Are you a Shopaholic?
Its incredible how a film about alcoholism, drug addiction, gambling addition or an eating disorder would typically be approached from an angle of self-destruction, despair and depression. However make a film about someone who has a shopping addition and its approached as a light hearted, endearing and mischievous trait that is easily fixed if you just pull yourself together and pay off your debt. Oh and don’t do it again of course.
However, the realities of such a problem can lead to bankruptcy, emotional breakdown, relationship breakdown, mental illness, depression and suicide to name a few.
The film “Confessions of a Shopaholic” is an irresponsible approach to a serious issue faced by many individuals in the UK and the US. They have lost control of their financial reality, have no concept of their situation and continue digging themselves deeper into debt by a thought process of “oh well I’m in debt another £50 isn’t going to make much difference”
The Banking system is absolutely paranoid about bad debt and you might not be up to your limit on your credit card and dipping in and out of your overdraft but have you considered how you would manage if your overdraft facility was withdrawn or you credit limit dramatically reduced? Chances are you would be in a very tricky situation in a short space of time.
So in the real world if you’re getting into a financial mess where do you start? Money Mentor Michael Taylor explains that “if you’ve got a problem with spending more than you are earning you need to stop and face the problem full on. Working with such clients often requires us to “fire fight” them back to a stable financial platform whilst providing constant mentoring in order to re-align their relationship with money and address the source of the issue. Having support and encouragement with a clear plan and direction is all part of the healing process.”
A shopping addiction is a cycle of purchasing items that you feel will give meaning to your life. You experience the emotional high of the retail environment in which you are making the purchase but then quickly hit an emotional low when the purchase is then taken home and separated from the retail environment where the product is often discarded as unused. How many of you have spent big chunks of money on exercise equipment, electrical appliances and clothes only to quickly disregard them as no longer of interest?
Along with going into financial best practices of budgeting and consolidating it is vital to look at the source of the problem. This means looking at an individuals working life and private life and trying to establish where they want to be in the future.
The book and the film has a happy ending but offers false hope to those with drawers full of unopened correspondence from creditors chasing money. If that sounds like you or someone you know then addressing it now can reduce the damage later.
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