Retail Therapy? — ADD Tip o the Day 343

This is a follow up on the ADD or ADHD posts on spending and money problems.  Many people use shopping as a way to deal with, or to avoid dealing with, painful and unpleasant feelings.  It’s like a fix – buying something gives a brief period of feeling good – followed by the crash of remorse, guilt, etc.  Buying must hit the dopamine pleasure centers just like speed, or candy or accomplishment or other things.  It can work as an antidepressant.  But short term only.

Sometimes I have seen the spending used as a form of rebellion, a resistance to a controlling partner for example.

There are strategies for dealing with spending, if it is a problem.  (And with a controlling partner, for that matter. see  The Dance of Anger by Lerner  clik)

So one strategy would be to find the underlying issue and find some other way to deal with it.

doug   

aarp on spending  clik

tip 341 on money problems clik

‘My father was a simple man, with very simple needs.  All he ever really wanted was a whole lot of money.’