Do you find yourself trying to buy happiness, admiration, acceptance, or empowerment? Does spending money help you chase away your troubles, even though you know that your overspending habits will catch up with you one day? These are all symptoms of a spending addiction. Just like with any other behavioral addiction, the performance of a certain activity causes a rush of good-feeling neurotransmitters called serotonins. This rush or “high” chases away anxiety-inducing epinephrine, so when the serotonins stop coming, you can’t wait to get that “high” again. This neurotransmitter-induced feeling is now linked to this spending behavior. Recognizing this pattern is the first step to moving past it.
Read the entire article here: What is Spending Addiction – And How Do I Know If I Have It?
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Carrie Rattle is a Principal at BehavioralCents.com, a website for women focused on mind and money behaviors. She has worked in the financial services industry for 20+ years and hopes to inspire women to better prepare themselves for financial independence.