Shopping addiction can be determined by seven warning signs, study reveals
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Shopping addiction, also referred to as compulsive-buying disorder, is a psychological condition that invokes a need to shop on an individual, regardless of importance or financial means. It affects about six percent of American women and while it is commonly undiagnosed, a new study reveals that shopping addicts can be easily identified through a method that requires them to answer seven questions.
Eureka Alert reports that according to the Shopping Addiction at the University of Bergen project headed by clinical psychologist Dr. Cecile Schou Andreassen, the team was able to develop a new method that uses core elements of addiction to help in determining the disorder. The study showed that shopping addiction has similar symptoms seen on people with substance abuse history, like alcoholism or drug addiction.
They called their method "The Bergen Shopping Addiction Scale" and have listed the following seven questions as the basic criteria:
- Do you think about shopping/buying things all the time?
- Do you shop/buy things in order to change your mood?
- Do you shop/buy so much that it negatively affects your daily obligations?
- Do you feel you have to shop/buy more and more to obtain the same satisfaction as before?
- Do you have decided to shop/buy less, but have not been able to do so?
- Do you feel bad if you for some reason are prevented from shopping/buying things?
- Do you shop/buy so much that it has impaired your well-being?
Scoring will be from zero to four, depending on whether the individual completely disagrees, disagrees, neither disagrees nor agrees, and completely agrees, respectively. Dr. Andreassen notes that if four questions have been answered with an agree or completely agree, then there is a possibility that the individual is a shopping addict.
The research was also able to identify the risk factors of shopping addiction, Medical Xpress adds. Dr. Andreassen explains that the addiction is most common in women, usually in their late teens or early adulthood, but apparently decreases with age. Curiously, individuals who are suffering from mental or psychological disorders like anxiety and depression also showed high risk possibilities.
Modern technology, social media and the introduction of online shopping made it even harder for possible shopping addicts to stop, sending them to overdrive.
The Examiner writes that the possibility of shopping addiction being considered as a disease by the American Medical Association may become inevitable in the near future. In fact, there are now several treatment centers that focuses on the needs and rehabilitation of shopping addicts, just like how alcoholism is treated in Alcoholics Anonymous.
The study was published in the open-access journal Frontiers in Psychology.
