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How Shopping Addiction Therapy Can Change Your Life

Shopping addiction, sometimes referred to as compulsive buying disorder (CBD), can be an extremely problematic condition. It can cause a person to destroy their credit, spend money that was set aside for things like bills, food, and rent on frivolous items, and cause a rift between the shopping addict and their loved ones. Therapy, however, can change your life in many ways and allow you to receive the treatment you need for a condition that can often be just as psychologically and financially problematic as drug addiction.

Therapy is Beneficial to Your Recovery

According to Indiana University, “It is recommended that spending addicts seek professional counseling or a self-help group to deal with this problem.” While it can be hard to admit that you have CBD, attending therapy will only serve to help heal your condition and allow you to make the changes to your life that will aid you in breaking harmful behaviors.

Attending counseling and going through a treatment program like cognitive-behavioral therapy will allow you to see your addiction in a new light, to realize there is a problem with your uncontrollable buying and that you need to take steps in order to make a substantial change in your behavior.

Therapy Reveals Co-Occurring Disorders

“Addictive behaviors tend to come in clusters, so if you have an eating disorder, a problem with drugs or alcohol, or gambling, you may be a candidate for shopping addiction.” If you recognize other addictive behaviors in your personality, therapy can help treat both or all of them at once, solidifying your recovery and minimizing the potential of relapsing to one behavior in order to cope with another.

shopping addiction

Therapy for shopping addiction can help reveal other problems in need of treatment.

In addition, those who struggle with addiction often suffer from a mental disorder such as depression, generalized anxiety disorder, or another psychological issue. Many people do not realize that their shopping addiction is a coping mechanism for a condition like those listed above, but individuals with these symptoms often report using retail therapy in order to deal with negative emotions.

According to a study from the NCBI, “There is some evidence that CBD runs in families and that within these families mood, anxiety, and substance use disorders are excessive.” Therapy can also help treat other mental disorders, as well as allowing patients to discover what may have led to their shopping addictions in the first place.

Therapy Will Help You Relearn Positive Behavior

When someone becomes addicted (either to a substance or a behavior), their actions become more and more negative as they feed that habit. This behavior is learned over time, and therapy can help a person unlearn it. Instead, you can discover how to adopt more positive behaviors that will allow you to avoid further unnecessary spending, such as:

  • Using cash, checks, or debit cards to pay for purchases instead of credit cards
  • Avoiding window shopping, online shopping, and phone purchases
  • Finding a behavior you can revert to when you begin to feel the urge to shop (like exercising, doing yoga, or reading)

Once you attend therapy and make changes to your behavior based on the advice given, you can start to take back control of your shopping and your life.