en) What Is Shopping Addiction? Compulsive Shopping Basics By Elizabeth Hartney, About.com Guide Updated July 15, 2011, About.com Health's Disease and Condition content is reviewed by the Medical Review Board | Omniomania, compulsive shopping (or what's more Jamong professionals about whether compulsive commonly referred tos shopping addiction), is perhaps shopping should be considered an obsessive-compulsive_ f the most socially reinforced of the behavioral addictions. disorder (OCD), impulse control disorder (lke % We are surrounded by advertising, telling us that pathological gambling), mood disorder (like buying will make us happy. We are encouraged by x{sepression), or addiction. It has been suggested that, politicians to spend(@sla way otboosting theeconamy. long with Kleptomania (compulsive stealing) and And we al want to have what those around us have asbinge-eating disorder (BED), it be viewed as an consumerism has becomea measure of our social worth. ,gimpulsive-compulsive spectrum disorder, (Aithough)widespread consumerism has escalated in How Is Shopping Addiction Like Other Addictions? \P recent years, shopping addiction is not anew disorder, It u¢There are several characteristics that shopping was recognized as far back as the early nineteenth. Ww addiction shares with other addictions. As with other century, and was cited as a psychiatric disorder in the addictions, shopping addicts become preoccupied with early twentieth century. ugspending, and devote significant time and money to the Almost everyone shops to some degree( bubbly about activity. Actual spending is important to the process of 6%.of the U.S. population is thought to have a shopping _»?shopping addiction; window shopping does not, addiction. Usually beginning in the late teens and early constitute an addiction, and the addictive pattern is ‘adulthood, shopping addiction often co-occurs with other 4actually driven by the process of spending money. disorders, including mood and anxiety disorders, AAs with other addictions, shopping addiction is ce use disorders, eating disorders, other impulse__xshighly ritualized and follows.a typically addictive ol disorders, and personality disorders spatter of thoughts about shopping, planning shopping "Normal Shopping v. Shopping Addiction strips, and the shopping act itself, often described as }\So what makes the difference between normal ) pleasurable, ecstatic even, and as providing relief from Pshopping, oceasional splurges, and shopping addiction? negative feeling. Finally, the shopper crashes, with {Awith all addictions, shopping becomes the person's «jeelings of disappointment. jain way of coping with stress, to the point where they ‘What If | Have a Shopping Addiction? ‘continue to shop excessively even when itis clearly Fortunately(although)hot yet well-researched, {chaving a negative impact on other areas oftheir life. As _ ¢/scompulsive shopping does appear to respond well toa hwith other addictions, finances and relationships are «orange of treatments, including medications, self-help fsdamaged (yet)the shopping addict feels unable to stop or «books, self-help groups, financial counseling, and yeven controf their spending, «Scogaitive-behaviotal therapy (CBT). It should be noted, ‘The Controversy of Shopping Addiction _hamexesthaC@lthough}ome medications show promise, “S{ikelather hehavioral addictions, shopping addiction @Xesults are mixed, 50 they should not be considered a_ jis a.controversial idea. 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Choose the correct answers (a orm). Write the answers in your notebook. a, ".. itis clearly having a negative impact on other areas of their life” (paragraph 5) ‘ a shopping mstress b, "...s0 they should not be considered a sole or reliable treatment.” (paragraph 9) some medications mresults READING FOR CRITICAL THINKING Discuss the following questions with your classmates a. Do you think people's attitudes towards b. Inyour opinion, can shopping be a way of shopping are influenced by the rise of | coping with stress? Do you know many consumerism, materialism and people who go shopping to feel good when advertising? If so, how? things aren't quite right? What do you think about this behavior? VOCABULARY STUDY > IDIOMS I ous cme onan sngign mse cnet 11. Expressions like go window shopping (meaning ‘look at things in store windows, without actually buying anything’) are sometimes difficult to understand because their meaning is different from the meanings of the separate words. Expressions like this are called idioms. Match the idioms below with their correct definitions. Write the answers in your notebook. a, shop ‘til you drop |. Visit a number of stores selling similar goods in order to b. like bull ina china shop compare the prices. c. shop around Il, Go shopping for a very long time, until you are exhausted. Ill. Behaving without care; a reckless person in a room full of fragile things, Replace each icon @ with an idiom from exercise 1 to complete the sentences below. Write the answers in your notebook a. They always @ for the most competitive deals, b, He's © when it comes to dealing with people's feelings. He often offends his friends and workmates. ¢. Don't @ or you will end up spending alll your money. 108 unis