7 Shopping Addiction Symptoms

A shopping addiction is a behavioral addiction that causes you to overspend on items you do not need to alleviate negative feelings, stress, and tension. Spending a lot of time daydreaming about spending is one of the main signs of a shopping addiction. Other symptoms include an improved mood after shopping, financial troubles, and guilt. You might neglect your daily responsibilities and hobbies.

Compulsively shopping may harm your personal and financial well-being, but is excessive shopping a mental illness? Some experts say it's a form of impulse control disorder rather than a true addiction. Read on to learn about shopping addiction, including signs, causes, ways to cope, and more.

What Is a Shopping Addiction? 

Shopping addiction includes compulsively spending money on things you do not necessarily need to relieve anxiety, stress, and tension. Also known as compulsive buying disorder (CBD), shopping addiction is a behavioral addiction. People with behavioral addictions depend on certain habits, such as eating and gambling, to an extreme that negatively affects their health and well-being.

CBD includes four stages that occur before, during, and after you make a purchase:

• Anticipation: You might have a preoccupation with obtaining something specific or the act of making the purchase.
• Preparation: This involves "planning one's personal shopping experience, including researching a specific item, seeking out sale prices, and determining how and where to shop," Kristin Roelofson, LSW, a social worker based in Pennsylvania, told Health.
• Shopping: Making a purchase provides a euphoric "shopper's high."
• Spending: You might feel excitement in anticipation of receiving the new item. Some people become disappointed with themselves for spending.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, which healthcare providers use to diagnose mental illnesses, does not include CBD. There's some controversy about whether shopping is an addiction. Some experts say that CBD is a form of impulse control disorder. Others warn against medicalizing behaviors like shopping.

7 Signs of Shopping Addiction 

Mental healthcare providers often use an evidence-based tool for gauging if your spending habits have become more insidious than regular shopping, said Roelofson. The Bergen Shopping Addiction Scale is a 28-item questionnaire that evaluates seven signs of shopping addiction.

"The presence of a shopping addiction is likely among individuals that demonstrate four or more of [those] indicators," said Roelofson.

1. Not Spending Worsens Your Mood

You may become irritable and snappy if you are unable to buy things. Stress might worsen if it's been a long time since your last purchase. As a result, people with a shopping addiction can withdraw if something stops them from spending money to relieve negative feelings.

2. Shopping Improves Your Mood

People with a shopping addiction often purchase things to get rid of negative feelings. You might be likelier to shop if you feel anxious, helpless, and lonely. Spending money may temporarily relieve those feelings or help you forget about stressors in your life.

3. Shopping Interferes With Your Life

Compulsively spending might negatively affect your school and work performance. You might neglect your daily responsibilities and hobbies. A shopping addiction might lead to arguments and strain your relationships with your family and friends.

4. Spending Affects Your Well-Being

A shopping addiction might negatively affect your personal and financial well-being. You might accumulate debt and feel guilt about your spending habits.

5. You Are Constantly Obsessed With Shopping

You might spend a lot of time thinking about what to buy and feel like shopping is an essential part of your life. The Bergen Shopping Addiction Scale defines those traits as "salience," or a defining factor of a shopping addiction. You may be highly likely to have a shopping addiction if fantasies about buying things occupy your thoughts.

6. You Are Unable To Cut Back on Shopping

It's often difficult for people with a shopping addiction to stop spending as much. You might go through periods of limiting your spending money and then relapsing. Others may hesitate to shift their habits when their family and friends express concerns about shopping.

7. Your Spending Habits Worsen

People with a shopping addiction may increasingly buy more items to achieve the same gratification as before. You might shop more and more than you intend if you become tolerant of your spending habits.

Causes 

Research has shown that internal tension often drives a shopping addiction. Internal tension may result from certain personality traits, stressors, and mental illness symptoms. People with a shopping addiction temporarily relieve that tension by compulsively purchasing items they do not need.

Examples of internal tension that might cause a shopping addiction include:

• Low self-esteem: Research has found that people with a shopping addiction might have low self-esteem. Buying things might give you a temporary boost in confidence.
• Personality traits: People who are agreeable and unstable are likelier to compulsively spend than those who are conscientious and disciplined.
• Social media: Your feed might be full of advertisements that convince you that you "need" what they are selling. It's often difficult not to fall prey to those marketing tactics, especially if you are easily influenced. A study published in 2022 found that social media often worsens materialistic tendencies.
• Underlying mental health condition: Some evidence suggests that people with a behavioral addiction, including shopping, are likely to have an anxiety disorder, eating disorder, personality disorder, or substance use disorder (SUD). Shopping might help you cope with symptoms of an underlying mental illness.

Consequences

Shopping might alleviate negative feelings and tension, but satisfaction is usually temporary. A shopping addiction may result in several negative consequences over time.

Shopping addiction consequences may include:

• Creates financial problems (i.e., debt)
• Harms your relationships with your family and friends
• Interferes with your school or work
• Leads you to neglect your daily responsibilities and hobbies

How To Cope 

You might want to reduce your spending even if your buying behaviors are impulsive instead of compulsive. Maybe you have things you do not need or want cluttering your home and closet. You may have recently decided to stop using your credit card while you pay off a balance.

Here are a few tactics for curbing the urge to shop, according to Roelofson:

• Create and maintain a savings account: Some savings accounts make it hard to withdraw money.
• Do a "no-spending" challenge: Avoid shopping for a set time, such as one or two weeks. Replace shopping with healthy habits during that time, such as spending time with family and friends, exercising, or practicing a new hobby.
• Make a budget and stick to it: This helps ensure you do not spend outside your means. You can still allow for some "fun money."
• Only pay with cash or debit cards: Avoid paying with credit cards. Remove stored credit cards from your digital devices.
• Practice gratitude for what you have: Thinking about what you are grateful for helps relieve stress and enhances your emotional well-being.
• Unsubscribe from store email newsletters: This helps reduce chances for marketers to influence you into purchasing things you do not need.
• Wait one day before purchasing: Impulse buying can sometimes be about a fear of missing out. Instead, make a wish list. You'll know that your favorite items are available, and you can go back to them later if you decide you genuinely want them. The feeling will often pass, and you'll save a dent in your budget.

"It is important to be intentional and consistent with these efforts," said Roelofson. It's easy to fall into old habits quickly. "Let your emotions subside before you decide."

Getting Support 

It may be difficult to cut back on your spending if you have a shopping addiction. Still, some treatments might help. Having a trusted support system helps you identify the root cause of your spending habits and develop healthy coping mechanisms. 

Shopping addiction treatments may include:

• Antidepressants: These medications help lessen negative feelings that lead you to shop.
• Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT): You will identify the problem and look at what causes and triggers impulse spending. A therapist will help you develop ways to counteract problematic thought processes that lead to compulsive spending. Some people use CBT along with antidepressants.
• Support groups: You might consider joining a support group, such as Debtors Anonymous and Spenders Anonymous. These programs might help you feel less alone while you recover from a shopping addiction.

A Quick Review

You might have a shopping addiction if you spend too much money on things you do not need to get rid of negative feelings, stress, and tension. It's common to spend a lot of time daydreaming about shopping, feeling satisfied when you buy things, or neglecting other parts of your life.

It may be difficult to cut back on your spending, but treatments are available. Some people use CBT and antidepressants to regulate their mood. You may try coping methods, such as challenging yourself to not spend for one week or making a budget.