To buy or not to buy? That is the question we're asking ourselves more frequently these days.
Impulse control disorders come in many forms, including eating disorders, pathological gambling, and addiction to substances. Perhaps a more common, albeit less debilitating, type of impulse control problem is compulsive shopping.
Think back on the last time you bought something you really didn't need and which perhaps costs more than you can afford. You couldn't take the object out of your mind, your excitement level goes way up as you increasing crave for it and anticipate owning it, you may even be experiencing accompanying physiological responses (increased pulse rate and blood pressure). Your experience peaks at the time you sign on your credit card purchase slip and may sustain for a few more hours after you get home to play with your new gadget, put on your new dress, or admire the new painting. You feel an immediate relief as your physiological arousal comes back to normal. That relief, my friend, is what your brain remembers and craves to have happen again and again.
Now how different is that from substance addiction?
Impulse control disorders come in many forms, including eating disorders, pathological gambling, and addiction to substances. Perhaps a more common, albeit less debilitating, type of impulse control problem is compulsive shopping.
Think back on the last time you bought something you really didn't need and which perhaps costs more than you can afford. You couldn't take the object out of your mind, your excitement level goes way up as you increasing crave for it and anticipate owning it, you may even be experiencing accompanying physiological responses (increased pulse rate and blood pressure). Your experience peaks at the time you sign on your credit card purchase slip and may sustain for a few more hours after you get home to play with your new gadget, put on your new dress, or admire the new painting. You feel an immediate relief as your physiological arousal comes back to normal. That relief, my friend, is what your brain remembers and craves to have happen again and again.
Now how different is that from substance addiction?
by April Lane Benson All across America, people's shopping habits are changing. The question of "to buy or not to buy" has become more complex than ever.  clipped from psychotherapynetworker.comIn our consumer-driven economy, we've long been asking material things to do what they really can't: regulate our emotions, improve our social status, and turn us into our ideal selves. To be sure, even before the downturn, many had raised questions about the psychological consequences of our cultural devotion to materialism. Studies and indicators had found something surprising: that as our economy (and particularly our purchasing) surged from the 1960s onward, our sense of individual and social well-being dropped off sharply. the more you believe happiness comes from material wealth, the more likely you are to be depressed, distressed, and anxious—and the less actual well-being you're likely to experience.
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