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I'm shopaholic!!!!!!!!!
Posted on Jan. 4, 2006 at 11:38 AM
We may often joke about being a "shopaholic", but it's no laughing matter when shopping really does becomes an addiction.
Merrilee Siviour spent hundreds of thousands of dollars shopping before she would admit to having an addiction. Her out-of-control spending broke up one of her marriages and prompted three suicide attempts. Now she is speaking out to help others.
Merrilee's compulsion got so extreme that she would often fly to Adelaide from her rural South Australian home to shop secretly. She would spend wildly, forking out thousands of dollars at a time. Then she would hide her purchases.
She says her shopping addiction stemmed from childhood abuse, and she felt the need to binge shop as an emotional outlet.
Merrilee finally sought help at the South Pacific Private Hospital in Sydney under the care of psychologists such as Heather Bray.
Ms Bray says many of her clients are addicted to drugs, drinking or alcohol, and that Merrilee's symptoms were very similar. "It's really about the obsession of thinking, and the compulsiveness of having to go out and do it even though you have told yourself you won't do it."
In Merrilee's case, she would constantly think about shopping: what she was going to buy and planning when she was going to buy it. When she finally relented and went to the shops, she'd spend up really fast and get a big adrenaline buzz from doing so.
Merrilee says she learnt at South Pacific to recognise what triggered her addiction, and this helped overcome it.
Financial counsellors at Creditline say they see many cases like Merrilee's, where compulsive behaviour leads to financial ruin.
They warn that there are many people out there with compulsive spending tendencies that rely on credit, and urge anyone with a credit problem to seek help before it is too late.
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