THE RETAIL THERAPY TRAP

Are you addicted to emotional spending?

- ZOE SNELL

When was the last time you decided to buy something online because you’d had a bad day? Maybe you bought something you didn’t really want (and definitely didn’t need) as a way to cheer yourself up. Or perhaps you splashed out as a reward for earning that promotion you worked so hard for? There’s a term for this: emotional spending – and like any other addiction, it’s not healthy.

HOW DOES SHOPPING AFFECT OUR EMOTIONS?

Psychologist and founder of the TARA (Therapeutic Addiction Recovery Assistance) Clinic, Tara Hurster, explains that shopping helps to release feel-good hormones, leading us to crave the boost it gives us.

“We learn that shopping helps us to survive because it releases dopamine – therefore we do it again and again to experience short-term relief,” she says.

Unfortunately this reward system in our brain can leave us ripe for addiction. “Addiction is a behavioural pattern of engaging in actions that offer short-term relief and either helps us to move away from a feeling we don’t want, or move towards a feeling we do want,” Hurster explains.

DANGERS OF PICK-ME-UP PURCHASES