Shopping Turning Out A Disease

A point to think over-Is shopping good for health or is it a disease we must call deadly. The consumption of material goods is so closely linked to our emotional state, it’s easy to develop unhealthy habits while shopping. As it makes sense shopping for many of us is fun, we get to see beautiful things and make them our own. It’s a process that brings some temporary materialistic joy. Naturally when person enjoys something, it’s easy to frequent that activity,turning it into a hobby especially when it is easily available and cheap.

Facts regarding shopping as a growing disease

As an article in an American journal says, shopping has been tried as an therapy on many individual women's those are suffering from depression. After shopping, the pulse-rate and blood pressure of women became normal, as it boosts their ego and creates adrenaline essential for feel-good sensations. The study was based on the survey of women of prosperous families in the USA and cannot be applied to Indian women. There were no comments regarding women who feel depressed after spending their money. Researchers in the USA believe that after a women is depressed for want of activity,she should be sent out to buy things. This will make her feel normal.

How does shopping affect

They describe shopping as a ‘tool for survival’ an essential pre-requisite for mental health. The more they stress out, the better they feel. In New York window shopping is the favourite pass time, but in India the average middle class woman has to be content with window shopping, since her purchasing power is limited and this only creates self-pity. As the ‘shopping therapy' says when a woman freaks outwhile shopping she feels free from restrictions. This is as good as any other muscle-relaxing exercise. It increases and preserves in her body chemistry, a hormone good for her emotional well-being. Psychiatrists who believe shopping to be a ‘healing plant' for mental disorders give examples of patients that are totally cured. They advise the husbands to take their wives to departmental stores and let them buy the things they desire and feel stress free.

Opposing this thought many believe that shopping is a deadly disease to which cash-rich women of metro cities are more prone. The so called discount sales lay a trap to gather much public but television commercials and the status symbol of internet or online shopping are more alluring and inviting as compared to domestic shopping.

World Wide scenario

In cities like Hong Kong and Singapore there lies abundance of women heading off to shopping bonanzas. There in London, Paris and New York women keep list of the latest happening palaces of shopping paradises. This addiction is not easily curable. Around 2 million people in UK and 15 million in the USA are afflicted by this addiction. Psychologists describe them as ‘oniomaniacs'. They spend fortunes to indulge their whims and then land in debts. Many are recorded to have had strokes. Compulsive shopper treat the shopping mall as a religious place and talk over their bargaining capabilities,they show off their purchases before their neighbours and feel satisfied.

In reality they are not satisfied,when their friends have left and gone once again they feel depressed and abandoned. It is at such moments they have fits of remorse and fear of the future. Some patients may indulge in shouting,shrieking,crying and vandalism. It is destructive mentality to believe that if you are a great shopper you will be taken to be a great person, or your social status will rise. If it boosts your ego for a while, it is certainly not worth the amount that you pay for it, or get into any debt. It may also results out to be a strained relationship between you and your closed ones or well wishers.