1.Mall Addiction This article "Mall Addiction" expands on the article "Process Addiction" A mall addicted person is addicted to the act of shopping and spending money. Consequences of spending addiction manifest in all areas of the addicted persons life expecially in thier credit. Tips to cut down your shopping and ways to get help for a mall addiction. 

How can some people manage their money while others go thousands of dollars into debt?6% of America has a shopping addiction. America breeds shopaholics. Spending is embedded in our culture. Politicians encourage spending as a patriotic economy booster. Social worth is gained through consumerism. Advertising tells us exactly what shopaholics feel: shopping will make us happy.  

What Is A Mall Addiction?:Being addicted to shopping is bigger than over buying gifts at Christmas time. Compulsive spenders treat shopping like drug addicts treat chemicals. When these addicted people shop endorphins and dopamine are unleashed and the shopper feels good. Shopping becomes their main coping mechanism.They use shopping to get high. There becomes an inability to control their shopping despite feelings of guilt or remorse. Shopaholics spend hours they aren’t shopping obsessing about money or things they want to buy. They endlessly chase the shopping buzz into the depths of credit card debt and personal consequences. America breeds shopaholics. Spending is embedded in our culture. Politicians encourage spending as a patriotic economy booster. Social worth is gained through consumerism. Rappers sing about shopping as much as they talk about drug dealing. Advertising tells us exactly what shopaholics feel: shopping will make us happy.  

The Shopaholic's At Home Cures:A few tricks to try to stop shopping.

Cut up the cards. Credit cards enable and inspire overspending. Cash only. When you carry only cash you can’t spend money you don’t have. You will

also literally see and feel how much you are spending.

Shopping Journal. Tracking your spending shows you what’s really going on. Many shopaholics don’t look at what they’re spending at all while others don’t factor in the “little” things like eating out ($100-infinity/month) or knick-knacks.

Tax Yourself. Force yourself to save a percentage of what you spend (good luck if your shopping addiction as progressed to an unmanageable level)

Ask yourself if you really need it. Stay out of malls and places where you usually shop the most.

Mall Addiction Help:

Professional Counseling. Counseling can help you get to the root of why you have a need to shop.

Treatment. There are now treatment centers for spending. Support Groups. Debtors anonymous is a 12 step group which meets regularly so

shoppers in recovery can share with each other. Credit counseling. Many people who seek treatment have an average debt of around

$70,000.

When you have to hide trips to the mall like a dope fiend hides his drugs shopping has become too much for you to handle. Treatment and support have helped thousands of other over-spenders to get back on the track to financial and emotional stability.

Sources:

http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/features/shopping-spree-addiction

2.HOW CAN I MANAGE COMPULSIVE SHOPPING and SPENDING ADDICTION (SHOPOHOLISM)

Compiled by: Prof. Ruth Engs, RN, EdD, Indiana University, Department of Applied Health Science, Poplars, Rm 116, Indiana University, Bloomington,

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What is compulsive shopping and spending? People who "shop 'till they drop" and run their credit cards up to the limit often have a shopping addiction. They believe that if they shop they will feel better. Compulsive shopping and spending generally makes a person feel worse. It is similar to other addictive behaviors and has some of the same characteristics as as problem drinking (alcoholism), gambling and overeating addictions.

Compulsive shopping or spending can be a seasonal balm for the depression, anxiety and loneliness during the December holiday season. It also can occur when a person feels depressed, lonely and angry. Shopping and spending will not assure more love, bolster self-esteem, or heal the hurts, regrets, stress, and the problems of daily living. It generally makes these feelings worse because of the increased financial debt the person has obtained from compulsive shopping.

How can you tell if you are a compulsive shopper? Shopoholics, when they are feeling "out of sorts, shop for a " pick-me-up." They go out and buy, to get a high, or get a "rush" just like a drug or alcohol addict. Shopping addiction tends to affect more women than men. They often buy things they do not need. Holiday seasons can trigger shopping binges among those who are not compulsive the rest of the year. Many shopping addicts go on binges all year long and may be compulisve about buying certain items, such as shoes, kitchen items or clothing; some will buy anything.

Women with this compulsive disorder often have racks of clothes and possessions with the price tags still attached which have never been used. They will go to a shopping mall with the intention of buying one or two items and come home with bags and bags of purchases. In some cases shopololics have an emotional "black out" and do not remember even buying the articles. If their family or friends begin to complain about their purchases, they will often hide the things they buy. They are often in denial about the problem. Because they can not pay their bills their credit rating suffers, they have collection agencies attempting to get what is owed, may have legal, social and relationship  problems. They sometimes attempt to hide their problem by taking on an extra job to pay for bills.

How do you control and treat this condition? It is recommended that spending addicts seek professional counseling or a self-help group to deal with this problem. Addictive behaviors tend to come in clusters, so if you have an eating disorder, a problem with drugs or alcohol, or gambling, you may be a candidate for shopping addiction. Many communities have credit counseling centers that will also help with shopoholism.

How do I prevent shopping binges?

Pay for purchases by cash, check, debit card. Make a shopping list and only buy what is on the list. Destroy all credit cards except one to be used for emergency only. Avoid discount warehouses. Allocate only a certain amount of cash to be spent if you do

visit one. "Window shop" only after stores have closed. If you do "look" during the day, leave your

wallet at home. Avoid phoning in catalog orders and don't watch TV shopping channels. If you're traveling to visit friends or reltives, have your gifts wrapped and call the project

finished; people tend to make more extraneous purchases when they shop outside their own communities.

Take a walk or exercise when the urge to shop comes on. If you feel out of control, you probably are. Seek counseling or a support group such as

Debtors Anonymous.

http://www.indiana.edu/~engs/hints/shop.html

3.Emotional Effects of Addiction by Linda L. Simmons, Psy.D.Psychoanalysts in the 1960s came up with the notion that people often used addictive substances to medicate themselves when experiencing emotional pain. In subsequent years, many others have come to agree with this theory. Because of the pleasure pathway that addictive substances and behaviors can activate, the addict may initially feel relief.

Those very painful emotions that a person might try to numb or soothe with substances or compulsive behaviors may actually become intensified as time goes on. For example, if a man has a flask of alcohol hidden in his desk drawer at work to calm his nerves before an important presentation, imagine the anxiety of fearing he will lose his job if he's caught.

Or consider the woman who hides her feelings of loneliness with compulsive shopping. There might be a false sense of camaraderie gained from being in a crowded mall and conversing with salesclerks over purchases. However, the worry, fear, and shame of being discovered create a prison of loneliness for her that won't go away with unfulfilling purchases.

What is anhedonia?

Anhedonia is the inability to experience pleasure as one once did. Feelings become blunted and flat. Substance abuse and dependence can lead to anhedonia as the brain's pleasure circuit is damaged. An addict will often increase her substance use to try to regain her ability to experience pleasure and enjoy life.

Anger is another powerful emotion that often accompanies addictions. There are many possible sources of anger in this situation. An addict may perceive that life has treated him unfairly after experiencing a job loss, divorce, or financial setbacks, and use addictive substances or behaviors to try to soothe his anger. Anger may serve to keep others away so the addict can use substances privately.

You may well understand through your own experience that there are almost always other emotions beneath the anger. Common underlying emotions are fear, disappointment, and hurt. An addict may fear that she will not be able to live up to the expectations of others. She may feel disappointed that life has not gone the direction she wanted. Hurts inflicted by others, whether they are physical, emotional, or psychological, may be hard to manage and subsequently treated with addictive substances or behaviors.

http://www.netplaces.com/addiction-recovery/the-nature-of-addiction/emotional-effects-of-addiction.html

4.Shopping Addiction (Over-Shopping, Compulsive Shopping)

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In-depth information on compulsive shopping aka over-shopping or shopping addiction; including causes, symptoms and treatment.

Compulsive shopping or over-shopping is similar to other addictive behaviors and has some of the same characteristics as problem drinking (alcoholism), gambling addiction and overeating addictions. And while Shopping Addiction is not a recognized mental health or medical disorder, many mental health professionals believe it should be.

"People who 'shop till they drop' and run their credit cards up to the limit often have a shopping addiction," says Ruth Engs, EdD, a professor of applied health science at Indiana University. "They believe that if they shop they will feel better. Compulsive shopping and spending generally makes a person feel worse."

A 2006 Stanford University study concluded that compulsive overspending or over-shopping is a legitimate disorder that affects approximately 6% (17,000,000) of the U.S. population and that men and women suffer about equally.

What is Shopping Addiction, Compulsive Shopping or Over-Shopping?

"We all shop for many reasons," says shopping addiction expert Terrence Shulman, LMSW, ACSW, "but the addict buys to relieve anxiety and over time the buying creates a dysfunctional lifestyle and more-and-more of their focus is on shopping and sometimes the cover-up too."

Donald Black, MD, professor of psychiatry at the University of Iowa College of Medicine describes it like this: "Compulsive shopping and spending are defined as inappropriate,

excessive, and out of control. Like other addictions, it basically has to do with impulsiveness and lack of control over one's impulses."

Shopoholics (as they are sometimes referred to) when they are feeling "out of sorts, shop for a " pick-me-up." They go out and buy, to get a high, or get a "rush" just like a drug or alcohol addict.

The People Who Engage in Over-Shopping, Compulsive Shopping Behavior

According to Engs, shopping addiction or over-shopping tends to affect more women than men. They often buy things they do not need.

Holiday seasons can trigger shopping binges among those who are not compulsive the rest of the year. Many shopping addicts go on binges all year long and may be compulsive about buying certain items, such as shoes, kitchen items or clothing; some will buy anything.

Engs says that women with this compulsive disorder often have racks of clothes and possessions with the price tags still attached which have never been used. "They will go to a shopping mall with the intention of buying one or two items and come home with bags and bags of purchases."

In some cases shopololics have an emotional "black out" and do not remember even buying the articles. If their family or friends begin to complain about their purchases, they will often hide the things they buy. They are often in denial about the problem.

Because they can not pay their bills, their credit rating suffers. They have collection agencies attempting to get what is owed, and may have legal, social and relationship problems. Shopaholics may attempt to hide their problem by taking on an extra job to pay for bills.

And while some people joke about it, for those sufferers, family members and friends affected, a shopping addiction is no laughing matter.

http://www.healthyplace.com/addictions/shopping-addiction/shopping-addiction-compulsive-shopping/