Compulsive buying disorder (CBD) is characterized by an obsession with shopping and buying behavior that causes adverse consequences. Most persons with CBD meet the criteria for an axis II disorder.
CBD is found in 5.8% of the United States population, approximately 80% of those affected are female.
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CBD is frequently comorbid with mood, anxiety, substance abuse and eating disorders. Onset of CBD occurs in the late teens and early twenties and is generally chronic. CBD is similar to, but distinguished from OCD hoarding and mania. Compulsive buying is not limited to people who spend beyond their means, it also includes people who spend an inordinate amount of time shopping or who chronically think about buying things but never purchase them. Promising treatments for CBD include medication such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), and support groups such as Debtors Anonymous.[1][2][3][4]
Evolutionary psychology has noted that 'compulsive buying seems to occur globally' and that 'the majority of sufferers are women', as well as that there are 'commonalities and differences between compulsive buying and other forms of compulsive consumption'.[5] Building on the way 'compulsive buying is a mood-enhancing mechanism', the fact that 'most purchases made by women in a compusive-buying episode seem to be linked to appearance-enhancing products, thus suggests that the compulsive "loop" is related to social risks associated with looking unattractive'.[6]
In terms of social psychology, 'excessive, uncontrolled buying of consumer goods can be understood as a form of identity seeking...an extreme form of identity seeking through material goods that lies on a continuum with everyday psychologically motivated buying'.[7] Against the background of 'the transformations of consumer culture over the last few decades, this model focuses on endorsement of materialistic values and identity deficits as vulnerability factors for compulsive buying'.[8]
In the globalized context of a consumerist system that has 'specialised in generating and then granting the wishes of human beings and thereby ruling the world' - where we are all encouraged to 'shop till we drop';[9] to 'seek solace in material possessions'[10] - CB inevitably poses the question, 'Minority pathology or Mass problem?'.[8] When 'all across the economically liberal world, the banks treated financial irresponsibility as a valuable commodity, cheap credit was everywhere',[11] and it was a point of social pride to be able to say 'my credit card is so far into the red it's turning purple'[12] - when 'consumers don't buy products so much as narratives...to self-identify as'[13] - such 'identity seeking through consumption combines with a consumerist culture infrastructure...[as] an important dimension of compulsive buying'.[14]
The possibility has also been raised that 'virtual compulsive buying could be a future trend that effects young consumers of both genders'.[14]
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