Until recently I had not heard of the word Oniomania – apparently a Compulsive Buying Disorder, a behavioural disorder characterized by a spending obsession. “Shopaholic” I guess is the more popular term on the streets. It is widely accepted that man and woman, as insatiable beings, continue to crave material satisfaction by acquiring new things every now and then.
A lot has been said and written about the Covid-19 pandemic (including the conspiracies) and fair to say, the last couple of months have become associated with words such as lockdowns and social distancing, among many others. Lockdowns in particular, have been accompanied by enormous changes in our everyday lifestyle and has affected the nook and cranny of our society. One of those essential changes has been felt in the way that we acquire the things that we want and need.
Online shopping has become vital over the last couple of months and with it comes the temptation of developing a habit, and in extreme cases, the “unwanted” disorder of becoming oniomaniac. I have always preferred the traditional route to shopping – walking or picking the bus to high street retail centres to make purchases, alongside gazing in the aesthetics and beauty of goods and wardrobe – emphasis on gaze. Sometimes the thought of dressing up to go to the town centre and braving weather elements can be enough reason to avoid the journey. However, with covid-19 enforced lockdowns and constant online activity- accompanied by a barage of online retail advertisements, most of those physical barriers have been removed – and with it the ease to slip into a habit of uncontrolled spending. All it takes is a click, after all.
Amy Fontinelle describes one such habit as emotional spending – spending as a result of feeling stressed out, bored, under-appreciated, incompetent, unhappy or any number of other emotions. Covid-19 has certainly brought to us these and many other emotional states. She advises that ways in dealing with this could be holding out and waiting for at least 24hours or more before making that click as well as intentionally blocking online ads and unsubscribing from product magazines and catalogues. Worth the short read.
It is easy to fall into this trap of emotional spending especially during this pandemic period. Whichever method works for you, after a sustained period of emotional and financial stress due to various covid-19 enforced measures, what no one wants is to come out of this pandemic with even more damaging emotional and financial stress caused not by a virus, but by the inability to tame our emotional spending.
So while you social distance, learn to practice shopping distance as well!
KAY Writes 