Shopping addiction should be taken more seriously, victims say

One day of retail therapy can only be a ticket for some people so that they can feel better about themselves. But what happens when you can’t stop shopping?

Surrounded by a rack of shirts, clothes and jumpers, Lucy told me that she could spend for 14 hours a day, who can search for new clothes as escape from reality.

The life of a 37 -year -old may seem like a dream, but Lucy is clear that excessive purchases damaged her life.

At one point, Lucy did not pay himself to his bills so that he could continue to buy clothes.

“It is like a physical and a emotional drowning. I felt that I am constantly under the weight of the fabric,” she says.

Lucy has no idea how many clothes she has, but they take many suitcases along with their West Yorkshire’s house – and 35 square feet of storage unit.

She explains, “Fabrics act like a armor, which I do not feel the feelings I have in real life.”

Lucy established a fashion Instagram account and her purchasing was eventually “spiral” at the point that she was spending £ 700 per week – eventually ranking in debt of £ 12,000.

“This was the first thing about which I used to think when I got up.

“You keep looking for clothes in the same way that someone can drink because they have not reached the point of escapeism, which they were expecting to reach,” she remembers because she continues to recover.

She says that by looking at the abundant affected people online, “normalized her habits”.

It was not until a physician told him that he could have onioania – binding urges to buy things – that he realized that it was possible to get addicted to shopping.

She describes the second in her NHS cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) session that she heard about the disorder as a “Penny Drop” moment.

Binding, When a person feels an uncontrollable need to shop and spend despite negative results.

It is not known how many people have. Research review It suggests that it affects about 5% adults but A More recent study It is said that it can grow up to 10% since epidemic.

Now Lucy and others are calling for better understanding of the situation of the entire Britain and more support than NHS.

“I think there is a lack of resources at present. Oniomania’s research and understanding is not just the same way that substances are addicted,” Lucy says.

Natalie has called it a “wardrobe of doom” with more than 10,000 household items at her Roderham house.

For 40-year-old, his obsessive binding disorder (OCD) “trigger” to buy some things-including a special number of items and colors.

The wardrobe is home to 300 tubes of toothpaste and 3,000 washing pods.

“It just moved to the point where I was going out and the bus did not just went until my boot was full of luggage,” Natalie says.

At the peak of her addiction, she is at shops every day and can spend up to £ 3,000 a month – including £ 1,000 on toilets.

“I can’t stop – and I don’t want to stop either. If I see something online, I need it. I don’t care how I get it, I need to get it.”

The mother -in -law -off -one recently spent £ 1,000 on a flight – mainly on perfumes – and says that they have about 400 aroma, which have been purchased in less than two years.

Natalie, who works in private nursing, says advertisements have a “massive impact” on advertising procurement habits and she can spend about six hours a day on the perfume video online when she is not working.

She passes through medical treatment within both NHS and privately, but seems to have not been successful as she is not yet ready to stop – but focus on trying to cut her shopping.

“I think every addiction should be treated and more help and therapy should be available [from the NHS] Those who want it, “she says.

The BBC has spoken to 15 people who feel that they are addicted to shopping.

Many people talked about a mental toll and feelings of crime and shame. One said that he developed a food disease as a result, and the other said it became a “demon” in his life.

Everyone felt that social media contributed to their addiction.

according to experts, Online retail sales ratio It has exceeded 12% in May 2015, to 27% in May 2015 in May 2015.

Digital advertising bodies IAB UK says that the cost of advertisers on social media content had increased by 20% last year – the total stood at £ 8.87bn.

Zaheen Ahmed, director of therapy in the UKAT group, who runs a drug addiction centers across the country, says he has seen more people with shopping addiction.

He explains that the hormonal expectation of the purchase can be equivalent to the reaction of a drug user that achieves a hit.

Mr. Ahmed says that the use of social media as part of the ownership of the smartphone is “new normal”.

“Social media is impressing our lives for a long time and is contributing to our insistence to buy, urges to spend, urges to talk every time.”

Shopping became a copying mechanism for issues around Ellis’s confidence and respect.

When she was at the age of 18, she bought now began using later plans – a decision she described as a “gateway” for other credit.

Finally, from Bristol, Ellis, was unhappy with a loan of £ 9,000 after spending £ 800 every month on new items, especially to order online clothes.

“The more I had to open, the more enthusiasm.

“But once I opened the parcel, the discussion will stop and I will be unhappy again – so the cycle continues again.

“Social media is essentially another version of QVC, but a younger generation can see,” says 25 -year -old.

Ellis, who works in business administration, has since removed her addiction with medicine and is now almost debt free.

“If I hadn’t done this, I don’t know where I am,” she says.

“This really changes your way of thinking and whatever you do, your whole life revolves around when you can shop again.

“It just becomes so heavy.”

• If you are influenced by the issues raised in this story you can go BBC Action Line For more support.

NHS says It is only possible to be accustomed to anything – but there is no separate diagnosis for shopping addiction.

One reason is that experts dispute how to classify it, with some belief it is a practical addiction, while others connect it to mood or obsessive binding disorders.

Ian Hamilton, professor at the University of York, says that the shopping addiction has “caught psychiatry on the back foot”.

Experts, who have worked in the region for three decades, said they believe that we are still widely recognized as a formal diagnosis over the disorder for two or three years.

Professor Hamilton says that the retail sector has lifted some strategies used by the gambling industry to keep people busy online.

“I don’t think it is any accident that people find it difficult that once they start this loop of spending, buying, feeling good, then regrets.”

Academic adds that the rise of the affected is not just a coincidence.

“This is one thing that is an item described to you, [but that] A bright well -well put together does not have the same effect as watching the video package that increases the properties of an item and only shows positivity. ,

Pamel Roberts, Psychiatrist in the Healthcare Provider Poori Group, is clear: “We need to learn different sexual strategies but we can only learn [them] When it is identified as a problem – and it is only done when it is made official, “she says.

A spokesperson of NHS said: “NHS Talking Therapy provides treatment for many conditions including OCD and provides practical skills and techniques to help cope.”

He said that anyone struggling with obsessive and binding behavior can contact his GP or refer to himself for treatment.