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Do You Have a Shopping Addiction? 58 Warning Signs + 27 Ways to Stop Compulsive Spending

Recent studies show that as many as 27 million Americans suffer from a clinically verified shopping addiction. This addiction, as destructive as a chemical or gambling addiction, produces negative, unwanted feelings, life conditions and a spiraling debt.

Read on to learn more about the signs of a shopping addiction and learn how to change your habitual overspending. Even non-addicts will learn tips to stop the impulse purchases that are a common cause of unwanted debt.

• What is Shopping Addiction?
• 6 Types of Addictive Shoppers + 13 Common Impulse Purchases
• 58 Warning Signs and Signals of Shopping Addiction
• 27 Ways to Stop Compulsive Spending
• 31 Shopping Addiction Resources

Note: Please seek professional help immediately if you believe that you or someone you love suffers from an addiction of any kind.

What is Shopping Addiction?

About the only thing that psychologists can agree on is that an "obsessive buying disorder" actually does exist. The definition of shopping addiction varies from expert to expert too, but the core factor is impulsive, uncontrolled spending that has a negative, unwanted impact on your life.

One Tips for Spending Addiction Therapy describes it like this: "Spending addictions are like drug addiction, in that they have their roots in depression, stress, anxiety and other significant mental health issues. Individuals shop compulsively because it provides a euphoric effect which masks the pain associated with these conditions. Spending gets out of control as people become more desperate to achieve the 'buzz' they get from shopping."

6 Types of Addictive Shoppers + 13 Common Impulse Purchases

Many shopping addicts don't realize their addiction because they don't spend excessive time and money at the mall. Shopping and spending addictions fall far outside of the boundaries of mall purchases, and the compulsion to spend affects everyone differently. There may well be more than six types, but this list serves as a good starting point for identifying how a shopping addiction may manifest itself. In all of the "types" you'll find one constant: people spending money in the mistaken belief that their new items will fill a void within them.

1. Image shoppers: People who do things such as picking up the tab, buying expensive cars, and other highly visible displays of apparent wealth.
2. Bargain shoppers: Buying stuff because it's a good price, regardless of whether or not it will be used.
3. Codependent shoppers: People who make purchases in order to win the love an approval of others, either by way of gifts or by demonstrating affiliation with a given group or social status.
4. Trend shoppers: People who impulsively buy trendy items such as the latest phones or clothing in order to demonstrate their belonging to a peer group.
5. Bulimic shoppers: People who shop and then purge by bringing things back in a surge of guilt. Financially this is better than building up debt, but psychologically this is a destructive behavior.
6. Collector Shoppers: People who buy in order to complete or add to a collection. Again, the purchases often are made in secret and cause intense feelings of guilt or anguish.

(Adapted and expanded from the Compulsive Shopping Checklist)

Compulsive shoppers have some other patterns as well as what they buy. Two separate studies of addictive shoppers polled their subjects to find the items they bought compulsively. These are the items that were most-commonly bought on compulsive shopping binges, in the order of purchase frequency. *

1. Clothing
2. Shoes
3. Jewelry
4. Makeup
5. Collectibles
6. Antiques
7. CDs/MP3s
8. Art
9. Cars/Auto Parts
10. Electronics
11. Housewares
12. Books
13. Food

* From Table 2 of Compulsive Buying Disorder: A Review of the Evidence.

58 Warning Signs and Signals of Shopping Addiction

The following questions can reveal whether or not you share traits with others who suffer from compulsive buying disorder. As you read through the list, keep track of how many definite "yeses" you have. If you say yes to 15 or more questions, consider yourself at risk for a spending addiction and seek help!

Note: This list of warning signs can't and should not replace the diagnosis of a trained psychologist.

1. You have been diagnosed with a major mood, anxiety, impulse and/or eating disorder.
2. One or some of your first-degree relatives have major mood disorders.
3. You often physically hide purchases.
4. You frequently return items.
5. You have frequent family arguments about how much you spend and what you buy.
6. Your credit cards are maxed out.
7. You frequently have a low self-esteem.
8. You feel a jolt of self-esteem and happiness when interacting with store clerks.
9. You shop or spend money as a response to feeling angry, depressed or lonely.
10. You feel lost - to the point of going into withdrawal - without your credit cards.
11. You lie about purchasing items.
12. You get distracted from life and consumed with thoughts of money.
13. You have positive, euphoric feelings associated with buying.
14. You spend a lot of time juggling your bills and credit to accommodate your spending.
15. You steal in order to continue spending.
16. You suffered severe emotional deprivation in childhood.
17. You have difficulty tolerating feelings of pain, loneliness, boredom, depression, fear and anger
18. You need to fill an inner void.
19. You have difficulty sleeping because of the pressure of your debts.
20. You consider drinking or using drugs in response to the pressure of your debts.
21. You always or frequently buy items on credit, rather than with cash.
22. You feel guilty, ashamed, embarrassed or anguished over a spending spree.
23. You lie about the cost of items.
24. You have adopted a strict debt repayment regimen, only to break it under pressure.
25. You feel excited - and guilty - while buying things you know you should not buy.
26. You buy the things you want, no matter if you have the money for them or not.
27. You have trouble saving money - even if there's money left over you spend it rather than save it.
28. You spend more than a third of your income, not including rent or mortgage payments, on your shopping bills.
29. You keep buying more of your favorite things even if you don't have a specific, immediate need for them.
30. You feel intensely deprived, angry or upset if you have to put off buying something you really want.
31. You think others would be "horrified" by your spending habits.
32. You feel restless irritability and even anger if you don't go shopping.
33. You have another clinically diagnosed addiction.
34. Your debts make your home life unhappy.
35. Your debts frequently distract you from your daily work.
36. You sometimes feel that something inside of you, beyond your control, pushes you to shop.
37. You shop so you can avoid doing something else.
38. Your purchases have resulted in legal problems.
39. Your debts affect your reputation.
40. Your debts cause you to think less of yourself.
41. You have lied or given false information in order to obtain credit.
42. You have made unrealistic, impossible promises to your creditors.
43. You obsess about your employer or family learning the full extent of your total indebtedness.
44. You feel inordinate relief at the prospect of borrowing money.
45. You tell yourself you will get a "big break" and get out of debt overnight.
46. You feel dangerous and reckless when shopping, and that shopping is forbidden.
47. You pick up the tab when you're out with friends or family - whether or not you can afford it.
48. You buy things with a credit card that you would not spend cash on.
49. You go shopping no matter how much debt you have or how strongly you resolve not to spend more.
50. You often buy things that you never wear or use.
51. You often overspend on gifts for others to show them how successful you are or what great taste you have.
52. You often buy things because you think they will make you more like your ideal image.
53. You skip, miss or cancel social engagements to go shopping.
54. You don't open your mail, email or answer the phone so you won't have to face the consequences of your buying.
55. You don't know - or don't WANT to know - how much you shop.
56. You think others would say you're a shopaholic.
57. You consider yourself an impulse purchaser.
58. You buy things you did not plan on buying.

If you answer "yes" to 15 or more of the questions above, there's a strong likelihood that you have addictive shopping tendencies. We recommend that you seek professional help.

Related Quizzes and Questionnaires:

• Questions to Identify Compulsive Debtors
• Questions To Tell if Your Spending is Out of Control
• the Richmond Compulsive Buying Scale
• Are You An Overshopper?

27 Ways to Recover From Addictive Shopping

Addiction recovery is one of the toughest fights you'll have in your life. Like a chemical addiction, your shopping addiction will keep calling you back when you're at your weakest. Even if you're not an addict, many of the suggestions on this list will lead you away from habitual overspending.

1. Admit to yourself that you have a problem.
2. Seek the help of a trained psychologist or counselor.
3. Look for a Debtors Anonymous chapter near you.
4. Look for group therapy sessions for people with shopping addictions.
5. Identify what triggers your "must-shop" impulse. Addiction specialists teach the H.A.L.T. method for preventing relapse. Recognize that your resistance lowers when you are Hungry, Angry, Lonely or Tired and HALT before shopping.
6. Always bring a shopping list.
7. Give up your credit card.
8. Make a list of alternative activities for when the compulsion to shop hits you.
9. Pay for purchases with cash, check or debit card.
10. Bring someone with you when you go shopping.
11. Get credit counseling.
12. Learn about cognitive-behavioral therapy and find someone to guide you in applying it.
13. Set aside cash budget for impulse purchases. When it's gone, make no more impulse purchases.
14. Go shopping without money.
15. Window shop only after stores are closed.
16. Stop your online, catalog and TV shopping patterns and habits.
17. Ask yourself if you really need something, or if you just want it.
18. Develop in-store habits and mantras for avoiding temptations (walk on by... do I need it or want it? etc...)
19. Bring a journal with you when you shop. Write down how you feel in the store. Write down your feelings about the item, how you will pay for it, where you will put it and how you will feel after you have purchased it.
20. Establish your values and life vision - then make sure any purchases are in line with this vision.
21. Create a family budget to get an overview of your finances.
22. Create a debt-repayment plan.
23. Join the frugality movement - meet the frugal bloggers.
24. In extreme cases, put someone else in control of your finances.
25. Change your routines.
26. Learn to tolerate your shopping impulses without acting on them.
27. Learn to separate who you are from what you have.

More Recovery Resources:

• Spenders Anonymous: Twelve Steps to Beating the Addiction to Spending
• Shopping Spree, or Addiction?
• HOW CAN I MANAGE COMPULSIVE SHOPPING and SPENDING ADDICTION
• Are you a compulsive shopper?
• Five Ways To Break A Shopping Addiction And Five Ways To Help Someone Else With Their Addiction
• Buying trouble
• 12 Step Program: Shopping Addiction?

31 Shopping Addiction Resources

If you're concerned that you or someone you love may be suffering from a shopping addiction, educate yourself further with these resources.

1. "Retail Therapy" Is No Joke
   
    
2. WZTV Interview on Shopping Addiction
   
    
3. Obsessions: Rosemary's Shopping
   
    
4. 5 Part Mini-Documentary on Shopping Addictions
5. Debtors Anonymous
6. Stopping Overshopping
7. Find a Compulsive Spending Treatment Program
8. Shopaholics Anonymous
9. To Buy or Not To Buy: April Lane Benson, Ph.D. at Psychology Today
10. Articles for Overshoppers
11. I Want That! How We All Became Shoppers
12. The Road To Financial Armageddon
13. Addiction and Personal Finance
14. Are you stressed and overspending?
15. 5 ways to stop the urge to shop
16. Shopping Addiction (Compulsive Shopping)
17. How to Cope with Spending Addiction
18. SHOPOHOLISM: Spouse's spending addiction
19. Compulsive buying: a report of 20 cases.
20. Help For Shopaholics: New Test Determines Who's At Risk For Compulsive Buying
21. German Study Links Shopping Addiction To Intense Craving For Attention
22. Shopping Spree, or Addiction?
23. Compulsive Shopping Addiction
24. Buying trouble (LA Times)
25. Compulsive Shopping Behaviors
26. What Is Spending Addiction And How Do I Know If I Have It?
27. HOW CAN I MANAGE COMPULSIVE SHOPPING and SPENDING ADDICTION
28. Shopping Addiction (Compulsive Shopping)
29. Compulsive Shopping Addiction
30. "Oniomania"
31. Compulsive Buying Disorder: A Review of the Evidence