Money: Born To Spend
NEW YORK CITY (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Even though the unemployment rate is at 10 percent and three million homes are in foreclosure, there are millions of Americans who can't control the urge to spend. But what's the reason for the out-of-control shopping? Finding out what triggers a shopaholic can stop the cycle of spending.
For some it's a form of therapy. For others it's all about strategy.
"If life is just stressful for whatever reason, it was straight to the shoe store," Danielle Liss told Ivanhoe.
For Liss, shopping is dangerous.
"As long as companies would still give me credit cards, and I could make payments that would give me enough available credit to continue shopping, I thought I was fine," Liss said.
This attorney with a six-figure salary was teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. Her downfall -- shoes … 90 pairs of them.
"There were the strappy dragon fly sandals they were about $275," Liss recalled. "The very hot red Mary Jane's they were $250. There were the strappy burgundy bejeweled sandals. They were about $260."
She shopped to relieve stress.
"I had spent $3,000 and justified it all by saying I was stressed because of my grandmother's death," Liss said.
She shopped to reward herself.
"The diamond earrings I'm wearing right now were purchased to reward myself for sitting for jury duty," Liss explained.
When she finally reached her credit limit, the damage was devastating.
"I was pushing the $40,000 mark on credit cards and I owed my grandfather approximately $45,000," Liss said. "It was getting to the point where I couldn't pay my other bills and it had to stop, it had to stop."
Studies show as many as 25 million Americans can't control the urge to shop. Nine out of 10 shopping addicts are women.
"It's been called the smiled-upon addiction," April Lane Benson, Ph.D., a shopping addiction expert at Stopping Overshopping, LLC in New York City, explained. "Consumption fuels our economy. Shoppers and shopping are trivialized in our society."
Dr. Benson has seen lives destroyed over shopping.
"I've worked with someone who was facing a five year prison sentence who was using the company credit card to feed her shopping addiction," she explained.
What makes someone an addict? According to experts, there's always a trigger for their purchases; happiness, sadness, stress. They convince themselves that their wants are really needs, and they buy the same type of item over and over again in a short period of time.
"At the root of most shopping addictions, like all addictions, there is some kind of hole in the soul, some kind of fractured sense of self that the person is trying to fill up to repair through this substance or process," Dr. Benson said.
Dr. Benson says shopaholics should write down six questions and answer them before each purchase. She says it puts space between the shopper and the item they think they have to buy.
"Why am I here? How do I feel? Do I need this? What if I wait? How will I pay for it? Where will I put it?" Dr. Benson explained.
Last year Liss went to an all-cash budget. A credit consolidation company negotiated lower interest rates for her. She hired a money coach, she began selling off her shoe stash on eBay, and she started a money blog called http://www.thefrugallawyer.com.
"It really is my therapy to get through this. I keep track of everything I do, whether it's spending money, wasting it, saving it, schemes I have to make more of it," Liss said.
She's on track to pay off her credit card debt by 2014.
Studies show there's no connection between income class and compulsive buying. Dr. Benson says she's seen people on welfare who were shopping addicts. Famous shopaholics in history include Marie Antoinette and first lady Mary Todd Lincoln, who owned 84 pairs of gloves.
If you would like more information, please contact:
April Lane Benson
aprilbenson@stoppingovershopping.com
Want more information? Click here to read the Smart Move.
Click here if you would like to receive a FREE weekly e-mail on Medical Breakthroughs.
