Is there Such a Thing As Shopping Addiction?

Shopping can be addicting. Technology can be addicting. So can narcotics. So can food. So can sex. But not to everyone — only to people who have addictive tendencies, or an addictive personality.

Addiction is a serious medical condition, and it’s causes and cures are complicated and still widely unknown. Addicts have a different chemical make up than people who are not addicts and methodone programs which have proven effective practice the substitution of a lesser harmful drug for a more harmful drug, and then a weaning off of that drug. When the substance is not a drug, but shopping, the same practice can be used of substituting a less harmful substance — or a less attractive substance — like watching television or jogging — as a way to break the cycle of needing to shop. An exercise class or a cooking class or a stack of magazines could also be used to break the cycle, as the methadone is used on heroin addicts.

Until addicts are recognized as people with different chemical make ups than non-addicts, and are treated differently, they will continue to run up against well meaning family members and friends who don’t understand why if the person loved them, they’d quit using.

All this said, liking to shop is very different from being addicted. A person can enjoy shopping, but not need to shop. When shopping becomes a secret and interfering with daily life, then it may be becoming an addiction.