can afford based on an urge. A shopping addiction also involves multiple shopping trips within a short time, each with excessive shopping.

Is there a link between shopping addiction and depression?

Depression is one of the most common co-occurring disorders in people with a co-occurring shopping addiction. A lot of people tend to take solace in excessive shopping as an attempt to fight off the symptoms of depression. On the other hand, the financial and psychological tension arising from compulsive shopping habits may make other people fall victim to depression. Regardless of the prevailing order of issues, a typical treatment plan for shopping addiction frequently involves simultaneous management of depressive episodes to increase the chances of recovery and success.

What are the short-term and long-term impacts of shopping addiction?

In the short term, the impact of shopping addiction is somewhat lenient. Most people may suffer financial tensions followed by feelings of shame and remorse due to compulsive spending habits. Deceitful behaviour soon comes into the picture, which can negatively impact work circumstances, relationships, and other aspects of life. In the long run, however, shopping addiction can become highly destructive with severe consequences for the primary sufferer and their family members. The addiction may also give rise to other types of psychiatric illnesses along with their own ramifications. Moreover, a chronic over-spender may tend to be involved in illegal activities like fraud and theft to fund their big purchases.

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