Pent Up Purchase: Spending More During Tough Financial Times



Posted: Tuesday, June 02, 2009

by Dr. Bonnie Eaker Weil
http://doctorbonnie.com

Did you know that almost 80 per cent of women recently said they would go on a spending spree to cheer themselves up? The survey, conducted by Professor Karen Pine, from the University of Hertfordshire, concludes that some women use shopping as an emotion regulator, a way of anesthetizing themselves to negative feelings or dissatisfaction with life. Ironically, this means worrying about money could lead women to spend more, and the recession could actually force more women to overspend.

So: if you find yourself wrecking the budget - or even fantasizing about wrecking it! - when you should be more concerned with keeping money matters in check, you're not alone.

I call this a pent up purchase - a variation on a topic I've explored in my practice which I've traditionally called a POP Shot, or a pissed off purchase. Through a pissed off or pent up purchase, we're participating in different stages of the grief process: anger and denial. Out of denial, Americans have awakened to a new emotional response to the economic collapse. Our brain chemistry is negatively impacted when we suffer adversity. Our addiction to spending to get that high is a common response to spur dopamine production (feel good hormones).

The opinions and habits of the 700 women surveyed line up with what I've seen in my own practice over the years. Four out of ten of the women named depression, and six out of ten named feeling a bit low, as reasons to go on a spending spree and overspend. Women commonly expressed the view that shopping has the power to make them feel better, and a Stanford University study identifies one in twenty Americans as compulsive shoppers.

Shopping when feeling depressed is akin to the behaviors that are triggered by other types of addiction. Take stock of your emotions, and the times you feel most prone to engage in a little retail therapy. If you're indulging in spite of your budget or worse, because of it you may be headed down a dangerous path that will be unhealthy both financially and emotionally. Work to re-wire the pattern of thinking that leads you to shopping, opting instead for spending time with friends, trying something new like taking a class, head to the gym, or use your energies to volunteer. Work to divert your energy and attention into something positive the possibilities are nearly endless!

Dr. Bonnie Eaker Weil (http://doctorbonnie.com) is internationally acclaimed and one of America's best-known relationship experts; named by New York Magazine as one of the city's top therapists. She is the author of Make up, Don't Break up and Financial Infidelity.

 

Dr. Bonnie's success rate is phenomenal - 98 percent of the couples she works with stay together, even with the perils of adultery.

 

Dr. Bonnie has appeared on the The Today show, CBS Saturday Early Show, Oprah!, A Current Affair, The View, Sally, Ricki Lake, Montel, Maury Povich, and Extra. Her work has also been featured in Good Housekeeping, The New York Times, New York Daily News, USA Today, Cosmopolitan, Ladies Home Journal and many others.

 

For more info, subscribe to her newsletter: http://www.emailmeform.com/fid.php?formid=295824 

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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)
» left by David Pekrul
 2 years 358 days ago.
70 fans.
Very good advise. I'd call the type of shopping you describe as shopping with your emotions rather than shopping with your brain. And in these economic times we really should be shopping with our brains.
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