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How Shopping Becomes a Shopping Disorder

If you are constantly maxing out your credit cards and going over your budget when shopping you are a shopaholic. You have the dreaded symptoms of shopping disorder and need to slow down and get back on track.

If you have bills piling up because of your shopping disability, it is possible that you need to seek counseling to help yourself stop shopping like a maniac.

Try to sit down with yourself first and analyze why you have been shopping like there is no tomorrow. What drives your passion? Is there something in your life that you compensate by shopping to excess? When did you first begin this shopping pattern?

Some people actually get a high from shopping. In normal cases it is a good venue for lifting the spirits. But in other cases the spirit gets lifted too high and you become the shopaholic.

If you have become aware of shopping getting the better of you, sit down and write down all the symptoms of your shopping pattern. How much money you spend. Do you use cash or credit? Do you buy things you don't need? Do you pay too much for things when you could have gotten them cheaper? Do you buy more of the same thing because it is a different brand, cuter, or cheaper? Do you buy a lot of things on sale just because they are on sale, not because you need them? What makes you happy? Is your present lifestyle happy? Do you have a lot of unpaid bills? Do you have maxed credit cards that you now owe a lot of money on? Do you pay your credit cards on time or do you let them go, also paying late fees?

Answer all these questions, and then try to think of a solution. Set some goals for yourself to end your shopping problem. If you feel you can't do it on your own, then seek out a counselor. You might find one through your church or through a community non-profit organization.

Shopping becomes a shopping disorder when we do it too much and end up having bills not being paid and too many brand new items in our home we can't use. Shopping should be for necessities only and not for luxury items that we may never even use.

If you have a lot of money to spend and money is of no consequence or object to you, perhaps you could think of other ways to spend your money that might be more useful such as donating to charitable causes. Make your money serve some useful purpose - perhaps investing in real estate, or finding a new hobby such as painting or music, investing in other ways such as the stock market and the currency exchange market. Adopt a child programs are a good way to use up some money and you can make a friend with a child in need in a third world country.

Stop shopping till you drop. Pick yourself up and use that shopping energy more usefully like maybe going back to school, finding a new job, or writing your guts out.

Learn more about this author, Colette Georgii.
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