Logan J. Davisson - The Colors Of A Optimistic World

Sufficient time should be allowed for purchasing. Those who rush through the aisles under stress tend to pack things that they don't need or to compensate for the stress caused by unnecessary shopping in those moments. Since buying is the central problem of the buying addict, he should consciously deal with this action and under no circumstances rush through the aisles stressed out with the aim of escaping the "dangerous" situation as quickly as possible and just not fall into a shopping frenzy. On the contrary, purchasing should be conscious and above all concentrated. The aim is to maintain control over one's own behaviour.

A combination with breathing exercises can help to maintain calm. Instead of planning a bulk purchase once a week, it is advisable to make small purchases several times a week. Large purchases can often trigger a feeling of stress or even excessive demands. Affected people can get stressed by thoughts like "will that last a whole week now?" and tend to buy compensation food for fear of not having enough food in the house. The feeling of control and security plays a central role in this organization and the fact of preventing overbuying.

Even if the person concerned does not go shopping alone, he should ask himself, especially for purchases that do not serve daily use such as toilet paper: "Why would I like to have this watch/jacket/DVD now? "Do I really need them? After the realization "I have a shopping addiction" the affected person is not forced to live abstinently from now on and not to be allowed to buy any more material things. The people affected, just like people with a shopping addiction, have the desire to watch a DVD or to buy clothes. They just need to develop an awareness of why they want to own these things and value them. If the person concerned is aware of the purchase and knows his motives, it is legitimate to buy material valuables.

It is also advisable to keep a purchase diary or purchase records. This should record which goods and products have been purchased at which price. If the expenses and the number of the purchased products are written down and in black and white, it is no longer possible for those concerned to lie to themselves.

The purchase diary can also be extended by your own income and kept as a household diary. Nowadays, household diaries no longer have to be listed in writing, but can be created online. However, it is advisable to keep a household diary by hand, especially for those with a shopping addiction. In this way, the awareness of income and above all expenditure is trained and the brain is better able to remember which expenditure was made for which price. It is important not to create the household diary on the side in front of the television, but to sit down at a table and document your finances with full attention. The advantage of a household diary is that, in contrast to the purchase diary, services are also listed. Since certain services, such as a visit to a hairdresser, can also fall under the term shopping addiction, the person concerned can thus see how often certain services are called upon and whether this is necessary at all in the intervals that have occurred so far.

Sports, meeting friends or painting can help distract you from the urge to buy something. Affected people are encouraged to take on new hobbies or to take up old ones that they have discarded as a result of addiction. For example, those who used to visit the climbing hall regularly or go jogging every morning can take up these leisure activities again in their everyday lives.

Customer accounts both online and on-site should be blocked to reduce the risk of recidivism. Purchases on account or payment by instalments should be avoided completely. It also helps to delete credit card information or payment data from all pages on which those affected have made purchases so far. A potential purchase is of course not made impossible in this way, but it is made more difficult in a certain way. If the person concerned has to enter his or her payment data, he or she will gain time to question himself or herself and his or her current actions and possibly even cancel them.

With the help of youth protection, affected persons can even block entire pages and prevent themselves from shopping. The best thing to do is to ask a trusted third party to block the pages. This prevents the temptation to simply release the pages again with the help of a PIN.

Advertising blockers or filters can help shield some prohibited stimuli from themselves and completely eliminate advertising on the Internet. This makes it easy to eliminate various temptations while surfing.

In general, this should be avoided in the future, online, via television channels or catalogues shopping. In order to minimize the risk of relapse, catalogues should be cancelled or the corresponding television channels blocked.

In addition, a list can be created with all the things that the affected person already has or even position them clearly visible in the apartment. It is also a good idea to carry this list with you when you shop, and even to take it out at times of doubt and remember that you already own this product. In particular, products that have not yet been unpacked or even used should be listed. On the one hand this measure serves as a deterrent, on the other hand it makes the person concerned aware of which things he does not need at all and therefore does not have to buy.

Purchases should be limited to the essential necessary products. "Just like that''' through the shopping mile or visit department stores during the pre-Christmas period should be avoided at first. Special sales, sales or discount campaigns by department stores should also not be used for shopping, so that those affected are not tempted to buy something unnecessary in the first place. Non-affected people can imagine a shopping spree for a shopping addict who is on "withdrawal" as if a dry alcoholic were visiting a bar. Often the company of a friend or family member who supervises the purchase helps. It can help many affected people to write down a list of places they should avoid and carry with them. In addition to shopping centres, weekly markets and pedestrian zones, there may be other places on the list where people are confronted with advertising.

The evening commercial break in the TV should be avoided in the beginning time possibly also. Asking the partner to switch, switching briefly to still at the beginning or consciously focusing on relaxation methods can help regulate thoughts about shopping.

It is even recommended not to travel at the beginning of a treatment against shopping addiction. In foreign places, most people tend to buy things that are not necessary at all and spend money unnecessarily.

Learning relaxation methods such as autogenic training, breathing exercises or yoga can help relieve stress. Endurance or weight training can also have a positive effect. The connection is relatively simple: in stressful situations, various hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol are released. If the body is not able to break down these stress hormones, these tensions affect the psyche and can be discharged in a shopping frenzy. If, however, the body is able to break down these hormones through movement, the psyche and body return to a relaxed state. If you also learn to consciously relax your body, you can influence psychological relaxation through physical relaxation. The perception of mind and body is an important aspect of relaxation methods and even helps to improve self-control. Buying addicts who have problems with this self-control should therefore try out whether one of the many relaxation methods helps them.

However, it should be noted that these tips provide a remedy in acute cases, but only serve to combat symptoms and stop or suppress the delusion of buying. They primarily serve the self-protection of the person concerned, who should not get himself further into financial distress. There is even the danger that if shopping is completely prevented, another addiction will occur. Since those affected suffer from severe withdrawal symptoms as a result of the sudden compulsion to end their shopping addiction, the accumulated feelings and aggressiveness can be channelled into other coercive acts or an addiction.