Shopping To Feel Better

Retail therapy: why does buying stuff make me feel better?

When you’re about to purchase a shirt you just saw in an ad or when you go to a website to buy a lamp you absolutely adore, a little voice inside your head might have asked you, “Do you need to buy this right now?” An easy way to quiet that annoying voice would be to say, “This is therapy. Retail therapy.”

If you often yield to the allure of retail therapy, we get you. No judgments here! Let’s dig a little deeper into this phenomenon that is now our guilty pleasure.

Benefits of Shopping :

When you feel low, you may find yourself planning a trip to the mall. Even if you end up buying nothing, you are likely to come back feeling better. This is because in the mall, surrounded by other shoppers, you feel a certain social connection. This connection, with other shoppers with similar goals and dreams in the mall, gives you the sense of community that many human beings search for in their activities. Even though this isn’t a personal community (you don’t know them and may not even speak to them), the feeling of belonging to a larger group engaged in similar things can soothe you and make you feel less alone. If you are shopping with friends or family, these feelings also take on a more personal touch.

Is it bad for you?

Don’t get it twisted, though. Calling this whimsical and sometimes expensive endeavour ‘therapy’ does not make it so. Regardless of how effective retail therapy may seem, it cannot get to the root of your problems. Granted, you feel a mood boost after the shopping spree (sometimes lasting for days), but this does not address what triggered the flurry of moods and thoughts that you couldn’t get through in the first place. In the worst cases, your harmless coping mechanism can become a compulsive disorder. In addition, there is the risk of tipping over from an occasional treat into a regular behavioural pattern. Experts have also established similarities between online shopping behaviours and gambling in terms of addiction and minimisation of risks.