Although retail therapy has always been around in some form, research has found COVID-19 increased online shopping and with it, retail therapy, according to Charlie Athill, a professor at the University of the Arts in London.
Retail therapy refers to “the act of buying special things for oneself in order to feel better when unhappy,” according to the Cambridge Dictionary.
For some, the practice is seemingly harmless. However, for others, retail therapy can evolve into a serious addiction, Pepperdine Counselor Sparkle Greenhaw said.
“It’s that line you cross between — ‘I just need something to relax me’ — versus — ‘I’m experiencing something and I need to escape,’” said Debra Perez, private practice therapist and adjunct professor at the Graduate School of Education and Psychology.
As with other addictions, shopping addictions link regularly practiced behaviors with potentially dangerous outcomes. These addictions can hurt the bank account, but they can also harm an addict mentally.
Experts Define Retail Therapy
“Retail therapy” is a rather innocuous term that serves no diagnostic purpose, Greenhaw said. The practice might appear differently for various people, but tends to look like overspending and buying unnecessary things.
With two-day shipping and shopping malls in every city, students said they have placed a heavy reliance on the immediacy of today’s shopping experiences.
First-year Audrey Riesbeck said she finds the experience of in-person shopping much more enjoyable than online. She likes seeing how things look and feel, and physically taking them home the same day is a major plus.
“It’s easier for me to spend money in person than it is online, but I know that’s the exact opposite for a lot of people,” Riesbeck said.
Although this type of therapeutic shopping takes different forms for many, retail therapy provides an escape from some sort of unwanted feeling, Perez said.
For many, retail therapy truly is a harmless term with few negative connotations.
First-year Lael Soqui said she finds a prominence of retail therapy in her life through thrift shopping.
“I usually like to make a day out of it and get food after,” Soqui said. “It’s more of a full-day thing.”
Soqui finds the practice to be a therapeutic activity that serves a higher purpose than just buying items on a computer, she said.
“I like to express myself through clothes, so I think having nice clothes makes me feel good about myself,” Soqui said.
When shopping at thrift stores, Soqui said she can still express herself and engage in shopping at a significantly lower cost.
Shopping Addictions Versus Other Addictions
Although for some retail therapy is just a shopping trip or online purchase here and there, others have admitted it can develop into an addiction.
“It becomes more of a problem when people are hiding it, continuing to do it despite negative experiences, when it’s affecting relationships — those kinds of things,” Greenhaw said.
A common behavior seen among people with a shopping addiction is the privacy involved — they feel more secure engaging in such behavior when no one is around, Perez said.
“[Accessibility of online shopping] has made it so much easier to do this in private where no one knows,” Perez said.
Similar to other types of addiction — such as ones relating to substances — Greenhaw said feelings of regret and “short-term highs” oftentimes accompany shopping addictions. These high periods give addicts a temporary sense of relief from the issue they’re trying to escape.
It may be hard to judge where to draw the line between addiction and “just shopping,” Perez said. This is where the frequency of the behavior matters.
“Where we start to see it being a problem is when it’s ‘I can’t deal with what I’m experiencing on a consistent basis, and so I shop,’” Perez said.
Despite holding many similarities to other addictions, Perez points to a key difference for shoppers. Looking at a spectrum of addictions, shopping would probably be toward the less dangerous end, she said.
“Big picture: shopping isn’t going to kill brain cells, and it’s not going to be detrimental to your physical or mental health,” Perez said.
However, this doesn’t mean it’s not damaging.
Often, once the shopping is over and the joy is gone, the negative feelings one was avoiding come back, Perez said. These feelings can spiral into a mix of the previous thoughts combined with a new sense of guilt, making them even worse than before.
The Dangers of Online Shopping
When COVID-19 emerged and forcibly shut down the entire world, shopping malls and retail outlets across the globe closed, wrote Athill. Online shopping saw a sharp increase in popularity, Athill wrote in his 2021 article, “Material Pleasures: The Solace of Lockdown Retail Therapy.”
Lila Rendel, a copy editor for the Graphic, said the pandemic “planted the seed” for the future relationship she would have with online shopping.
Looking back on the era now, Rendel said it makes perfect sense; she was just becoming a teenager at the time, just beginning to independently buy her own things and she had no car — so online shopping was the perfect solution.
Two-day shipping allows items to be in one’s hands incredibly fast, and all it takes is the click of a button to purchase something.
For some, this is immensely useful. But for Rendel, she said this easy access became her biggest enemy.
Rendel said she dealt with a shopping addiction during the pandemic after going through a breakup. A mix of heightened emotions and the convenience of shopping increased her spending habits.
“[Online shopping’s] accessibility was part of the problem for me — like it was almost too accessible,” Rendel said.
The most important part for Rendel was realizing that she really did have an addiction and that it was a problem, she said.
“It was more of a gradual thing, not just one big moment,” Rendel said. “I definitely struggled with coming to terms with the fact that it wasn’t healthy.”
The realization came when the paychecks did not, Rendel said. As a high school student with a steady income from working at her local pizza parlor, Rendel said she became accustomed to having the means to support her addictive habits.
“Once I stopped working and started trying to save the money that I had, I realized how hard it was,” Rendel said. “And so once I tried to stop doing that, that’s when I realized it really was an addiction.”
Recovering From Shopping Addictions
As shopping addictions are becoming more common, especially among younger generations, options for recovery are vital to those looking to work past these practices.
The mindset one chooses to have is a major part of recovering from an addiction of this type, Greenhaw said. She said practicing mindfulness, getting outside and paying more attention to one’s mind and body as opposed to things that are external are all positive practices to implement.
Additionally, Greenhaw said increasing the time between wanting to buy something and purchasing it is an incredibly beneficial practice.
“Giving it 24 hours could help someone have more time to think about it or change their mind,” Greenhaw said.
Once one integrates these healthy practices, they might find the next step to be a “look, don’t buy” mentality, Greenhaw said. By doing this, one still has the opportunity to dream and be in the shopping universe without the negative ramifications.
Although it was hard to separate herself from the addiction, Rendel said, looking back on it now, she sees how unhealthy it was. Shopping is still a part of her life now, but not in the same unhealthy way it was before.
For Pepperdine students, Greenhaw recommended checking out the Counseling Center. Students can also find online resources on their website to become more self-aware and read about different kinds of habits.
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Follow the Graphic on X: @PeppGraphic
Email Amanda Monahan: amanda.monahan@pepperdine.edu
