Oniomania

How is your 'oniomania?' Do you know anyone who has it? Oniomania is the medical term for shopaholism. This addictive, obsessive disorder involves a need to buy things. Compulsive shoppers have been shown to be deficient in serotonin. Kellet and Bolton describe compulsive buying as the experience or having an irresistible–uncontrollable urge, resulting in excessive, expensive and time-consuming retail activity [that is] typically prompted by negative affectivity and results in gross social, personal and/or financial difficulties. Some have called it ‘retail therapy.’ If no compulsivity is involved it may be a mood lifter. But like the use of opiods, it can be either a therapy or an addiction, depending on whether it is adaptive or maladaptive. (Lombard, Jay, Dr., and Dr. Christian Renna. Balance Your Brain, Balance Your life.)