A recent study has revealed that the brain is responsible for shopping addiction or the compulsive buying disorder some people, especially women, develop. The study, conducted by the Prague-based Institute for Medical Studies, showed that women are much more likely than men to develop this disorder, Al-Riyadh daily reports. The study described the disorder as something dangerous and put it on the same footing with drug addiction. Compulsive shoppers rely on the addiction to deal with stress and as a means to vent. Khayriah Al-Ashqar and her four daughters are self-proclaimed compulsive shoppers who spend hours shopping every week. Even though Khayriah admits she and her daughters' shopping habits cause rifts with her husband, she refuses to cut down, a common trait among shopping addicts. "My four daughters and I go to the mall on a weekly basis. My husband keeps pushing us to buy what we need quickly and he ends up losing his temper. He is not patient at all. I don't think my daughters and I can get rid of our shopping addiction. We spend a lot of money and sometimes go on shopping sprees and I think that this is what makes my husband mad at us," she said. According to family counselor Bari'ah Al-Harbi, what a woman describes as a "love for shopping" is often just an addiction. Women who have a lot of free time are more prone to develop a shopping addiction, she warns. "Some studies blame certain hormones in women for this addiction. My advice to women is not to go to the mall when they feel down, bored, depressed or anxious. Better yet, they should go on a picnic or walk to get rid of the negative energy," she said. Dr. Mahmoud Kasnawi, professor of sociology at Makkah's Umm Al-Qura University, noted that there are no accurate statistics about shopping addiction in the Kingdom. He did say such an addiction is often a result of people's need to ostentatiously display their money. "Some people suffer from an inferiority complex and they want to compensate for this inferiority and bottled up feelings by shopping as a means to show off their wealth to their peers," he said. "The first step in treatment is to talk to the addicted person and convince him or her that one should not view shopping as a means to display one's wealth. One should not boast in front of others about his or her shopping sprees," he added. Factors that fuel shopping addictions include too much free time, depression, anger and rejection by others, said Ali Abu Hekma, a clinical psychiatrist at Abha Mental Hospital, who added that spouses must not be passive bystanders when they see that their significant other has a problem. "Some husbands sit in front of the TV like couch potatoes for hours and encourage their wives to go shopping. This type of disregard will only further encourage the addict to continue with their ways," he said.
