From IAmSassyChic.Com

You always know it’s something serious when it gets given an official name. ONIOMANIA, the uncontrollable desire to buy things’, is what over 8 million adults in Britain suffer from because off their need to SHOP till they drop!

Being labelled a shopaholic always seems to sound quite harmless, a bit of a joke about people who just love going out to the shops and buying things to look good. The truth is, addictive shopping is less to do with the possession of all the beautiful things you buy but more to do with trying desperately to find an artificial and very quick way of feeling happy, feeling good and in control…hence we call it retail ‘therapy’.

However there is nothing therapeutic or healthy about perusing the kind of happiness that lands you with immense feelings of guilt, bad debt, bad credit and feeling worse than before you bought another black dress!  But what’s a girl to do? If you’re someone who shops too much you cannot help yourself, you go out for bread and milk and come back with shopping bags.  You find excuses and reasons why buying something is absolutely necessary, you need it, you won’t buy anymore of the same item again after this purchase. Meanwhile you are pushing and plunging yourself deeper and deeper into debt!!! Sound familiar?

THE SIGNS  OF A SHOPAHOLIC:

According to psychologists that research this addiction, there are 7 main signs that show you are likely to be shopaholic:

• You have many unopened or tagged items in your closet and mostly things you forgot you had!
• Impulse Buys – You often purchase things you don’t need or didn’t plan to buy
• An argument or frustration sparks an urge to shop
• You experience a rush of excitement when you buy something
• Purchases are followed by feelings of guilt
• You try to conceal your shopping habits
• You feel anxious or unhappy on the days you don’t shop

Shopping addictively is such an issue because it appears to work in making you feel good.  When you spot that beautiful pair of nude coloured patent heels, all logic flies out the window and all you know is, you’ve GOT to have them. You make the mistake of walking into the shop, trying them on and before you can remove yourself from the situation you’re at the till paying for them and quietly saying ‘I can always return them’.

It may make you feel bad to have to own up to the fact that you are in fact a shopping addict (and not in a jokey way) but being honest, if not just with yourself and realising you’ve become addicted is part of how you start to change these habits that have crept up on you.  You may be feeling bad about making this confession because now you have no way to feel good, but actually I would say that knowing that there are ways you can still feel just as good without spending you’re rent money on things you will hide/push in the backs of cupboards or under the beds is worth the initial discomfort of this realisation….

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