Is 'Retail Therapy' Actually Helpful With Depression Or Anxiety?

Picture this: You aren’t feeling great, and your mood is low. Your friend calls you up and begs you to go shopping with them. You oblige. You feel your mood lift and you feel good. Now, the question is –does retail therapy actually help? Retail therapy is when you go shopping for the main purpose of making yourself feel better. A study found that 62% of shoppers bought something to cheer themselves up. A further 28% made a purchase to celebrate something. Now, the question arises – does it actually help with depression and anxiety? 

This article will look into the benefits of retail therapy, why it makes you feel better, and when it can turn into a problem. 

Does retail therapy actually work?

Turns out, shopping does lift one’s spirits. Researchers examined 407 adults in three experiments in 2011 to support this claim. Here are their main findings: 

• Unplanned shopping seems to help relieve bad moods.

• Resisting the urge to buy something has a similar mood-boosting benefit for people trying to avoid impulsive spending.

• Retail therapy usually doesn’t involve negative effects, such as buyer’s remorse, guilt, anxiety, or other distress.

• The mood improvement associated with retail therapy seems to last well past the purchase.

Now, why does shopping improve mood? Research says that shopping gives you a back a sense of control over your own choices and the environment, making you feel better. Buying things for ourselves can restore our sense of autonomy, giving us a boost of satisfaction. Plus, it provides a distraction from whatever is bothering you, giving you a welcome break. When you go out to a store or a mall, you are surrounded by people – for some, this social aspect can be uplifting as well. 

Shopping also stimulates the senses. The bright lights, beautiful displays, and colourful things invoke a sense of wonder. These results also translated to online shopping, where curated projects made people imagine themselves owning that merchandise. According to clinical psychologist Scott Bea, PsyD., dopamine is released even before we shop. Just browsing, scrolling, or window shopping can improve our mood. The simple anticipation of a reward or a treat releases dopamine – the feel-good hormone neurotransmitter in your brain. Plus, a lot of us ‘save up’ to buy an item we have wanted for a long time – this, too, results in a slow, sustained release of dopamine. 

While shopping can make you feel better in the moment, there isn’t conclusive evidence of whether it can help with depression or anxiety in the long term. 

Understand the problems with retail therapy?

You want to ensure you’re not taking shopping to an extreme. For some, shopping can become a problem. For many, it can become an addiction. When shopping becomes a way to cope with anxiety, stress, or loss and is difficult to control, it becomes a compulsive behaviour. So when does shopping become an addiction? Here are a few things you can look out for.

• Buying things you don’t need

• Feeling unable to control shopping

• Feeling a need to hide purchases

• Spending a lot of time doing research on items that may or not be needed

• Lying about the amount of money spent

• Needing to shop more overtime

• Spending money you have set aside for other expenses

• Facing money problems due to excessive shopping

If you feel like your shopping has got out of hand, here are a few things you can do: 

• Create a budget and stick to it 

• Buy only those things that you need 

• Track your purchases diligently

• Save up to buy more expensive items instead of swiping your credit card

• Use real cash, instead of using cards

Remember, retail therapy isn’t actual therapy. And if you find yourself unable to control your shopping even after taking these steps, you might consider reaching out to a mental health professional such as a therapist. They can help you understand how you can feel better without having to spend a lot of money to do so.