by Laurie Childree

Created on: December 01, 2007

When shopping turns into a chore and causes panic attacks and irresponsibility it becomes a disorder. Shopping can be relaxing, stressful and addictive all at the same time. It can provide relief from stress and panic by making you feel secure that everything will be alright somehow. Unfortunately it can also be a cause panic.

Sometimes you find yourself giving into the impulse buy something simply because you see it in the store. It can be full price, half price or clearance; it doesn't matter you buy it anywhere needed or not.

It is not always a good thing to buy item on impulse just because they are there and on sale. Looking at something and seeing that is one clearance is not a reason to buy it. The fact that it is marked well below half price makes it extremely tempting.

No thought goes into whether or not you can actually use the item or if it is actually within your means to buy it when you buy on impulse. No thought goes into whether or not you can afford the item either. Bills will go unpaid, responsibilities fall by the waste side.

When you see the word sale you begin to get a warm feeling in your heart. A sale means that you can buy three times as much because you are spending less. Grabbing things off of the rack just because they are anywhere from ten to seventy-five percent off. Then you get home and realize that you spent more than you could afford to spend.

Checking your wallet every few moments to make sure that you have money with you is a bad sign. You begin to constantly refiguring the total cost of the contents in your cart just to discover that you have to put something back because you overspent.

You may even begin to panic because you are afraid that somehow you lost your money and did not realize it. Or you begin to imagine that it may fall out of your wallet during one of the thousand times you opened it to check.

Then you begin to put everything back in the cart and start over. You go back to the front of the store and go down each aisle one by one all over again. A feeling of panic overwhelms at the thought of not remembering everything. The walls begin to close in and you feel like someone is sitting on your chest preventing you from breathing.

There is a fear of going to the store and you begin to shop online. You spend hours comparing prices and shipping rates. The shipping times become the most important thing in the world to you. The items you purchase must be there yesterday so to speak.

Impatience at the idea of having to wait for something to become affordable becomes a daily thing for those addicted to shopping.

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