Can’t Stop Shopping

There is no such thing as too many shoes, too many clothes or too many bags. Have you ever thought about it that why we women love collecting shoes and bags. After some time shopping does become from fun to addiction. In our country shopping cannot be termed as a common personality disorder, but there are many who are seeking help from psychologists to get rid of their shopping obsessions.

Hoarders are people who have genuinely lost control. Shopping becomes an easy fulfillment of wishes for them and a replacement of needs not being met elsewhere. But there is a fine line between healthy buying and buying because of an underlying disorder. Deepa Menon, a writer by profession says, “I love to buy bags. It’s like my passion is to collect bags in different shapes, sizes and colours. I have over three hundred bags which I hardly use.  It is more of a collectionto me like the people collects art.”

I personally feel, it is wrong to point out to anyone who has a collection of something and say that she has obsessive compulsive buying disorder. Like for me I love to buy books and I enjoy doing that and it is definitely not for hoarding. I am an enthusiastic buyer of books, but again there is no vulgarity in it. But I know about people who are addicted to shopping and they do it because it gives them a high and they feel good about themselves.

There are ways by which you realize if you are a hoarder or not-

*You are consistently in debt over your shopping bills.

*Shopping becomes a need.

*You go on buying things which you actually don’t need.

*You don’t feel guilty shopping, in fact you feel euphoric shopping.

* You have a fight with your spouse on the grounds of shopping.

Ways to solve the problem-

*Take help if you cannot handle your debt situation.

*Own up to your shopping problem. Speak to somebody close to you regarding your compulsive shopping habit.

*Maintain a budget and stick to it.

* Completely stop using your credit card.

*Don’t go shopping alone.

* Don’t go shopping till the time you get a list of necessary items ready.