In an era in which the click of a button is sufficient for the shopping button, and it is nourished by the accelerated consumption algorithms, the purchase is more than just a meeting of a need, and some people have turned into an irreplaceable compulsive behavior. The phenomenon of “shopping addiction” is no longer a monopoly on seasonal occasions or offers, but rather has become a psychological state that shades its daily life, threatened with debt, anxiety, and the disintegration of family relations.
Although it is not officially recognized as an independent psychological disorder, its consequences have become concrete in psychological clinics, divorce lecturers and bank reports. What drives some to buy without stopping? How can this type of addiction be treated?
Professor Patrick Trotkes, Professor of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy at Charlotte Fresyeus University of Applied Sciences in Cologne, defined shopping addiction as compulsive behavior represented in an urgent internal desire to buy, in which the individual loses control of the timing and end of this behavior, even if it leads to severe negative consequences such as the accumulation of excessive debt, or the emergence of sharp differences with the partner or family members.
Despite the prevalence of this pattern of pathological behavior, Professor Trotsk explained that “purchasing and shopping disorder” has not yet been recognized as an independent mental disorder within world diagnostic systems, but it falls in the modern psychological classification system within the category of “disorders control in other specific emotions.”
Trotska pointed out that most of the injured do not seek medical help until after many years, and this is often in advanced stages of suffering, when financial distress is exacerbated and psychological pressure reaches unbearable levels. Then the injured person enters an escalating spiral of pain and suffering, and it is difficult to get out of it without a specialized professional intervention.
The psychological expert pointed out that cognitive behavioral therapy is one of the most successful means to treat shopping addiction, as it helps patients identify psychological stimuli and emotional motives behind the compulsive purchase behavior, and works to develop effective strategies to confront them.
Among these strategies:
- Preparing a detailed and comprehensive list of revenues and financial expenditures, helping to monitor daily financial behavior.
- Clarify the real motivation behind each purchase, to assess its necessity or emotional motivation.
- Adopting behavioral controls, such as payment in cash instead of using credit cards, and deleting shopping applications from mobile phone.
- Wait 24 hours before deciding on any large or unnecessary purchase.
At the conclusion of his speech, Trotsk stressed the importance of dealing with the disturbance of shopping addiction seriously, and the need to go to psychotherapists when noting the exacerbation of excessive purchase behaviors, because of this profound effects on psychological, family and financial stability for the individual.