A study performed to determine how many people shop compulsively found that almost as many men suffer from compulsive shopping as women do. The American Journal of Psychiatry published an editorial discussing whether compulsive buying is really a disorder, or whether it is really compulsive.
Compulsive buying involves buying items you don’t need. Basically compulsive shoppers get a “high” from browsing for deals, or for items they think they need. A good indicator of shopping becoming compulsive is when you feel remorse after buying the product, you realize you don’t really need it and it will likely not be used. A study done with a sample of U.S. adults found that about 5.5% of men are compulsive shoppers, while 6% of women show the same problem. The question raised is really whether this problem should be categorized as a psychological disorder. After all, the biggest consequence is really financial. However, considering people do experience a certain “addiction” when shopping compulsively, and they experience emotional distress about their behaviour, it is a good candidate for the behavioural disorders category. If it is going to be considered a psychological disorder, it will likely be grouped in with behavioural and substance addictions and impulse-control disorders, such as pathological gambling, pyromania, and kleptomania or Internet addiction.
Behavioral and substance addictions appear to follow the same “path” in our brains, so they may show the same patterns and similar clinical features. Both substance addiction and compulsive buying show the same pattern: initially people feel emotionally aroused before they engage in either addiction (substance or buying), feel pleasure in association with the act and then remorse or guilt afterwards. It is also possible to develop physiological withdrawal from this addiction, although the symptoms were not mentioned.
The debate now is whether it is a good idea to “develop” yet another psychological disorder, in a world that is already heavily medicated. However, the abundance of this (potential) disorder is higher than others receiving considerable attention and research. This means there is a large group of people out there suffering from the consequences of actions they obviously are not able to stop themselves. This is fuelling more and more personal debt and bankruptcies, and having a high emotional toll on millions of people. At least doing research on this issue, and its potential causes, could bring a better solution than just trying to stay away from stores!