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SHOPAHOLISM: A CURABLE DISEASE?

Is your closet overflowing with never-worn clothing, the price tags still waving in the breeze? Is your attic cluttered with boxes and boxes of shoes that have never touched pavement? Do you buy new makeup weekly or compact discs by the fistful? You might be a shopaholic. Studies ___ that one in 20 of us can't control the urge to shop, even at the expense of our job, our family, or our finances.

When an American psychiatrist ___ that he had found a cure to help people who cannot stop spending, the news came as a great relief to millions of people suffering from compulsive shopping disorder, a condition which is ___ to afflict up to 9 % of the American population.

Psychiatrists often call oniomania or compulsive shopping an addiction, but until recently it was not ___ as a mental disorder and therefore as a problem worthy of serious medical attention. However, more and more scholars ___ that it is a “hidden epidemic” comparable to psychological siblings like alcoholism, eating disorders, compulsive gambling, or kleptomania. Now, it is a ___ fact that compulsive shopping poses a serious problem, one with significant emotional, social, occupational, and financial consequences.

What type of people suffer from it? Though it is commonly ___ that the majority of shopaholics are women, recent studies ___ that more men are beginning to have these problems. While women tend to buy items that improve their appearance such as clothes, shoes, make-up and jewellery, men are usually ___ to collect power tools or car accessories. One man ___ that he could not stop buying spanners, even though he already had 4,000. Another bought 200 different seat covers and 3,000 steering wheel covers for his car. Dr. Donald Black ___ that a most astonishing thing in this case is that the man did not even own a car.

Another misconception which has recently been ___ is that compulsive shopping is a malady of the rich. According to the psychologist April Benson, author of “I Shop Therefore I Am: Compulsive Buying and the Search for Self,” no evidence linking socioeconomic class with shopaholism has been found. As an illustration, he ___ one of his patients who was on welfare and nonetheless suffered from compulsive buying. Another example is Samantha Lynn, a clerk at a furniture store, who has a passion for designer clothes. She has ___ that she has recently spent $35,000 on fashion accessories, getting herself $22, 000 into debt. Saleswomen at her favourite boutiques ___ she is a rich businesswoman.

Among the major causes of compulsive shopping are often ___ the following. Some victims ___ that they shop out of loneliness, others seek greater self-esteem, still others use it to battle depression. However, psychiatrists ___ that most shopaholics try to counteract feelings of low self-esteem through the emotional lift and euphoria provided by shopping. As a result these shoppers are ___ to get into a vicious circle. They ___ they experience urges to buy items that are not needed and then feel sadness and remorse, which in turn leads to another purchase to compensate for the negative emotions, and so on. Professor Koran of Stanford University ___ an inner void as a common factor. “They are filling their life with things because they feel empty inside,” – he ___.

As many ___, social conditions also play an important role. Marketing and advertising are ___ to promote a culture of consumerism. What is more, debt facilitated by credit cards encourages casual spending beyond one’s means. Thus, Samantha, mentioned above, ___ she has been doing it since she was twelve when her father would give her his credit card. Samantha ___, she has tried giving up her own cards and leaving her purse at home, but has never managed to stop shopping.

In the land of conspicuous consumption, compulsive shopping is ___ as a smiled-upon addiction, the butt of sitcoms and Sunday comics. But this is not a case to laugh at, as the consequences which are ___ to persist long after a shopping spree are devastating. A. Benson ___ that they may include crushing consumer debt, ruined credit history, general financial trouble and even conflict with the law. Professor Black ___ the typical shopaholic cycle is not unlike that of the compulsive gambler … or even the serial killer.

The sufferers ___ of failing health, marital problems, and in some cases, suicide. One of Benson’s patients, Zara, got fired because she was compulsively shopping on the Internet all day. She also ___ her addiction as the main cause of her split with a boyfriend of nine years. “It is ruining my life,” she ___.

Shopaholics are perfectly ____ of their problem. They ___ they feel guilty and ashamed, but cannot help it. All this makes compulsive shopping especially difficult to treat. However, some scholars ___ oniomania to deficiency of serotonin and ___ that patients should be treated with a drug to restore its levels. Yet, April Benson ___ the allegedly positive results of the drug therapy and plans to start her own programme, focusing on techniques to change cognitive behavior.

Anyway, not everyone ___ that compulsive shopping is a disease which needs treating. Lee Smith, a retail consultant, ___ that people have always used shopping as a way of cheering themselves up.

Discussion

1) Do you believe the disease, described in the text, really exists? Should it be treated as a disease?

2) Do you agree that women are more given to compulsive shopping disorder than men? Explain your point of view.

3) Women are also known to enjoy “window-shopping”. Should it be regarded as another manifestation of compulsive shopping disorder? Give your comment.

4) The Henly Centre for Forecasting has found that men are increasingly behaving like women in shopping. The new man, called a “feminal consumer”, seems to be shopping with great pleasure and authority. How can you explain this tendency?

5) What are the social and psychological roots of compulsive shopping? Do you believe it can be cured with the help of a drug? What could you recommend to a compulsive shopper?

6) Comment on such recent realities as one-stop shopping and on-line shopping which seem to be on the rise nowadays. Try to explain their growing popularity. Do you think these forms of shopping are as addictive as the traditional ones?

7) Are you fond of shopping? Why/ why not?

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