Retail Therapy

I have a problem. No, not my need for anger management classes, nor my need to build social skills (I’m not anti-social, just socially challenged). These two things pale in comparison to this problem of which I speak. My problem is called “Retail Therapy.” You know the trite saying that girls eat ice cream and watch sappy movies to feel better. Not this girl. I shop to feel better. Not like I need a reason to shop to begin with.

I’ve perfected the art of shopping – Window shopping, Flea market shopping, Boutique shopping, Department store shopping, Dollar store shopping, Corner store shopping – I am what you call an equal opportunity shopper. All I need is a room with things that have price tags on them and you got my attention for a few couple of hours. I don’t discriminate on stores...some of my best pieces were either got from the most unlikely shops or at a crazy bargain!

So my retail therapy problem is thus: If I have a bad day, I shop. Someone gets on my nerves, I shop. I get bored, I shop. Its a nice day out, I shop.

Its not that I am financially irresponsible but shopping to me is what AA is to an alcoholic or rehab is to a drug addict. It heals me. Tammy Faye Baker had the right idea when she said “shopping is cheaper than a psychiatrist.” Not like I know what the hourly rate is to obtain a shrink is but I reckon it probably is more expensive than the kinds of shopping I do. So I should carry along and indulge right? Wrong.

Getting upset + Shopping = Happiness seems like a good equation and one can argue that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. However, there is a missing variable in that equation and its called Discipline. I have come to realize that this habit of shopping in order to release happy hormones is trés problematic (albeit the current economic situation played a major part in ‘shoving’ me to this realization! :-).

Up until a few years agoI used to suck my thumb to feel better (yep a FEW years ago...and?) . No harm there as I was young enough not to know any better and quite frankly the only harm that caused was a slight overbite. Everyone besides my dentition wins! But now, as a young adult, this road to self appeasement, as anyone will agree, is far from functional! Therefore in order to avoid being a hypocrite and in order to practice what I preach on my blog a propos functionality, I have decided to stay away from the shops...

...until September (i’m trying to be self-righteous not mad!)

Hence my experiment commences. Hopefully, I find a way to placate myself when times get rough that does not have to do with expanding my closet. Hopefully I don’t regress to sucking my thumb, or end up on a psychiatrist’s couch – I heard they are pretty expensive.