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The "Purchase Panic" and Other Shopping Disorders

Are you one of those people who has to buy something every time you go out? Do you have junk drawers full of decks of cards, yoyos, Cracker Jack charms, or those sweatshirts with the names of any and all vacation spots to which you have traveled in the past 20 years or more? And are you a person who panics at the thought of opening your mail for fear of discovering that your bank balance is busted and that your credit cards are in crisis? Then let's face it. You have a shopping disorder.

This disorder comes in every form from stockpiling items that are either useless or used only a few times to purchasing extravagantly expensive items that you take an extra look at only a few short months later only to decide that they no longer reflect your decorating taste or your personal fashion sense to making a palatial purchase that has you and everyone around you panicking and questioning your sanity (or more realistically, inquiring as to your ability to to afford such basic necessities as your rent or mortgage payment, food and utilities, or clothing).

And how does a person with a shopping disorder go about solving his or her problem? The first step is to take some very serious and deep personal inventory. This can happen either by means of self-reflection or personal and/or group counseling, but whichever road you choose, the first step is knowing yourself well. And I mean very, very well.

And why is that? Because the better that you know yourself, the better sense that you will have of your likes, dislikes and what indeed reflects your permanent personal taste. And the better grasp you have on this, the less likely you will be to make that impulse buy that later leads to a big bank balance bouncing and the all-too-embarrassing epiphany that you are not self-aware.

The next step is to go through EVERYTHING that you own and make some decisions. Decide just exactly why you are hanging onto something and just how valuable and useful it truly is to you. Some things, such as rubberbanded old love letters or a set of old photo albums are admittedly worth hanging onto for sentimental reasons. But if it is merely an article of clothing that is hanging limply in the closet with the tags still attached and that fits you as if you were still 10 when you are now in fact, 20, consider a donation.

Similarly, if it is a novelty item that you use sparingly if at all, definitely determine a good time for a garage sale so that you can turn that never-used garbage into gobs of newfound cash.

And now that the sorting and selling process is over, let the shopping begin-AGAIN! That's right, again! Only this time when you shop make your purchases "perfect" by making sure that you really want them, need them, or can attach some sort of legitimate meaning to the money that you spend. That way, you will be more than assured that your "panic" was pointless and that your shopping "disorder will be permanently deleted from your otherwise very balanced check register...HAPPY SHOPPING! (Meaningfully, of course!)

Learn more about this author, Courtney Caswell-Peyton.
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