Is Your Shopping Compulsion Just Repressed Anger?

Former debt addict Diane Conlinn writes about how she discovered here desire to go shopping was really an expression of emotions she wasn’t dealing with.

    “Until recently I rarely was angry. Or at least I thought I wasn’t ever angry. But the truth was, I had been bombarded with, it’s bad to be angry. It’s bad too want to lash out. Generally, I was angry because something I regarded as justifiably wrong had occurred either to my loved ones or to me. I had followed all the advice of just resolving to be happy, and didn’t deal with my frustrations. One of the things that I’ve discovered is that I funneled my anger away. I funneled it so far that I didn’t realize I was angry. So, now when I get a spending impulse, or eating impulse, I look inside to see if I’m angry. Because I have to find out what I’ve pushed aside. And instead of buying that outfit, I am going to actually allow myself to feel angry, and then, do something about why I am angry. I’m going to acknowledge it in some way by either telling the person I’m angry at or by writing about it.”

Anger: not socially acceptable.
Shopping: socially acceptable!
Writing: socially acceptable AND free.

Does Dianne’s previous method of coping describe anyone you know?

Curbing that Spending Impulse [Squeaks]

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