Addicted to Simple Living

This is your brain.

This is your brain on shopping.

The official term for being addicted to shopping is oniomania. It is probably more common than we care to admit.

It sounds like a funny name, but the situation is absolutely humourless, despite common light-hearted enabling phrases like "shop till you drop", "shop fearlessly", or "when the going gets tough, the tough go shopping".

Also known as Compulsive Buying Disorder, it defines the buying everything approach that business people love so much. 

They would like nothing more than giving us all a case of CBD. 

Human nature is susceptible to addictions generally, making shopping and spending money a potentially dangerous activity for many, perhaps most consumers. 

It has devastating effects for individuals, families, and the planet.

Better to develop what author William Glasser calls positive addictions.

He says that positive addictions can strengthen us and make our lives more satisfying. Two examples he uses are running and meditation.

"If more of us gain strength," Glasser says, "maybe we will make a better world; there is little chance we will do so if too many of us are weak."

Positive addictions, unlike their unhealthy counterparts, enhance our lives.

An addiction to conspicuous consumption, and the daily grind of competing for fewer and fewer resources, is keeping us weak. 

Speaking from personal experience, simple living can become a powerful positive addiction. 

An "addiction" to simplicity can help one overcome negative addictions, and lead to an integrated and rewarding life.

It is the basis from which to recover and start building a better world for all.

Just say YES... 

...to the calling of the simple life.

Resisting Advertising Mind Manipulation

Advertising - what it looks like.

Walter Dill Scott, the original American applied psychologist, published the first book on the psychology of advertising in 1903. The world hasn't been the same since.

Scott outlined what he saw as desirable traits in a population that could be exploited by advertisers.

In his book Advertising, he suggested people were "highly suggestible and obedient", then recommended ways this could be exploited to the benefit of advertisers. 

He believed that consumers were irrational, and therefore easily influenced, and I guess he has been proven right.

Scott spent his career researching methods of social control and human motivation, and showed how people with something to sell could use these to influence consumer behaviour. 

He advised advertisers to use Direct Demand Commands in their campaigns. Such advertising will always tell you directly what to do. 


"Use Our Product!" 

"Don't Wait" 

"Buy Now!"

"Click here"

"Act Now"

And we all know how much fun it is to be told what to do. 

Marketing specialists help advertisers guide the consumer into and through what they call the "marketing funnel". 

Yes, that is a thing.

“A direct response ad should always demand an immediate response with a clear call-to-action that compels the prospect to take action now.” 

- Stephanie Mialki

I don't know about you, but I don't want to be manipulated and funnelled by anyone. 

The concept brings about images of cattle gates funnelling animals into an abattoir. Or children being funnelled in orderly single files into the educational meat grinder.

The Funnel is a trap. Best to run, fast, in the opposite direction.

Back to the pioneering mind controller, Scott. 

He tells early marketers that, “a human has been called the reasoning animal, but they could with greater truthfulness be called the creature of suggestion.” 

Thus begins the "funnelling" of the beauty and complexity of what it means to be human down to docile creatures plopping out of the skinny end of restricted ways of thinking.

Harry Holingworth, another early applied psychologist, also worked for the dark side. 

When advertising was in its infancy he explained that good advertising had to do four main things:

1. Grab the readers attention.
2. Focus their attention on The Message.
3. Induce the consumer internalize The Message.
4. Cause the consumer to take action and buy, buy, buy.

Advertising - what it means.

Mostly what they want to create is our obedience and compliance to them and their self-serving system.

“For me," poet Charles Bukowski said, "obedience to another is the decay of self."

Allowing ourselves to be suggestible and obedient to the consumer model of exploitation is to give up the very things that makes us who we are. 

It is inhuman to its very core. It is anti-human, and anti-life.

A human needs very little to get by, and anyone that tells us differently has dangerous, selfish motives. 

They care nothing for our happiness or the health of the planet.

We should not wait -  the only answer to the rank manipulation of our minds and wallets is to resist now, and resist hard.

Anti-Shopping Mantras - Part II

When I want to adjust my shopping chakra, I use a few tried and true mantras that provide me with the resistance against consumerism that I may occasionally need. 

The traditional purpose in using mantras is to create transformation, and many agree that they are powerful tools in this regard. Indeed, mantra is a Sanskrit word that means "sound tool". 

It is beneficial, then, to have a few of these in your anti-shopping toolbox. (You can see Anti-Shopping Mantras - Part I here.)

Anti-Shopping Mantras


- "I don't need that. Nobody needs that."


- "That harms the environment."


- "That will not improve my life."

- "My purchases don't define me."



- "I can focus on life more effectively without unnecessary material possessions holding me back."


- "That is not worth the hours of work required to purchase it."



- "This won't make me happy."


- "I would rather have the cash, or work less." 


- "I already have enough."


- "This was made by a large corporation that pays no taxes, and I don't want to support that."



- "I live without things other people have because I want to, not because I have to."


Mantras can help us become free of harmful thoughts, words, and actions. Try using these, or make up your own, to reduce the temptations that constantly bombard us and manipulate us to buy things we don't need.

Do you have a favourite anti-shopping mantra of your own?

Anti-Shopping Advice From The Trenches

My post on oniomania, or compulsive shopping, is one of NBA's most read. It is also one of those posts that has elicited numerous interesting comments, including from readers with a diagnosed addiction to shopping. Those comments contain excellent strategies for dealing with the impulse to shop beyond what is needed.

Since that applies to most people and most shopping done in consumer-oriented cultures, this anti-shopping advice is helpful to us all in quelling the strong impulse toward wanting MORE.

First let us consider some of the reasons for shopping for things we do not need as expressed by NBA readers.

• Loneliness
• Depression
• Desire to “look good”.
• Deprivation early in life.
• Working a lot.
• Feeling isolated
• Advertising.
• A sense of competition - trying to "keep up".
• Feeling unloved.

Following are some of the strategies that have helped or motivated readers to deal with their urges to shop.

• Run out of room to store things.
• Run out of money and/or credit.
• Recognize you are not alone, and that many others experience the same shopping compulsion.
• Share your situation with loved ones. Let them help.
• Dedicate yourself to a hobby or project.
• Spend time with friends.
• Cut up your credit card(s).
• Develop a positive addiction such as regular exercise.
• Be content with what you already have.
• Recognize and eliminate your "triggers" that lead to urges to shop.
• Seek the help of someone who understands the consequences of compulsive shopping.

It is hard to say NO to shopping while crawling through the trenches of consumerism. There is a lot of pressure to buy, buy, buy.

But a better way is possible. You will find a lot of support here.

Shopping Addiction Mini Doc

Do you have a shopping addiction?

What is the opposite of not buying anything? Oniomania, or compulsive shopping - buying everything. Most of us are compelled to spend money, but for some people this urge gets to the point of causing harm to themselves and the people they love.

Shopping addictions negatively impact the lives of people wherever credit and consumerism have taken hold. It is a global problem, and it is spreading.

We received a comment recently from a group that is eliciting the support of NBA readers concerning shopping addictions.

Tegan Tallullah wrote in response to our post on oniomania:

"Hi everyone. This is a really interesting post, and has obviously struck a chord with many readers. I'm  making a mini documentary about shopping addiction to raise awareness about it, and am looking for anyone that has this condition and is willing to do an interview.

Me and the crew members are media studies students at Brighton, UK. We're willing to travel to London or anywhere in Sussex, or alternatively we could do a skype interview if you live elsewhere, or in another country.

We feel that shopping addiction (oniomania) is misunderstood and often trivialised within pop culture and the media, when actually it is a very serious condition with the potential to ruin lives. We want to raise awareness about the condition.

Whatever stage you're at (struggling, mid-recovery etc) we would love to hear from you. If you're interested or would like more information, please get in touch by sending an email to

shoppingaddictiondoc@gmail.com .

If you're willing to be interviewed but would like your identity to be concealed, that is absolutely fine.

Thank you for your time."

You won't hear much about oniomania from marketers and advertisers - they are the ones pushing the heroin-strength shopping drugs. Their sole purpose is to get all of us addicted, and they spend billions of dollars a year to help us build our habit.

So I say congratulations to these students for tackling this issue to see what they can learn. Their mini documentary sounds like something I would like to see.

Can you help them out?

Oniomania: When Shopping Becomes Unhealthy

It is hard to change behaviour if it is not seen as a problem.

Do you like shopping? Do you really like shopping, really need shopping? Are you suffering from Oniomania? Are we all, to a certain extent?

Definition

Oniomania (from Greek ὤνιος onios "for sale" and μανία mania "insanity") is the technical term for the compulsive desire to shop, more commonly referred to as compulsive shopping, shopping addiction, shopaholism, compulsive buying or CB. The condition has been recognized for over 100 years.

The Condition

Although not taken very seriously by an increasingly shopping-focused world, CB is a psychiatric disorder with serious repercussions for sufferers, and those around them.

Those diagnosed with this disorder - anywhere from 10-30% of Americans - represent the far end of the spectrum. But it would seem by the global popularity of shopping that we are all susceptible to this condition to some degree. Is this what evolution has brought us to - turning the process of acquisition into an obsessive mental illness? If so, what might trigger this response?

Causes of Oniomania

Could it be the multi-billion dollar marketing and advertising industries? As a small, but growing, group of humanity acquires more wealth they also increase overall consumption. It happened in North America over the past several decades of growing wealth, and it is happening now in places like Brazil, India, and China.

Trust in me...

Marketers salivate at the exploding growth, fertile ground for opportunities in encouraging compulsive purchasing. "Let us help you spend your money", they whisper, like Kaa the Python in The Jungle Book trying to hypnotise the Bandar-log. "Trust in me, trust in me, look into my eyes..."

The hypnosis techniques that the money charmers use are glossy catalogues, television shopping channels, cybershopping, and glittery malls that smell like new stuff. The snakes of commerce are good at creating 'needs', and convincing you to meet them by trading your money for their attractive, yet worthless products and services.

Experts believe that compulsive shoppers engage in their behaviour because of a need to feel special and combat loneliness. CS think that shopping will make things better, but it is an expensive therapy that is proven ineffective.

Compulsive shopping only feels good until the initial rush wears off. It may last until you reach the car and load it up with your recent amazing purchases. Or until you get home to your partner. Or until you realize you spent the rent money. Then the guilt kicks in, and the cycle repeats.

This is a global problem now as more and more people spend money acquiring stuff as they convert themselves from citizens to unhealthy consumers (just like we did in the 1950s).

In a world that worships at the altar of shopping, getting away from it can be a challenge for even the most committed anti-consumer. It is even more difficult for  Oniomaniacs as they represent the elite athletes in the game of desire and consumption. We tend to honour them and their patriotism. What is the problem? Why change?

People chuckle at T-shirts that shamelessly announce, "Shopaholic", or, "When the going gets tough, the tough go shopping", but this is seriously harmful behaviour for many, and it is certainly bad for the planet.

Treatment

So how to become less shopping oriented, regardless of where we fall on the Oniomania spectrum? As with many mental illnesses, treatment is difficult, comparable to the intransigence of hoarding behaviour.

Doctors would most likely prescribe therapy and/or pharmaceutical concoctions, but the most effective method is having a strong personal desire to make positive changes for the yourself and the planet.

First is recognizing there is a problem - we have to link our desire to shop and consume with the ongoing destruction of the natural world, not to mention our own happiness. Then we need a plan to reduce desire, and consumption through self-control.

Try starting with 24 hours of not buying anything, then progress to a couple of days. Once you get better at it, you may find you can go a whole week of not buying anything. That might feel so good that eventually most days are shopping-free.

You are liberating yourself from that shopping monkey riding on your back, and realizing the benefits.

Benefits of Kicking The Shopping Habit

1. Spending less, saving more. Getting out of debt = freedom!
2. With a reduced budget and no debt, you will be able to work less if you choose.
3. You could get a lower paying job with NO responsibilities (as in American Beauty)
4. There will be fewer things to store and maintain in your house.
5. It feels good to live unencumbered by a constant desire for things.
6. You will have more money for the things you really need, like food and shelter.
7. By not shopping as much you are withholding your money from the 1%.
8. All the time you would have been shopping can be spent doing more productive things like, writing a book, volunteering at your local school, helping a neighbour, learning to play an instrument, hanging with your partner and/or kids...
9. With less stuff you could move to a smaller home.
10. Your new extra time could be used to start a blog - spread the word about the joys of kicking the shopping habit.