Psychology of shopping

1 in 20 of us, women and men alike, can’t control the urge to spend. This shopping addiction is called oniomania or, more commonly shopaholism. The shopaholics always have a compulsive desire for shopping; they lose control and buy many items which they don’t need at all.

We all shop for many reasons. Mostly we know what we need and don’t waste money for the unnecessary things. People with shopping addiction buy to relieve anxiety and over time the buying creates a dysfunctional lifestyle. They may have problems with their marriage, fall into debts. The causes are:

• Emotional deprivation in childhood


• Inability to tolerate negative feelings


• Need to fill an inner void


• Excitement seeking


• Approval seeking


• Perfectionism


• Genuinely impulsive and compulsive


• Need to gain control

Psychotherapists say that the first step to treat this disorder is admitting you have a problem. Secondly, you have look at your individual reasons for shopping. When you do that you can begin serious and deep treatment. A wide range of shopaholism causes give start to a lot of effective treatment options: drug treatment, individual, group and couples therapy, counseling for compulsive buying, Debtors Anonymous, Simplicity Circles. They are usable also with most other addictive, impulse control or compulsive disorders.

Also, there are some types of behavior:

• Compulsive shoppers


• Trophy shoppers


• Image shoppers


• Bargain shoppers


• Codependent shoppers


• Bulimic shoppers


• Collector shoppers
  

Famous shopaholics in history include Marie Antoinette, Mary Todd Lincoln, and Princess Diana. Their addictions ranged from clothing (Diana) to art and antiques (Hearst) to shoes (the heralded Marcos collection) to gloves (Mrs. Lincoln owned 84 pairs of them). Nowadays famous shopaholics are Victoria Beckham, Paris Hilton, Eva Longoria Parker and others.

Often shopaholism is a symptom of something else - perhaps shopping is fulfilling something in a person's life or is a substitute for something. It is disorder which has to be solved, because shopaholic can have extremely serious consequences and significantly erode quality of life.