Shopping sounds fun but when it exceeds a certain limit, it becomes like an addiction which is equally bad for both your mental health and finances both. Despite having disease-like effects, excessive shopping was never considered as a medical diagnosis before, and recently, some health experts have constructed a complete structure to the device as a medical diagnosis called “Compulsive Buying-Shopping Disorder”.
This new diagnosis for excessive shopping habits can help them get help to save themselves. The complete guidelines are now published in the Journal of Behavioral Addictions.
According to the results, it is clear that excessive interest in buying new things every other day can be considered as a disorder and needs treatment like all others. Therefore, the physicians have to develop new treatment plans and tools to help people suffering from this excessive shopping disorder.
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This study was an international collaboration between the Órama Institute for Mental Health and Wellbeing (Flinders University) and Hannover Medical School (Germany) to devise evidence-based diagnostic criteria for people who may be suffering from Compulsive Buying-Shopping Disorder (CBSD).
First, it is necessary to know that this uncontrollable urge is not normal and it doesn’t apply to the average shopping experience. Uncontrolled shopping is considered as a clinical manifestation but there were no criteria set to diagnose it. Despite being around for so many years, without a clinical representation it could cause huge financial constraints.
This diagnosis is a game-changer especially for people who find it hard to resist the urge of shopping even if they are on a restricted budget. People like these need actual treatment but for these treatments, they first need a clinical diagnosis designed under a standard protocol or guidelines.
In the last two decades, understanding how excessive shopping affects health is never perceived as a real disease, because of the same reason that it has no clinically diagnostic criteria. Therefore most people are not ready to understand the severity of this issue and refuse to get the help that they truly need.
But now, it is possible to get a diagnosis and a treatment based on this new criterion established by the health experts. This study had not one or two but 138 research experts as well as clinicians from at least 35 different countries, joined together to develop a common ground for the proposed new criteria for excessive shopping disorder. This diagnosis for the shopping disorder was based on the purchase of those items that were left unused for their very purpose and there was no clear reason behind buying them.
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The second important feature of this excessive shopping disorder is to understand the internal state of mind, and using them to relieve the negative energy and stress that urges them to buy things, without thinking.
People who tend to buy unnecessary things often have issues in controlling their emotions and they use this hobby to feel better. On the contrary, when a patient suffering from this disorder goes shopping, this whole trip will make their condition worse, urging them to feel negative or stressed, leading to shame embarrassment or a feeling of guilt.
