Stopping Shopping Hormones
admin October 27th, 2009
Why does this buying ‘thing’ have so much control over me?
The research says that a substantial part of our desire to buy stuff is chemical – hormonal – which is why more and more health professionals are concluding that there is a shopping addiction diagnosis, and that its mechanisms are virtually identical to classic substance addictions.
When we see something we want to buy and begin contemplating that possibility, our endorphins and dopamine kick in giving us that well known ‘rush’. So the act of looking and buying feels very good and exciting which pushes us to pursue the good feeling and not let it go. It’s like sex: once you start it’s really hard to stop, and for many of the same chemical-hormonal reasons – it just feels good.
Of course that good feeling has absolutely nothing to do with reality. We may not have any need for the thing we’re contemplating, and in fact if we did buy it, it might end up unused in a closet, or it might drive our credit card over its limit and give us severe buyer’s remorse, or worse. But it feels sooo good! We don’t want to lose that thrill.
But it is a chemical thrill that is separate from the thing’s utility for us, or its unintended consequences.
This is what caused me so much heartburn when I recently bought a new van, even though buying new cars, which I pointed out in my last post, has been anathema to me for many years.
I knew the chemicals were kicking in as soon as the Cash for Clunkers program was announced and I saw a van I wanted at a great price. I knew the feeling I had was hormonal, but it sure did feel good. So I tried to put the excitement in my back pocket long enough to think through the logic of this buying decision.
Well, my back pocket leaked! Every time I considered the facts of the matter, I could feel my thinking being contaminated by the thrill, so it became more and more difficult to sort out my logical conclusions from hormone-driven emotional ones. I just couldn’t tell the difference after a while! And I knew it – and knew I was in trouble.
Marketers are very aware of this dynamic and prey upon it, much like cigarette manufacturers knew for years that their products caused cancer even while they targeted youth in their advertising. They knew that once kids started smoking the chemistry would overcome most of the research evidence regarding the dangers they might hear about. Manufacturers knew the chemistry would win.
They know that for most of us in the developed world, our chemistry will win most of the time if they just design their marketing campaigns well. They are praying (as well as preying) that all of our back pockets will leak and that our rational judgment will continue to be clouded by our hormones so they can make money.
Nothing wrong with making money, UNLESS it is made by harming people or God’s world. And unfortunately buying what we don’t need or can’t afford, and what the planet can’t tolerate, harms us, our wellbeing, our communities, our environment, and can even undermine our faith practice.
All businesses should only market what we need, not what our chemistry tells us we want, or what their market capitalization levels tell them they should have. Yes, businesses will make less money, but there is a great deal of good in a lowered standard of living and lowered expectations in the developed world – which the current recession should have taught us, but apparently hasn’t, given the continuing practices of Wall Street and multinational corporations.
Oh, and by the way, we shouldn’t buy into the notion that fewer sales and a lowered standard of living will throw everyone out of work and into poverty. Good econometric models will show that economies adjust to these changes so that even with less business, work will be prorated so that employment levels over time will remain reasonable, even if at lower pay rates, especially if we slowly move in that direction rather than letting yet another economic bubble burst which always suddenly throws large numbers of people out of work for long periods of time.
But my current problem – our problem – is how to deal with it today so we can indeed live simply.
The best way I know to do this is to:
1. Be constantly aware of our addiction and the chemicals swarming our brains.
2. When we feel that dopamine-induced euphoria coming on, STOP. Do not make a purchasing decision.
3. Get the opinions of those we trust to be rational simple livers, about whether this purchase would make sense.
4. Think it through and make a tentative decision.
5. Get the concurrence of your significant other, family or close friends.
6. If other’s opinions tend toward a non-purchase, and/or your S.O. does not concur, SKIP IT!
It is even be better to go through this process before we begin contemplating a purchase or making a shopping trip.
Go prepared to deal with your hormones and the marketers rather than letting them take control of you and then belatedly trying to back out of it and then be rational – very hard to do!
Prevention is the best medicine for addiction.