Who becomes a shopping addict?
Not everybody who shops becomes a shopping addict. There does seem to be a characteristic, or certain features about an individual who does become a shopping addict. Because shopping addiction goes to the extreme, where people are actually spending money they don't have, and actually go broke, or nearly broke, through shopping. I've worked with people where there is closets full of clothes that have never been worn, for example, with their tags still on the clothes. The shopping wasn't about obtaining or wearing these particular items, but it was about the purchasing. So who becomes a shopping addict? Probably somebody who's looking for the big thrill, at least initially, who has the financial ability to bring about a positive experience through purchasing. Sometimes it's someone who is a loner sitting around a TV and there are very few sort of resources to make them feel good so they continually buy via the television or the internet or something like that. And then there's others who have a large amount of money and get involved in shopping as not more than just the purchasing; they see it as an activity. Shopping addiction can also be used simply as getting out of the house. I'm involved with people in the world and there's a whole sort of sequence and ritual involved with the activity of getting the object and purchasing it.
