Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsSignsCausesNormal Shopping or AddictionControversyHow to CopeNext Steps
Table of ContentsView All
View All
Table of Contents
Signs
Causes
Normal Shopping or Addiction
Controversy
How to Cope
Next Steps
Shopping addiction is a behavioral addiction that involves compulsive buying as a way to feel good and avoid negative feelings, such as anxiety and depression. Like other behavioral addictions, shopping addiction can take over as a preoccupation that leads to problems in other areas of your life.
Almost everyone shops to some degree, but only about 6% of the U.S. population is thought to have a shopping addiction.
Although widespread consumerism has escalated recently, 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.
Learn more about the symptoms, causes, and ways to cope if you have a shopping addiction.
Signs of Shopping Addiction
Signs that a person might have a shopping addiction include:
People who struggle with shopping addiction typically spend more time and money on shopping than they can afford, and many get into financial problems as a result of their overspending.
Shopping addiction can involve impulsive and compulsive spending, producing a temporary high. People addicted to shopping often feel empty and unsatisfied with their purchases when they get home.
Items purchased during a compulsive shopping spree are often hoarded unused, and compulsive shoppers begin to plan their next spending spree. Most shop alone, although some shop with others who enjoy it. Generally, shopping with people who don’t share this type of enthusiasm for shopping will lead to embarrassment.
Causes of Shopping Addiction
The exact causes of shopping addiction on not entirely clear, but several factors may play a role.
Other Mental Health Conditions
Usually beginning in one’s late teens and early adulthood, shopping addiction often co-occurs with other disorders, including mood and anxiety disorders,substance use disorders, eating disorders, other impulse control disorders, and personality disorders.
The Best Online Therapy for Anxiety, Tried and Tested
Personality Characteristics
This difficulty in controlling the desire to shop emerges from a personality pattern that shopaholics share, and that differentiates them from most other people. Often low in self-esteem,they are easily influenced, and are often kindhearted, sympathetic, and polite to others, although they are often lonely and isolated. Shopping gives them a way to seek out contact with others.
Some people develop shopping addiction to try and boost theirself-esteem, although it doesn’t tend to be very effective for this.
Materialism
Exposure to Advertising
People with a shopping addiction may be more susceptible to marketing and advertising messages that surround us daily. While advertising, in general, is designed to exaggerate the positive results of purchase and suggest that the purchase will lead to an escape from life’s problems, certain marketing tricks are designed to trigger impulse buying and specifically target the impulsive nature of people with a shopping addiction.
Retail Therapy
As with other addictions, shopping addiction is usually a way of coping with life’s emotional pain and difficulty. Unfortunately, it tends to make things worse rather than better for the shopper.
People who gain pleasure and escape negative feelings through shopping sometimes call it “retail therapy.” This phrase implies that you can get the same benefit from buying yourself something as you would from engaging in counseling or therapy. This is an incorrect and unhelpful idea.
While the term retail therapy is often used in a tongue-in-cheek manner, some people, including shopaholics, actively make time to shop simply as a way to cope with negative feelings.
Although there are circumstances when a new purchase can solve a problem, this is not typically thought of as retail therapy. Usually, the things people buy when engaging in retail therapy are unnecessary, and the corresponding financial cost may reduce resources for solving other life problems.
Normal Shopping vs. Shopping Addiction
So what is the difference between normal shopping, occasional splurges, and shopping addiction? As with all addictions, what sets shopping addiction apart from other types of shopping is that the behavior becomes the person’s main way of coping with stress.People will continue to shop excessively even when it is hurting other areas of their life.
Normal ShoppingPurchased items are needed and usedNo sense of compulsionDoes not cause financial distressOccasional splurgesShopping AddictionPurchased items are often not needed or usedCompulsive shopping behaviorCreates financial problems for the individualConstant overbuying
Normal ShoppingPurchased items are needed and usedNo sense of compulsionDoes not cause financial distressOccasional splurges
Purchased items are needed and used
No sense of compulsion
Does not cause financial distress
Occasional splurges
Shopping AddictionPurchased items are often not needed or usedCompulsive shopping behaviorCreates financial problems for the individualConstant overbuying
Purchased items are often not needed or used
Compulsive shopping behavior
Creates financial problems for the individual
Constant overbuying
As with other addictions,money problemscan develop and relationships can become damaged, yet people with shopping addiction (sometimes called “shopaholics”) feel unable to stop or even control their spending.
Online shopping addiction is a form of internet addiction, and people with social anxiety are particularly vulnerable to developing this type, as it does not require any face-to-face contact. Like other cyber addictions, it feels anonymous.
Compulsive vs. Impulsive Shopping
Impulse buying is an unplanned purchase that happens on the spur of the moment in reaction to the immediate desire to have something you see in a shop. Impulse buying is a little different from compulsive buying, which is typically more pre-planned as a way of escaping negative feelings. But again, people with shopping addiction may engage in both types of addictive buying.
The Difference Between Impulsive and Compulsive Shopping
Is Shopping Addiction a Real Addiction?
Despite its long history, shopping addiction is controversial, and experts and the public disagree about whether shopping addiction is a real addiction.
Like otherbehavioral addictions, some experts balk at the idea that excessive spending is an addiction. Many believe that there has to be a psychoactive substance that produces symptoms, such as physical tolerance and withdrawal, for an activity to be a true addiction.
There is also some disagreement among professionals about whether compulsive shopping should be considered anobsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD),impulse control disorder(likekleptomania, or compulsive stealing), mood disorder (like depression), or behavioral addiction (likegambling disorder).
Shopping addiction is not recognized as a distinct condition in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5-TR).
How Shopping Can Be Like Other Addictions
There are several characteristics that shopping addiction shares with other addictions. As with other addictions:
Compulsive shoppers use shopping as a way of escaping negative feelings, such as depression, anxiety, boredom, and anger, as well as self-critical thoughts. Unfortunately, the escape is short-lived.
What Is a Shopping Addiction?
How to Cope With Shopping Addiction
Overcoming any addiction requires learning alternative ways of handling the stress and distress of everyday existence. This can be done independently, but people often benefit from counseling or therapy.
In the meantime, there is a lot you can do to reduce the harm of compulsive spending and get the problematic behavior under control. Developing your own spending plan can be a good first step.
Other steps you can take that might help include:
When to Get Help
Compulsive shopping appears to respond well to various treatments, including:
Some of the personality characteristics found in the “shopaholic” personality bode well for the ability to develop and respond well to a therapeutic relationship, which is the best predictor of success in addiction treatment. It should be noted, however, that although some medications show promise, results are mixed, so they should not be considered a sole or reliable treatment.
If you believe you may have a shopping addiction, discuss possible treatments with your doctor. If your doctor doesn’t take your shopping problem seriously, you might find a psychologist more helpful (and you might reconsider your relationship with your physician all together).
The 9 Best Online Therapy Programs
Psychotherapy
Psychotherapy can help understand the emotional roots of your shopping addiction. It can also help you find ways to overcome your tendency to use shopping to cope. These are important aspects of recovery from this confusing condition.
Get Help NowWe’ve tried, tested, and written unbiased reviews of thebest online therapy programsincluding Talkspace, BetterHelp, and ReGain. Find out which option is the best for you.
Get Help Now
We’ve tried, tested, and written unbiased reviews of thebest online therapy programsincluding Talkspace, BetterHelp, and ReGain. Find out which option is the best for you.
Financial Counseling
You could make an appointment with a financial advisor or consultant at your bank to discuss options for restricting your access to easy spending, explore strategies for paying off bank debts and bank charges, and put money into less accessible savings accounts as a way of interrupting the easy access to cash that tends to fuel the addiction.
If you or a loved one are struggling with substance use or addiction, contact theSubstance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) National Helplineat1-800-662-4357for information on support and treatment facilities in your area.For more mental health resources, see ourNational Helpline Database.
If you or a loved one are struggling with substance use or addiction, contact theSubstance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) National Helplineat1-800-662-4357for information on support and treatment facilities in your area.
For more mental health resources, see ourNational Helpline Database.
A Word From Verywell
Shopping addiction can be as distressing as any other addiction. But there is hope, and support from those around you can help you to control your spending. Remember, you are a worthwhile person, no matter how much or how little you own.
Self-Help Groups for Shopping Addiction
12 Sources
Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
Koran, LM, Faber, RJ, Aboujaoude, E, Large, MD, Serpe, RT.Estimated prevalence of compulsive buying behavior in the United States.Am J Psychiatry. 2006;163(10):1806-1812. doi:10.1176/ajp.2006.163.10.1806Lejoyeux M, Richoux-benhaim C, Betizeau A, Lequen V, Lohnhardt H.Money Attitude, Self-esteem, and Compulsive Buying in a Population of Medical Students.Front Psychiatry. 2011;(2):13. doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2011.00013Black, DW.A review of compulsive buying disorder. World Psychiatry. 2007;6(1):14-18. PMID:17342214Tavares H, Lobo D, Fuentes D, Black D.Compulsive Buying Disorder: A Review and a Case Vignette.Rev Bras Psiquiatr. 2008;30(Suppl 1):S16-23.Zhang, C, Brook, JS, Leukefeld, CG, Brook, DW.Associations between compulsive buying and substance dependence/abuse, major depressive episode, and generalized anxiety disorder among men and women.J Addict Dis. 2016;35(4):298-304. doi:10.1080/10550887.2016.1177809Zhang, C Brook, JS, Leukefeld, CG, De La Rosa, M, Brook, DW.Compulsive buying and quality of life: An estimate of the monetary cost of compulsive buying among adults in early midlife.Psychiatry Res. 2017;252:208-214. doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2017.03.007Grüsser SM, Thalemann C, Albrecht U.[Excessive compulsive buying or “behavioral addiction”? A case study].Wien Klin Wochenschr. 2004;116(5-6):201-4. doi:10.1007/bf03040488Müller A, Brand M, Claes L, et al.Buying-shopping disorder-is there enough evidence to support its inclusion in ICD-11?.CNS Spectr. 2019;24(4):374-379. doi:10.1017/S1092852918001323Babić R, Babić D, Martinac M, et al.Addictions without Drugs: Contemporary Addictions or Way of Life?.Psychiatr Danub. 2018;30(Suppl 6):371-379. PMID: 30235175Piquet-Pessôa M, Ferreira GM, Melca IA, Fontenelle LF.Dsm-5 and the decision not to include sex, shopping or stealing as addictions. Curr Addict Rep. 2014;1(3):172-176. doi:10.1007/s40429-014-0027-6Black DW.Compulsive buying disorder: a review of the evidence.CNS Spectr. 2007;12(2):124-32. doi:10.1017/s1092852900020630Hague B, Hall J, Kellett S.Treatments for compulsive buying: A systematic review of the quality, effectiveness and progression of the outcome evidence.J Behav Addict. 2016;5(3):379-94. doi:10.1556/2006.5.2016.064
Koran, LM, Faber, RJ, Aboujaoude, E, Large, MD, Serpe, RT.Estimated prevalence of compulsive buying behavior in the United States.Am J Psychiatry. 2006;163(10):1806-1812. doi:10.1176/ajp.2006.163.10.1806
Lejoyeux M, Richoux-benhaim C, Betizeau A, Lequen V, Lohnhardt H.Money Attitude, Self-esteem, and Compulsive Buying in a Population of Medical Students.Front Psychiatry. 2011;(2):13. doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2011.00013
Black, DW.A review of compulsive buying disorder. World Psychiatry. 2007;6(1):14-18. PMID:17342214
Tavares H, Lobo D, Fuentes D, Black D.Compulsive Buying Disorder: A Review and a Case Vignette.Rev Bras Psiquiatr. 2008;30(Suppl 1):S16-23.
Zhang, C, Brook, JS, Leukefeld, CG, Brook, DW.Associations between compulsive buying and substance dependence/abuse, major depressive episode, and generalized anxiety disorder among men and women.J Addict Dis. 2016;35(4):298-304. doi:10.1080/10550887.2016.1177809
Zhang, C Brook, JS, Leukefeld, CG, De La Rosa, M, Brook, DW.Compulsive buying and quality of life: An estimate of the monetary cost of compulsive buying among adults in early midlife.Psychiatry Res. 2017;252:208-214. doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2017.03.007
Grüsser SM, Thalemann C, Albrecht U.[Excessive compulsive buying or “behavioral addiction”? A case study].Wien Klin Wochenschr. 2004;116(5-6):201-4. doi:10.1007/bf03040488
Müller A, Brand M, Claes L, et al.Buying-shopping disorder-is there enough evidence to support its inclusion in ICD-11?.CNS Spectr. 2019;24(4):374-379. doi:10.1017/S1092852918001323
Babić R, Babić D, Martinac M, et al.Addictions without Drugs: Contemporary Addictions or Way of Life?.Psychiatr Danub. 2018;30(Suppl 6):371-379. PMID: 30235175
Piquet-Pessôa M, Ferreira GM, Melca IA, Fontenelle LF.Dsm-5 and the decision not to include sex, shopping or stealing as addictions. Curr Addict Rep. 2014;1(3):172-176. doi:10.1007/s40429-014-0027-6
Black DW.Compulsive buying disorder: a review of the evidence.CNS Spectr. 2007;12(2):124-32. doi:10.1017/s1092852900020630
Hague B, Hall J, Kellett S.Treatments for compulsive buying: A systematic review of the quality, effectiveness and progression of the outcome evidence.J Behav Addict. 2016;5(3):379-94. doi:10.1556/2006.5.2016.064
Lejoyeux, M.D., Ph.D., M., Ades, M.D., J., Tassain, Ph.D., V. & Solomon, Ph.D., J. “Phenomenology and psychopathology of uncontrolled buying.“Am J Psychiatry, 153:1524-1529. 1996.
Mueller A, de Zwaan M. “Treatment of compulsive buying.” Fortschr Neurol Psychiatr. 76:478-83. Aug 2008.
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