But is shopping really an addiction? The experts, as experts do, disagree with one another. As our own Addiction expert Elizabeth Hartney points out:
Like other behavioral addictions, shopping addiction is a controversial idea. Many experts balk at the idea that excessive spending can constitute an addiction, believing that there has to be a psychoactive substance which produces symptoms such as physical tolerance and withdrawal for an activity to be a true addiction.
Even if you side with the experts who feel it is an addiction, you probably wouldn't classify me or most other people you know as shopping addicts. After all, when we say we really need a pair of shoes or a bag, most of us don't mean need in the physical sense.
Which means that our mothers were right all those years ago in the candy store. Next up: The study that proves that making that face will make it freeze that way.
