Time for sales and purchases, which opens in a few hours throughout Italy: a period awaited by many to buy something, primarily clothing, which at other times of the year would have too much of an impact on one's budget. But if for the majority of Italians discounts represent an opportunity to treat yourself to something you need or want through a thoughtful and conscious purchase, for others, around 5% of the population, 'sick' of compulsive shopping, they constitute “a additional risk factor, a pretext to reiterate pathological behavior that is out of season for them.” A 'negative' aspect of the sales is described to Adnkronos Salute by Paola Mosini, psychotherapist at Humanitas Psico Medical Care.
“Compulsive shopping is the pathological version of the normal and healthy gesture of purchasing: that is, its purpose is distorted, replacing the necessity of the object with a pathological emotional drive, and the method is no longer a choice but an obsession”, explains Mosini, recalling that to the estimate of 5% of Italians with a real disorder, there are added “many others who experience various forms of discomfort related to shopping without there being a real problem yet”. “People with compulsive shopping disorder – she explains – absolutely do not know how to stick to a budget and have no knowledge of what they need and what they can really afford”.
The 'shopping addicts' – 95% women, especially between 20 and 30 years old, people who have or have had an emotional disorder such as anxiety, phobias, depression – “no longer describe only the pleasure inherent in going to go shopping, but rather the tension, the discomfort, the sense of not being able to escape from it”, explains the psychotherapist. And when they get to the doctor they are sometimes “in a dramatic condition, because perhaps they have spent all the money they had (regardless of how much it was), they have lied to their family members, using money and resources secretly, omitting purchases. Furthermore, these people often have a compromised social situation. However – he underlines – it is difficult for these people to actually arrive regretful, because the pleasure and thrill that precede and accompany going shopping remains. It is like for those who are addicted to alcohol or substances narcotics”. Therefore the sales period represents a further 'temptation'.
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