Are You a Shopaholic?

Is your closet overflowing with never-worn clothing, the price
tags still waving in the breeze? Is your attic bulging 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 estimate that as many as 17 million Americans, better
than one in 20 of us, can't control our urge to shop, even at the
expense of our job, our marriage, our family and our finances.

Not that funny

In the land of conspicuous consumption, compulsive shopping is
the smiled-upon addiction, the butt of countless sitcoms and Sunday
comics, one of the few disorders that it's still OK to laugh at. Shop
'til you drop. The one who dies with the most toys wins. Heck,
President Bush even called it patriotic to splurge. Where's the harm?

Manhattan psychologist April Benson, author of I Shop Therefore I Am:
Compulsive Buying and the Search for Self (Jason Aronson
Publishers, 2000), has seen firsthand how destructive compulsive
shopping can be.

"One patient of mine got fired because she was compulsively
shopping on the Internet all day. There are other people who neglect
their children and park them in the mall constantly because that is
what they need to feed their habit. Lots of marriages break up over
compulsive buying. In fact, we don't call it compulsive buying unless
there is some significant impairment in some aspect of your life."

Five myths about shopaholics

Not only is compulsive shopping tacitly condoned by our
materialistic society; it is just as widely misunderstood.

For starters, according to Donald Black, M.D., a University of
Iowa psychiatry professor who specializes in obsessive-compulsive
disorder, compulsive shopping isn't a true compulsion at all, but
instead an impulse control disorder.

"A compulsion is a behavior that is produced to counteract an
upsetting thought; for example, 'I'm contaminated or dirty, therefore I
will deal with that anxiety by washing my hands more,'" he says.

"There is no upsetting thought prompting compulsive shopping.
It is a very pleasurable impulse and people act on those impulses."

Famous shopaholics

Nor is compulsive shopping a modern-day "designer disease."
According to Black, a German psychiatrist published the first clinical
description of the disorder in 1915.

Famous shopaholics in history include Marie Antoinette, Mary
Todd Lincoln, William Randolph Hearst, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis,
Imelda Marcos and Princess Diana. Their addictions ranged from clothing
(Jackie O, Diana) to art and antiques (Hearst) to shoes (the heralded
Marcos collection) to gloves (Mrs. Lincoln owned 84 pairs of them).

"Now maybe it's more prevalent now because you clearly need
available goods, a market economy and disposable income, and those
elements haven't always been around," he notes.

Men are 'collectors,' women are 'shopaholics'

While research suggests that nine in 10 shopaholics are women,
Benson says it's a common misnomer to tag this as a female disorder.

"People who are part of their studies are psychiatric in- or
outpatients, and women self-refer for these problems much more so than
men. Recent studies coming out of Europe suggest that more men are
beginning to have these problems. In addition to the fact that they
don't self-refer for the types of studies on which these statistics are
based is the fact that society often calls men who are compulsive
buyers 'collectors.' It gives it a refined and slightly highbrow image."

The same is true of the misconception that compulsive shopping
is a malady of the privileged class.

"We say that money is an equal opportunity mood changer," says
Benson. "There have been a few studies linking socioeconomic class with
compulsive buying and no significant results have been found. I had a
colleague who had a guy on welfare who compulsively bought."

As long as we're exposing myths, Black suggests we discard the
notion that shopaholics are unaware of their problem.

"They are perfectly aware of what they're doing.
Intellectually, they know that their closets and maybe their attic is
full, but then they will be in the store and think, 'Well, maybe I do
need this one blouse or this will come in handy or I don't have one in
this particular shade so I'll buy it.' They usually hide it from their
husbands. They do have feelings of guilt."

When it
becomes a problem
What do women want? In order of preference, most female
compulsive shoppers buy clothes, shoes, jewelry, makeup and compact
discs.

Men? Clothing, shoes, electronics (TVs,
stereos, computers, etc.), hardware and CDs.

Sounds normal enough, right? So how does
compulsive shopping differ from your last trip to the mall?

"Well, they don't buy one CD, they buy 10
CDs at a time," says Black. "They might buy five skirts, all the same,
perhaps in different shades or slightly different styles, where a
normal buyer would identify a need for something new or attend a sale
and buy one item."

Benson notes that shopaholics overspend on
services, as well as goods.

"I had one patient who had her hair blown
dry maybe two or three times a week. Between the color, the cut and the
blow-dry, she was spending at least $200 if not $250 a week on her
hair, and that didn't include all the hair products," she says.

Some shopaholics have more eccentric
tastes, though they are by far the minority. Black had one patient who
was addicted to Beanie Babies, another who compulsively bought garden
figurines; Benson treated a man who only bought compulsively for his
camper.

Black says the typical shopaholic cycle is
not unlike that of the compulsive gambler -- or even the serial killer.

"What the patients will typically describe
is they have a baseline preoccupation with shopping, they're always
thinking about it, and a tension builds and they have to satisfy that
tension by going out and shopping. That relieves the tension, at least
for the time being," he says.

Some shop out of loneliness, others for
the rush of it, still others to fill some inner need. Some seek greater
self-esteem, others use it to battle depression. Some shop to return to
a happy childhood, others to escape a bad one.

But few shopaholics consider it a
debilitating disorder until the spiral of debt or marital discord
leaves them no other choice.

All of which makes compulsive shopping
especially difficult to treat.

Black says drug studies using seratonin
uptake inhibitors (Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, etc.) have met with mixed
results, as the disorder seems to respond equally well to drugs and
placebos.

Benson hopes to start her own
12-step-style therapy program this fall, focusing on group techniques
to change cognitive behavior. The only other group program treating
compulsive shopping in this way is in Fargo, North Dakota.

"Frankly, there is so little research done
that I'm not sure you can talk about success rate," Black admits. "Very
few people are studying this or writing about it. There are no
standards for treatment so there are no good definitions of what
constitutes recovery. Is their buying down to your level or my level?
Or should they abstain from shopping like they tell alcoholics? You
can't do that realistically. Maybe if you go shopping, at least have
someone with you so you don't go overboard."

Jay MacDonald is a
contributing editor based in Florida.

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