Category: Uncategorized

Four recent reports from three continents—Europe, Africa, and Asia—point to the widening net of shopping addiction. Coupled with my recent post, “Compulsive Buying: A Passage to India?” there’s more and more evidence that it poses a serious and worsening global problem. In a piece in the Austria Times, alarmingly titled “Every fourth Austrian threatened by… Continue reading The Web of Overconsumption Tangles Farther

Last Wednesday, I had a delightful and very informative Skype call with Jill Chivers, an Australian woman who took her compulsive buying bull by the horns. She decided that for a full year she’d refrain from buying any new clothes and shop only in her own closet.  The experiment resulted first in a blog and… Continue reading Shopping Your Own Closet

Although not all compulsive buyers are particularly interested in such distinctions, there’s some uncertainty among the mental health profession about whether to see overshopping as a genuine disorder or merely a bad habit, and more uncertainty about whether, if it is a disorder, it aligns more closely with the obsessive-compulsive spectrum or with the impulsive-control… Continue reading Compulsive Buying: An Impulse-Control Disorder

For years, I did not speak about my shopping addiction; In fact, I went to great pains to hide it. At the time, I was afraid it wouldn’t be taken seriously, or even laughed at. Therefore, it may seem strange that I managed to pluck up the courage to write a memoir about my fifteen-year… Continue reading SPENT: MEMOIRS OF A SHOPPING ADDICT Why I Wrote Spent by Avis Cardella

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

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)

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)

This is the last of six posts (scroll down to see all of my previous posts) on how overshoppers can respond to the pressure of the economic downturn with a life-altering reality check. The underlying thesis is that compulsive shopping is a smokescreen, a hopeless attempt to distract the self from (or magically fill) unacknowledged… Continue reading Discover and Value Your Unique Spirit: A Crisis Is a Terrible Thing To Waste (Part VI)

We’ve been exploring the centrality of self-kindness to the process of stopping overshopping. It’s the all-important lubricant that keeps the engine of change running smoothly. To say it more directly, it’s the stance that allows you to look clearly and non-judgmentally at your overshopping behavior and then choose healthier and more fulfilling alternatives. Thus far,… Continue reading Using Your Senses to Save: A Crisis is a Terrible Thing to Waste (Part III)

In my last posting, I introduced the idea that the current downturn might just be a tipping point for overshoppers, that its economic pressure might shake them out of denial and drive them to begin stopping overshopping. That they do so is essential, because compulsive buying is a square peg for a round hole, an… Continue reading Activities to Reduce Your Need to Shop: A Crisis is a Terrible Thing to Waste (Part II)