宇聯心理健康志業群

by Irene Chiang

[Abstract]
According to recent research and news reports, shopping addiction has become an emerging kind of addictions that hits nearly 10% of the American population, and nine-tenth’s of compulsive shoppers are women. Although what exactly causes compulsive shopping is still not clear, researchers have been looking into psychological, biological, and social factors that trigger such addiction. People who are depressed and with low self-esteem are believed to be more impulsive and easier to get addicted to shopping. With the rapid advance of technology, online purchases also increase the chances for shoppers to become compulsive. This research paper will examine the possible causes, characteristics, and common signs of shopping addiction, and suggest intervention strategies for counselors.

ON SHOPPING ADDICTION

What is Shopping Addiction?

It is generally considered that women do shopping and enjoy it more than men, and when people go to the mall, chances are most shoppers they encounter will be women. Because women are usually keepers of the home, they take care of the entire household and are responsible for most of the domestic routines, including grocery shopping. In additions, most women are also responsible for seasonal shopping, such as shopping before Thanksgiving and Christmas. These are normal shopping, but when a shopper spends too much and brings home excessive items that are not even necessities, it is possible that this shopper has become addicted to shopping.

According to Donald Black, MD, professor of psychiatry at the University of Iowa, College of Medicine, “compulsive shopping and spending are defined as inappropriate, excessive, and out of control” (Hatfield, 2004). In other words, shopping addiction is a type of impulse control disorder. As many other impulsive control disorders, people who shop compulsively cannot control their spending, nor can they stop from purchasing excessive goods over and over again. Moreover, shopping addiction is a seasonal balm for depression, anxiety, and loneliness that people feel during the December holiday season, and holiday seasons often trigger shopping binges among people who do not shop compulsively the rest of the year (Engs, 2005). Department store anniversary sales are also times when people perform excessive shopping.

People who shop until they drop and spend over their credit card limits frequently have a shopping addiction. They think that they will feel better or become more worthwhile if they shop. However, things often turn out quite the opposite; they generally feel worse after they shop compulsively because they increase their own financial burden. It is similar to other addictive behaviors such as heavy drinking, drug addiction, gambling, and overeating addictions (Engs, 2005).

What Causes Shopping Addiction?

The exact causes of shopping addiction are still unknown, but some recent evidences have suggested that 10%-15% of people probably have a genetic predisposition to an addictive behavior (Hatfield, 2004). Although the biology of compulsive shopping is still less understood to the general public, “an imbalance of the neurotransmitter serotonin could play a role” (Psychology Today, 1995), and shopping addiction even has a scientific term – oniomania (Type of addiction – Shopping, n.d.). Next, these people may also have an environment in which the particular behavior is triggered (Hatfield, 2004). For example, it is highly possible for people who live a very stressful lifestyle turning to shopping to reduce their stress level. Next, if someone has family members, friends, and/or colleagues who model such behavior, this person is more likely to pick up the pattern of excessive purchasing and imitate accordingly.

Media also plays a crucial role on promoting excessive shopping. Shopping is often glamorized in magazine and store advertisements, TV commercials and programs, and those ads and commercials serve as stimulants or motivators for the viewers that help encouraging them to go out and shop until they drop. Moreover, credit cards have made shopping easier than decades before, and with the continuous advance in information technology, online shopping have also become highly acceptable for most shoppers because of convenience; these two factors work together to create an ever-booming business that keeps growing and growing. In fact, female shoppers actually contribute to the booming of online retail (Chao, 2005).

In many countries, when people feel lonely, depressed, anxious, angry, or out of sorts; many of them will embark on a shopping spree in order to make themselves feel better (“Type of addiction – Shopping”, n.d.). Studies have shown that people who have tremendous pressure, manic depression, or melancholia are more likely to shop compulsively, and because women are more likely to experience depression and anxiety disorders, shopping addiction affects women far more than men. Dr. Benson (2000) states in her book I Shop, Therefore I am that as many as 25% of Americans have problems with buying, studies suggest that 1 to 6% of them are fully-fledged compulsive buyers. Recently, an estimated 8% of people in the United States are affected by shopping addiction (Bhat, 2004), and according to Ronald Faber, Ph. D., of the University of Minnesota, approximately 90% of shopoholics are women (Psychology Today, 1995). Moreover, many shopping addicts tend to be perfectionists (Psychology Today, 1995).

When Women go through a vacuum in relationships and may not always experience fulfillment in intimate relationships, they tend to fall prey to shopoholism because shopping, a culturally acceptable frequent activity for women, helps them assert themselves and take charge; they can gain a sense of worthiness and happiness just stepping outside the house (Bhat, 2004). In additions, women are also more likely to have a low self-esteem, and shopping is possibly the way for them to boost their self-esteem, so “boosting self-esteem might be the key motivation behind compulsive buying” (Psychology Today, 1995). For those who with a low self-esteem and love to shop, their mentality is probably like this: “If I buy a lot, I’ll be treated like a VIP,” because the ability to spend a lot of money equals to power, status, and respect from others. Next, self-esteem may relate to what women buy. For women who shop obsessively, the preferred items of purchase include cosmetics, clothing, shoes, and jewelry – things that enhance their appearance (Psychology Today, 1995).

To sum up, although what exactly causes shopping addiction is unclear at this moment, researches have suggested that psychological, biological, and social factors all contribute to such a compulsive behavior.

Characteristics of Shopping Addiction

According to Dr. Engs (2005), women with shopping addiction often have racks of clothes and possessions, and the price tags are still attached to those things. It is also common that those merchandises may still be in their original packaging, piled up inside the closet without even being noticed or used. When they go to the shopping mall, they may intend to purchase only one or two items, but they frequently come home with bags and bags of merchandise. In some cases, addicted shoppers experience an emotional void and cannot even recall that they have bought those items.

Although most compulsive shoppers are women, some men also shop compulsively, and there are differences regarding why and what between women and men. Women tend to consider that possessions are symbols of emotional attachment and interpersonal integration, and female shopoholics prefer to purchase clothes, shoes, accessories, cosmetics, kitchen items, and home decorating products. Some women will buy almost anything. On the contrary, men tend to consider that possessions are valuable because of they are pragmatic, instrumental, self-referent (“What is shopping addiction”, n.d.), and can represent their status (Chang, 2005). Male shopoholics are more likely to purchase technological items such as electronics, computers, mobile phones, and cars excessively (Chang, 2005).

Signs of Shopping Addiction

Hatfield (2004) suggests that people need to look out for the following signs when they think shopping has become a problem for their family members or friends:

A. Spending over budget: when people spend over their budget and well above their income, they run into the risk of deep financial trouble. For people who shop appropriately, they know what they can afford and can’t. However, shopolohics do not recognize the boundaries of a budget; they just go out and buy.

B. Compulsive buying: when a person goes out to shop, if she or he plans to buy one pair of shoes but eventually come out with ten pairs, this person is shopping compulsively.A chronic problem: shopping addiction is actually a continuous issue. As previously mentioned, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and department store anniversary sale are times that trigger compulsive shopping, along with the seasonal sale of many stores, shopping addiction has become a year-round problem.Hiding the problem: people who shop addictively will hide their merchandises after they shop because they do not want their significant other(s) to know they have spent too much, and they do so because they are afraid of being criticized. Also, these people often have secret credit card accounts. Shopping addiction affects mostly women as alcoholism affects mostly men, so husbands may one day suddenly be informed that their wife is thousands of dollars in debt and they must pay for it. In many cases, this has come out in divorce. In some cases, compulsive shoppers may take on an extra job to earn more and pay for their bills.

C. Impaired relationships: it is common that shopoholics have impairments in their relationships due to their excessive spending or shopping. People who shop compulsively spend time away from home to go store after store for shopping, or in some cases, spend far too much time in front of the computer to shop online even if they are at home. Time after time they cover up debts with various kinds of deception, meanwhile beginning to isolate themselves physically and emotionally from family, friends, and other people. They become preoccupied with their compulsive behavior.A pattern, trend, or consequences: if a person spends more money than she or he intends during the holiday season, this does not make her or him a shopoholic because it is normal for people to bring home more purchases than usual around holidays such as Thanksgiving and Christmas. However, if there is a pattern, trend, or consequences that occur with a person’s excessive shopping, then she or he is losing control. In other words, this person has no control over her or his shopping; this person is controlled by her or his shopping, and thus becomes a problem shopper.

It is interesting that many compulsive shoppers experience heightened sensations, because the colors and textures of items displayed in store intensify shoppers’ sensations during a shopping binge. Some shoppers even claim that they reach extreme levels of focus and concentration when they look one store shelf after another. A few shoppers liken the experience as taking drugs, and some others even discover that their shopping trips are sexually stimulating (Psychology Today, 1995).

A typical scenario of excessive shopping is like this: when compulsive shoppers feel bad, they go out to shop to get a high, or get a rush just like people with drug or alcohol addiction (Engs, 2005), in order to get over or get away from such negative feeling. It is not uncommon for some of them to take their purchases back afterwards because they feel guilty after spending so much money. These people may not have any debt due to their continuous returning of merchandises, but they still have a problem. With or without returning their merchandises, such guilt helps increase these people’s level of anxiety or depression and trigger another shopping spree. After shopping for more, they experience a higher level of guilt, too, which once again increase their stress or frustration even more. In other words, they may regret afterwards, but they will keep on shopping anyway. Therefore, compulsive shopping becomes a vicious circle, a non-stop downward spiral (Hinkely, 2005).

The Impact

The impact of compulsive shopping is huge, because it can damage a person’s life seriously. First, the debts are accumulated in the process of one shopping spree after another. There are people who apply new credits because they cannot wait until their credit card companies increase their credit limits. Also, there are people who get more credit cards in order to pay off old debts, but this does not really work; it simply results in more and more debts. Although some compulsive shoppers find ways to increase their income by working on more than one job, their focus and energy levels will gradually decrease due to long working hours and insufficient rest, and their health slowly deteriorates in the name of financial improvement. Moreover, they might not actually improve their financial status, because once they earn more, they will spend more. Eventually, they always lack money.

Next, shopping addiction damages a person’s relationships, especially family relationships. Compulsive shoppers take time away from family to linger in the mall, or work on another job to increase their power of buying. The more frequent they are away from home, the more alienation they create between their family and themselves. When they come home with lots of merchandises, they may have to sneak into their home so their family members would not see how many items they have purchased, and when they are questioned about spending or credit card debts by their spouse, arguments or fights usually follow. As mentioned previously, such pattern of familial interaction can easily result in divorce.

An adult’s addictive shopping also brings negative influences on their children, too. Children would wonder why their mother or father cares far more about what’s in store than how their day was in the school, and they may consider that their mother or father does not love them anymore. On the other end, the adult shopoholic carries tremendous guilt toward the children because she or he does not spend enough time with them, but it is difficult enough for the shopper to face her or his spouse, let alone the children. As time goes by, children gradually lose their trust for the shopoholic parent, and the parent-child relationship will definitely deteriorate in times to come.

Challenges for Counselors

The primary challenge for counselors who counsel shopoholics is finding out what is behind the compulsive shopping, because the real problem is frequently not shopping itself. Although “spending is usually the main symptom, and this, triggered by emotion, the cause goes much deeper” (Williams, n.d.). If the client shops excessively because of depression or anxiety, the counselor should discover what causes the client’s depression or anxiety. If the compulsive shopper is under a tremendous amount of stress that triggers her or him to spend too much, the counselor has to find out the source(s) of such pressure. Or, if the client goes shopping to raise her or his self-esteem, the counselor needs to dig deep and discover why the client does not value her- or himself highly.

Next, people who shop compulsively may be reluctant or resistant to admit or seek professional assistance. Since most people believe that the problem is about income, they are likely to have the tendency to consider that they simply do not make enough money to buy, and will probably work harder toward more income. “They misidentify the cause as something outside of themselves; their job, boss, spouse, taxes, the creditors, prices, etc. This form of denial effectively blocks any kind of solution, locking us into an ever deepening problem” (Williams, n.d.).

Although shopolohics may not be willing to seek counseling to help themselves deal with their overspending, once they really go on therapy, it is possible for some of them to depend on the counselor or therapist to solve all their problems, especially for those who have low self-esteem – they are not use to the idea that everyone has the ability to realize what is best for her or him and do it. For such clients, the counselor would have to teach them ways of re-establishing self-esteem, and gradually help them not to build their self-esteem on how much money they can spend.

Intervention and Strategies

When it comes to addictions, no matter the issue is Internet addiction, alcoholism, unnecessary eBay purchasing, or compulsive gambling, it’s all about patterns of behavior (Hart, 2002). Therefore, the treatment should be focused on modifying the client’s thoughts and behaviors in order for them to gradually stop overspending. The followings are intervention and strategies for helping people who have shopping addiction:

A. Activity monitoring and scheduling: it is not uncommon for compulsive shoppers to abandon their originally scheduled activities and go for shopping. Therefore, it is essential for them to monitor and schedule their daily activities. For instance, counselors can find out what their clients’ daily activities and their interests and/or hobbies are, and use an activity schedule to help client make plans on what to do in a certain time of the day, a certain day of the week on their own. In additions, have clients make an activity schedule by themselves gives them as sense of accomplishment, and when they come home and really stick to their schedule, they will gain a sense of confidence because they regain their ability of self-control.

B. Journaling: keep a personal shopping diary (Benson, 2003) is also important for compulsive shoppers if they want to modify their behavior. Counselors can encourage their clients to write down what they have bought after each shopping trip, and ask them to examine from their journal which items are truly necessities and which are not. The purpose of journal keeping is to assist clients on organizing and processing their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. In additions, the journal also helps counselors identify the pattern of their clients’ compulsive shopping and types of merchandises that attract their clients over and over again, so both parties can obtain a more in-depth understanding of such problematic behavior.

C. Exercise routine: counselors should attempt to find out what kind(s) of physical activities their clients like or are used to practice regularly before they become addicted in shopping, and help them re-establish their exercise routine little by little. If the client likes to jog, the counselor can encourage her or him to start a daily ten-minute jog in locations near the home, within the community, and away from stores or the mall, and gradually increase the duration of jogging. Or, if the client used to go to the gym, encourage her or him to return there and whenever the urge of shopping emerges, she or he can go to the gym instead of the mall, and thus gradually pull the client away from habitual shopping.

D. Self-help or support group: group therapy provides an opportunity for small groups of people to meet and share general concerns, explore personal issues, and learn new skills to deal with different issues and conditions guided by the leader(s) of the group. Group participants help each other by offering feedback and suggestions and giving feedback. The advantages of a counseling, therapeutic, or support group, actual or virtual, are economy and efficiency, various perspectives and resources, common experience, a sense of belonging, practice of skills, feedback, alternative options, approximation to the real life, contract and promise (Jacob, Masson, & Harvill, 2002), so compulsive shoppers can listen, share, support, encourage, and pray for one another in a self-help or support group.

E. Spiritual enrichment: Many so-called solutions actually hide the blemishes but have nothing to offer for healing compulsive shoppers. Next, many financial organizations have plans to intervene and improve the shoppers’ financial situation, but they still do not solve the problem, because after the solutions are gone, compulsive shoppers will still encounter the addict when they look into the mirror. Instead of choosing options that do not solve but mask the issue, compulsive shoppers need the kind of help that eliminates their vicious spending cycle, the kind of help that gives them miraculous power to overcome the incompleteness or emptiness at the root of their problem. Only God can offer this help. Just like drug abuse, alcoholism, or any other severe addictions, people often cannot solve it by themselves alone. They will be empowered to solve the symptoms and problems that the void causes when God fills the void within them (Williams, n.d.).

Once the counselor and the client have identified the problem accurately, it is possible that they still run a huge risk of seeking the wrong solution (Williams, n.d.), so counselors should be careful not to provide resources or suggestions that might lead their clients into another financial trap. If such compulsiveness is truly serious, medication might be taken into account along with professional counseling. Some reports indicate that the majority of people who take medication for curing shopping addiction “rated themselves ‘very much improved’ or ‘much improved’ and reported a loss of interest in shopping” (Parker, 2003).

Conclusion

Shopping addictions are said to be a result of the interplay among psychological, biological, and social factors. Finding out the root of overspending is challenging enough for counselors and therapists, and they should help their clients regain self-control through intervention and strategies that distinguish emotional filters, challenge dysfunctional thoughts, examine their expenditures, and create a realistic spending plan, as well as negotiate lapses and prevent relapse (Benson, 2003). Furthermore, if we feel ourselves or people around us have spent too much, we can do or suggest the followings:

A. Only carry a small amount of cash
B. No checkbook / credit card
C. Get rid of excessive credit cards
D. Make a shopping list before shopping
E. Avoid discount warehouses
F. Avoid mail, TV, or online order
G. Take a walk in nature or start exercising when the urge of shopping emerges
H. Seek professional help if spending is out of control

Finally, let us not forget the power of God, and help those who shop excessively realize that their value is not measured by how much they can spend or what they can afford, but determined by their relationship with God.

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