In this Article:
Shopping Addiction
Shopping Addiction Causes
Shopping Addiction Treatment
A shopping addiction, better known as compulsive shopping or compulsive buying disorder, is believed to affect the lives of as many as 6% of the US population, according to a 2006 study out of Stanford University. That study also found that although the compulsion is frequently associated with women, shopping addiction appears to affect women and men almost equally.
Compulsive behaviors associated with shopping do not constitute an addiction in the medical sense; it is not a disease and there are no withdrawals, for example, and the medical community does not regard it in this way. This does not, however, suggest shopping addiction does not exist as a psychological problem with potentially negative consequences.
On the other hand, that may contribute to a widespread societal trivialization of shopping addiction as being nothing terribly serious; after all, we often hear the term “retail therapy” as well as the saying, “when the going gets tough, the tough go shopping”, both used rather lightly despite the clear indication that some people use shopping to ‘self-medicate’ certain emotional or psychological problems. In this piece we will look at some of the underlying causes of shopping addiction, along with a diagnosis and suggested treatment options.
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Related Resources
Indiana.edu: Shopping Addiction
Wikipedia.org: Shopping Addiction
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