Do you count the ways you can spend your pay check every month? Are you more excited about the January sales than you are for Christmas?
Or perhaps you like to treat yourself to “a little something“ when you’re down, because, in the words of Confessions of a Shopaholic's Becky Bloomwood, “When I shop, the world gets better“.
Well we’re sorry to be the bearers of bad news, but it means you’re probably a shopaholic, according to researchers at the Faculty of Psychology at the University of Bergen.
They found that shopping could be likened to an addictive disorder, whereas before it was just considered an obsessive-compulsive one.
Lead author Cecilie Schou Andreassen also found that shopaholism was becoming increasingly common due to shops being more accessible.
She said, “Modern technology has made shopping extremely accessible and convenient, with the potential of sending problematic shopping into overdrive especially along with sociocultural factors such as social media, credit cards, and advanced marketing.”
Researchers also looked at the causes behind the addiction, prompting them to create a test to determine whether you are addicted to shopping.
The Bergen Shopping Addiction Scale test consists of seven addiction criteria which are shown in those with a spending habit.
Take the Bergen Shopping Addiction Scale test below to find out if you’re a shopaholic.
Look at each of the following statements and rank them with the following statements: (0) Completely disagree, (1) Disagree, (2) Neither disagree nor agree, (3) Agree and (4) Completely
- You think about shopping/buying things all the time
- You shop/buy things in order to change your mood
- You shop/buy so much that it negatively affects your daily obligations (e.g., school and work)
- You feel you have to shop/buy more and more to obtain the same satisfaction as before
- You have decided to shop/buy less but have not been able to do so
- You feel bad if you, for some reason, are prevented from shopping/buying things
- You shop/buy so much that it has impaired your well-being.
If you score “agree” or “completely agree” on at least four of the seven statements, you may have an addiction.
Images: Rex, Facebook.com/GossipGirl
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