Online Shopping Addiction: Symptoms, Causes And Treatment

Online shopping addiction has increased dramatically in recent years. Acquiring all kinds of products at the time we want and in the way we want is an indisputable advantage. However, the possibility of buying online is also a dangerous trap when we get carried away by impulse, anxiety or boredom.

One is sitting on the sofa in his house watching television and a wish suddenly comes to him: “It would be nice to buy some new shoes, maybe that way I would encourage myself to run.” He immediately accesses his mobile phone, performs a quick search and when he finds the ones that appeal to him the most, this shopping portal suggests that he may also be interested in another product.

After half an hour, include not one, but 5 products in the cart. This situation may be very familiar to us and it would not be a problem if this behavior were something isolated and punctual in time. The complex thing is that there are thousands of people who no longer have any control over their purchasing behavior.

Online shopping addiction: definition and how it manifests

The compulsive need to shop online defines a type of behavioral addiction. The simple fact of not having to leave one’s home to acquire what we need / want has aggravated a reality that appeared since the mid-twentieth century and was defined in his day by the psychiatrist Emil Kraepelin.

Despite this, it should be said that the concept of “behavioral addictions” such as shopping addiction itself was not included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V) until 2013 . Until that moment, everything addictive was related only to substance use.

Right now, and from a clinical point of view, we know that these behaviors can lead people to very serious situations and not only from a financial point of view.

What are the symptoms?

In 2015, the scale for detecting addiction to online shopping was published in the scientific journal Frontiers in Psychology . Since then, entities such as the University of Beijing in China and the University of Amsterdam in Germany have developed a new study to update this instrument given the need for an effective diagnosis.

The dimensions that we should attend to to know if someone has this type of behavioral addiction are the following:

• Online shopping addiction is manifested above all by the overwhelming and obsessive urge to buy, as this act generates well-being. However, 95% of the time what is acquired is not needed and this leads to suffering and regret. But soon the person dissuades that feeling by thinking of something new that he can acquire.
• The person cannot let a day go by without making an online purchase.
• Another factor is spending long hours connected to the Internet doing searches, looking at products in different stores. Sometimes they forget to eat and even spend the whole night connected.

• This behavior causes not only financial problems. In addition, arguments, fights and big problems arise at the family level, as a couple, etc.
• The simple fact of not being able at any given moment to connect to the Internet to buy generates great irritability and frustration.
• As that addiction becomes more intense, social relationships are dropped and performance at work or school declines.

What is the cause of online shopping addiction?

Online shopping addiction is not a new phenomenon, but it has intensified in the last year. The kaleidoscope of causes and triggers for this behavior is manifold and well known.

The University Duisburg-Essen (Germany) carried out a very interesting investigation to understand it. We analyze it.

From stress to anxiety, through boredom and uncertainty

Purchases through these digital portals are usually attractive. Not only are they a great way to “pass” time, they are also a constant emotional gratification. We spend hours looking at products, dreaming how that shirt will fit, how well we will listen to music in those headphones …

For a large fraction of time, we escape, flee and fantasize in alternative realities to our own and that briefly reduces the discomfort, anxiety and even the uncertainty that surrounds us.

The problem is that these sensations are very brief. Because once we leave the mobile phone or the computer, life in all its reality falls back on us and then … we realize that we have just made a new charge on the credit card.

Constant availability of articles and algorithms that seduce / manipulate us

Addiction to online shopping is also mediated by  a digital universe aimed precisely at us falling into this behavior. Not only the advertising that comes to us at every moment on our devices is increasingly invasive, but it is also personalized. Because there are algorithms that know our habits, tastes and online searches.

Also because big technology companies design their programs so that they don’t stop seducing us with the most incredible products. Online stores never lower the blinds with a very clear goal, that we buy.

Online shopping addiction and social anxiety

A part of people who suffer from online shopping addiction also show social anxiety. They are personalities who prefer this type of shopping in the tranquility of their home because that way they avoid contact with people.

This need for isolation often motivates the tendency to make the digital world its refuge and its catharsis and, sometimes, even its addiction.

How are these types of addictions treated?

Treatment for online shopping addictions always goes through psychological therapy. Approaches such as cognitive behavioral therapy and behavior modification are especially helpful and effective.

In many cases, it is also necessary to carry out interventions in the family nucleus given the psychological, relational and financial impact that these types of very delicate personal situations usually cause.