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Category: Compulsive Buying

The Curious Case of Parkinson’s Medication and Compulsive Behavior

A study in the recent Archives of Neurology documents the connection between certain Parkinson’s disease medications and a significant increase in the likelihood of an impulse-control disorder: buying, gambling, eating, or sex. The drugs at issue are dopamine-agonists, a class of pharmaceuticals that ease the difficult and frustrating motor symptoms associated with Parkinson’s. But patients… Continue reading The Curious Case of Parkinson’s Medication and Compulsive Behavior

Compulsive Returners

A sometimes unrecognized (or unacknowledged) form of overshopping is compulsive returning. Here, the overshopper regularly attempts to undo her habit by taking impulsive purchases back to the store for a refund. This, however, is an extension of the problem rather than a solution to it. The compulsive returner fails to understand that in shopping, as… Continue reading Compulsive Returners

U-Haul? She-Haul, Me-Haul: The Newest Shopping Temptation

I’m scratching my head about—and steeling myself for the potential fallout from—a new internet phenomenon, the “Haul Video,” examples of which are popping up on YouTube like mushrooms after a rain. For the past several months, teenage girls and young adult women have been creating video narratives of their latest shopping caches. The vlogger (video… Continue reading U-Haul? She-Haul, Me-Haul: The Newest Shopping Temptation

Weighing-In (Part 3)

Over the last two postings, we’ve been examining Weighing In, an important technique for sweeping away the financial fog most overshoppers are mired in. We’ve looked at four columns on the Daily Weigh-In Form—Item Purchased, Actual Cost, Necessity Score, and Necessity Cost. Today, we’ll look at the second column, Category. The idea here is straightforward:… Continue reading Weighing-In (Part 3)

Weighin-In (Part 1)

“Passionately confused,” which nicely sums up our current national conversation about health care,image also characterizes the personal financial grasp of most overshoppers. Few compulsive buyers have a clear idea of how much they spend and what they spend it on. (The incentive for their confusion is straightforward: it supports denial. As for the passion, it’s… Continue reading Weighin-In (Part 1)

Health Care Reform for Overshoppers: The Centrality of Self Care (Part II)

In the last posting, we saw how important self-care is for the overshopper who wants to stop. We noted that overshoppers, who often juggle several roles, tend to relegate self-care to the back burner (or take it off the stove entirely), and we focused on anticipating, rather than reacting to, personal needs. Today, I want… Continue reading Health Care Reform for Overshoppers: The Centrality of Self Care (Part II)

Health Care Reform for Overshoppers:The Centrality of Self Care (Part I)

As the president and congress turn their attention to problem elements of our health care image system—notably, skyrocketing costs and inequities in access—it’s a particularly good time to remind overshoppers about their own health care. And they need reminding: research has shown that compulsive buyers are often woefully deficient in managing their health care, and… Continue reading Health Care Reform for Overshoppers:The Centrality of Self Care (Part I)

Gender and Internet Shopping

Less in the Pink Than You Might Think No, it’s not that the rate of internet shopping has fallen off. It’s that in cyberspace, women, who in the popular imagination make up the vast majority of shoppers, are substantially outnumbered—and substantially outspent—by men. Reviewing the latest PayPal data from the United Kingdom, Charlotte Cowell notes… Continue reading Gender and Internet Shopping