In Depth
Consumers
Tips on dealing with compulsive shopping
Last Updated November 28, 2006
By Georgie Binks | CBC News
If you're an alcoholic you don't go to a bar and try to drink in moderation, do you? So imagine being a compulsive shopper at this time of the year.
"Many patients tell us the holidays are a particularly bad time, because there's more advertising and pressure to go shopping," says Dr. Lorrin Koran, emeritus professor of psychiatry at Stanford University. "They get lost in the fun of buying things for other people."
While some people are prone to going on a retail binge from time to time, Dr. Peggy Richter, staff psychiatrist at the anxiety disorders clinic at the Toronto-based Centre for Mental Health and Addiction, says true compulsive shoppers are those who regularly buy things they don't really need.
"There's a big difference between someone who goes shopping with the girls, is a bit low and buys a few extra things she can't afford. Compulsive shoppers spend hours a week buying five of this and four of that. They have entire rooms of sweaters and suits that have never been worn," she says. Researchers say compulsive shoppers are subject to senseless impulses to buy, often purchase items they don't need or can't afford, and tend to shop for longer periods than they had intended. The consequences include guilt, missed work or home activities, and financial problems.
They also don't use what they buy. The pleasure is in the shopping and the buying, not in having or using their purchases.
Approximately six per cent of the population falls into the compulsive shopper category — a recent study conducted by Dr. Koran suggests men and women suffer equally — but unless they decide to knit mittens for everyone on their holiday shopping list, sooner or later they're going to have to shop.
"Compulsive shopping is akin to gambling," which is considered an impulse-control disorder, Dr. Richter says. "There's a debate though about whether it should be classified with impulsive control disorders, anxiety or one of the cluster of disorders associated with obsessive compulsive disorders."
People often don't realize they're afflicted, says New York behaviour and cognitive therapist Dr. Fugen Neziroglu.
"Many people don't identify themselves as compulsive shoppers unless you ask them certain questions like: 'Are there shopping bags around the house,' or 'do you have clothes with tags still on them.' "
Dr. Koran says certain social conditions are necessary for compulsive shopping to become a widespread phenomenon – conditions that exist now for North American consumers: "You need easy access to good, easy credit and you have to have an abundance of goods. There's easy credit now, as well as the ease of shopping on the internet and malls and via TV with shopping channels."
Dr. Neziroglu agrees: "People used to have one or two sweaters and bought what they needed. I don't think that's the case now, especially with the internet. You don't even have to leave your house. People who are unable to leave their homes are purchasing lots of stuff."
Popular culture is also a factor. With women's magazines extolling the virtues of "retail therapy," as well as books such as the Shopaholic series and television shows such as Sex and the City , shopping has become more ingrained in the culture.
There is hope for compulsive shoppers.
"While there are no treatments that have been found effective in large studies that would pass scientific review," Dr. Koran says, "the literature suggests cognitive behaviour therapy can be successful, as well as anti-depressants (SSRIs), as well as Naltrexone [a drug used to treat alcoholism]."
Patients using cognitive behaviour therapy to control shopping "keep a log daily of everything they buy, how they feel before, during and after," Dr. Koran says. "They identify what they say to themselves before going shopping and how they rationalize shopping. Then when they hear themselves saying it, they need to say something like, 'I can't or I will lose control' or 'I don't want to suffer more debts.'
"As well, a compulsive shopper needs to identify any emotional triggers, like depression or anxiety, that cause them to go to the mall. Instead, they should take a walk or call a friend."
For those who think they may be borderline shopaholics, Dr. Neziroglu offers this advice: Before you go shopping, make a list and let a friend whose judgment you trust look at it. Never go to a store or mall to browse.
"Look at the thought pattern," she says. "Does shopping make you feel whole, more desirable, secure? You have to challenge those thoughts."
And remember, practising "retail therapy" might eventually lead to a need for "retail prevention therapy."
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