NEW YORK WHOLESALE

By Dominique Jackson

PUBLISHED: 07:05 EST, 29 May 2012 | UPDATED: 07:05 EST, 29 May 2012

Shopaholic. Even the word itself sounds faintly ridiculous, doesn’t it? It is a word frequently bandied affectionately by the most generous husband about a wife who has been on a spree, for as we all know it is usually women who feel most compelled to shop till they drop, don’t we?

It is a word which carries no particular stigma in our buy-with-one-click age of pile-it-high, throwaway fashion, next-day delivery and celebrity-endorsed and media-fuelled clamour for the next, must-have handbag, to-die-for designer sunglasses, or perfect pair of shoes. To say nothing of the coolest designer gadgets and top of the range tech which is practically obsolete the minute you take it out of the immaculate packaging and plug it in.

Consumer culture: Boxing Day sales crowds at the vast Westfield Stratford shopping centre

Yet compulsive shopping, or oniomania, to use its medical name, is as potentially devastating for the individual and their family as alcoholism, compulsive gambling or other addictions such as anorexia and related eating disorders, with which it shares many characteristics.

Aggravated by the rampant consumerism of the last decades, the problem is on the rise and I suspect we are now finally going to have to stop poking fun at the shopaholics and take their problem seriously.

Compulsive shoppers suffer from an inexplicable preoccupation with shopping and spending. They are generally thought to get a dopamine-related high or hit from their purchases. Yet few are ever even used or worn and, once they have their booty home, the post-purchase shopper often collapses in self-recrimination and anxiety about how they are going to pay for their next fix. Around 5.8 per cent of British adults are thought to be affected and cases are on the rise.

Treatment: Scientists have discovered that an Alzheimer's drug can help allay some symptoms of shopaholics

Now, psychiatrists have established that a drug called memantine, originally designed for patients with Alzheimers, may have a significant benefit for shopaholics. Clinical tests have shown improvement in many key symptoms, such as impulsive buying, anxiety and improvements in brain function linked to the impulsive urges and behaviour.

Speaking as someone who has witnessed the pernicious effects of a shopping addiction from extremely close quarters, I am pleased to hear about this breakthrough and equally glad to see the problem being treated seriously for a change, instead of being seen as a bit of a joke and used as a faintly misogynistic put-down.

What worries me is how and why we seem suddenly to be seeing so many cases of this kind of extreme addiction, from apparently simple shopping to the kind of horrific eating disorder which trapped 63 stone teenager Georgia Davis in her own home. Prescribing dementia medication to compulsive shoppers may indeed help, but aren't we simply replacing one addiction with another?

Shopaholic: Star Thompson, who spends 1,000 a week on clothes

Last week, the Daily Mail reported on another 19 year old, Star Thompson, from Wakefield, who had turned to glamour modelling and escort work to support her out of control shopping habit. The teenager spends 1,000 per week on clothes, although she already has wardrobes full of unworn garments, including 200 bras and 15 pairs of 250 Ugg boots.

She was recently given an extraordinary 6,000 as a birthday gift by her family, but she had spent 4,000 of the windfall within hours. 'You only live once', said Star, showing off her crammed cupboards to a tabloid newspaper. True, but what kind of a life can this really be?

Miss Thompson readily admitted that her shopping and spending makes her 'feel better'. Yet like every addict, it seems that she is caught in a tragic cycle of euphoric highs and guilt-ridden lows. Compulsive shopping is reportedly highly addictive, given that the rush and satisfaction of the purchase can disappear as soon as they leave the shop, meaning that they need to make yet another impulsive purchase or locate another trophy buy or bargain to maintain their good mood.

Extraordinarily, the problem was first documented more than 100 years ago but has only been seriously identified and acknowledged as a valid subject for psychiatric research in the last 15 years. Hardly a surprise when you consider the tandem rise of ever-multiplying possibilities for us to buy a whole new range of things we don’t really need and can often barely afford. We can now all shop in ever bigger mega-malls, we can shop on-line, we can even watch television shopping channels all through the night and we can now pay for it all with a swish of our smart phones.

Our culture revolves around consumption. Despite our straitened economic times, we are still surrounded, 24/7, by potent and relentless marketing and advertising which promotes impossibly high material aspirations, creating utterly artificial wants and needs, making young women like Star Thompson feel she is not valid or worthy if she does not possess a particular pair of shoes.

Perhaps Miss Thompson would respond well to the proposed new treatment with Alzheimers medication? She certainly needs some sort of intervention, not least from her parents who appear to be content, and certainly wealthy enough, to continue to underwrite her addiction. But for how much longer?

The sooner the Thompsons, and the rest of society, recognise that shopping in this way and on this scale constitutes a serious psychological problem, the sooner the sufferers will get the help they so clearly need.