With easy access to shopping provided by the Home Shopping Network, Internet, and malls, the number of people affected by compulsive buying is greatly increasing.

Shopping Addiction: Quick Pleasure with Long-term Pain

by Hannah Litchfield - 11/07
NEIRAD enilno edition

Some hear "shopaholic" and laugh, thinking it's a made up word. Others know the meaning, and seriousness, of the condition. Shopaholic, another term for compulsive buying, is becoming a widespread problem, serious enough that the American Psychiatric Association is deciding whether or not to list compulsive buying as a mental disorder.
Shopaholics purchase compulsively, buy things they don't need and often can't afford, jeopardizing work, family, and their mental stability. Darien High School psychologist, Eileen Whalen, says," People displaying compulsive behavior don't have healthy coping mechanisms. They use compulsive buying to self soothe and destress. It gives them a short term sense of satisfaction."
With easy access to shopping provided by the Home Shopping Network, Internet, and malls, the number of people affected by compulsive buying is greatly increasing.
Studies estimate that as many as 17 million Americans can't control our urge to shop. Darien High School sophomore, Laura Durham admits, "If I look in my closet and don't see anything I want to wear, I'll go out and buy more clothes." When asked how often she splurges, Durham replied:  “Once or twice a week, spending about $200 at a time." What is it about shopping that people seem to crave? "It's like a reward," says Durham. "It's a way of taking your mind off everything in your life, and once you find something cute and no one else has, you get to show it off."
But in the end, what's the cost of this "reward?" Like other addictions, such as alcohol and gambling, the addict usually wants to stop but find they can't give up the temporary satisfaction of a quick splurge.. They find themselves plummeting into debt, despair, and mental instability, and the title of a "shopaholic."