Oniomania is the technical term for the compulsive desire to shop, more commonly referred to as compulsive shopping or shopping addiction. Victims often experience feelings of when they are in the process of purchasing, which seems to give their life meaning while letting them forget about their sorrows. Once the environment where the purchasing occurred, the feeling of a personal reward would be gone. To compensate, the addicted person would go shopping again. Eventually a feeling of suppression will overcome the person. For example, cases have shown that the bought goods will be hidden or destroyed, because the person concerned feels of their addiction and tries to conceal it. He or she is either regretful or depressed. In order to cope with the feelings, the addicted person is prompted to another purchase.
Compulsive shopping often begins at an early age. Children who experienced parental neglect often grew up with low because throughout much of their childhood they felt that they were not important as a person. As a result, they used toys to their feelings of loneliness. Because of the ongoing sentiment of deprivation they endured as children, adults that have depended on materials for emotional when they were much younger are more likely to become addicted to shopping. During adulthood, the purchase, instead of the toy, is substituted for . The victims are unable to deal with their everyday problems, especially those that alter their self-esteem. Important issues in their lives are repressed by something. According to studies, as many as 8.9 percent of the American population as compulsive buyers. Research has also found that men and women suffer from this problem at about the same rate.
