Get Ready to Find Out Whether You're Officially a Shopaholic
Get ready to find out whether you're
officially a shopaholic. A new checklist devised by a clinical
psychologist in Norway aims to help the retail-inclined decide whether
they love a healthy spot of shopping
or if there's actually an issue. Per Cecilie Schou Andreassen at
Norway's University of Bergen, anyone agreeing or completely agreeing
with at least four of the below are showing "symptoms of shopping
addiction."
1. You think about shopping (or buying things) all the time.
2. You shop or buy things in order to change your mood.
3. Shopping has made you miss a daily obligation (like work, an appointment).
4. You need to shop/buy more and more to feel as good about it as you used to.
5. You try to shop less but you can't.
6. You feel bad if something prevents you from shopping/buying things.
7. You shop so much it makes you feel bad.
MORE: The 1 Budget Rule Shopaholics Can Absolutely Follow
Prior to the Bergen Shopping Addiction Scale being published in the Frontiers in Psychology (from which the seven-item checklist was taken), tests of shopping addiction were primarily modified from those related to impulse-control or obsessive-compulsive disorder paradigms. Andreassen is one of those arguing that the need to shop is instead an addictive issue, with the disorder defined as "being overly concerned about shopping, driven by an uncontrollable shopping motivation, and to investing so much time and effort into shopping that it impairs other important life areas." Yikes.
And, should you need official proof, women were found to tick off more of the survey boxes than men, meaning the disorder officially strikes the fairer sex more often.
Unhealthy levels of anything is bad news, but shopping can bring a lot of goodness into our lives too. Beyond the obvious (new shoes! bags! perfect skinny jeans!), there are a lot of life lessons you can learn while browsing the racks.
1. You think about shopping (or buying things) all the time.
2. You shop or buy things in order to change your mood.
3. Shopping has made you miss a daily obligation (like work, an appointment).
4. You need to shop/buy more and more to feel as good about it as you used to.
5. You try to shop less but you can't.
6. You feel bad if something prevents you from shopping/buying things.
7. You shop so much it makes you feel bad.
Prior to the Bergen Shopping Addiction Scale being published in the Frontiers in Psychology (from which the seven-item checklist was taken), tests of shopping addiction were primarily modified from those related to impulse-control or obsessive-compulsive disorder paradigms. Andreassen is one of those arguing that the need to shop is instead an addictive issue, with the disorder defined as "being overly concerned about shopping, driven by an uncontrollable shopping motivation, and to investing so much time and effort into shopping that it impairs other important life areas." Yikes.
And, should you need official proof, women were found to tick off more of the survey boxes than men, meaning the disorder officially strikes the fairer sex more often.
Unhealthy levels of anything is bad news, but shopping can bring a lot of goodness into our lives too. Beyond the obvious (new shoes! bags! perfect skinny jeans!), there are a lot of life lessons you can learn while browsing the racks.
Photos: Alamy
- Keywords:
- shopping
- shopping advice
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