The addiction to stuff is ruining our lives and our society. It really is a culture of greed not to mention false gods such as expensive toys for adults, status symbols, and the rest of the junk. The shopping addiction is a result of things like anxiety, loneliness, and low self-esteem.
Some addictive adult shoppers keep buying more things than they know what to do with to spite their parents. Shopping, say shopaholics, relieves the emotional discomfort of everyday life. It also relieves the tensions of craving. "I want..." is an all-consuming (pun intended) battle cry. Shopaholics compare the high they get from buying things to shooting up heroin or freebasing coke. Others say it's more like the high of an intense orgasm.
Children and teens become craving consumersas well because unscrupulous companies market to them. Check out the brain washing your kids are getting during Saturday morning cartoons. Sometimes they are coaxed by media to suggest to their parents that they not just buy the kid a toy but a certain expensive car or other adult toy the kid can brag about. And some parents actually are persuaded by these begging. whining little snobs.
If you watch Oprah, you've seen the unbelievable amount of crap that addicted consumers bring home. Some are called hoarders. They can't live comfortably in their homes which serve as warehouses for their wall-to-wall crap. They have so many possessions they don't remember what they have, and so when they want an item they don't remember buying, they just go out and buy another one, which results in multiple purchases of the same item. Then Peter Walsh, the hotshot professional organizer comes over with a teamof workers to get everything out of the house and out on the front lawn so they can see what can be sold, donated, or tossed. And after that they show the residents of the home crying and thanking Walsh and crew because they have a chance now to live like a normal person.
But everything you've heard about money and possessions not bringing happiness is true. Addicted shoppers are always chasing the dragon. Buying stuff brings diminishing returns when it becomes a way of life, and is no longer a thrill like it was initially. So they keep buying more trying to satisfy that craving with a shopping fix, but it doesn't happen and they just get unhappy but stuck in a buying mode because they don't know how to stop. Stress builds, anxieties grow, and the bank stops the credit lines. Now the addicted materialist is really in a bind because their coping mechanism for stress is to go out and buy more.
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Anticonsumerism Information:
verdant Web site
list of anti-consumerists
Simple Living
How advertising turned advertising into a secret weapon
Adbusters (org)
anticonsumer-organizations.htm
Donate/Receive Goods
The Story of Stuff
Books:
What Would Jesus Buy?
Cultural-Studies-Anti-Consumerism-
No_Logo
And Many More
Google "Simple Living" for ideas on how to live well without dependence on materialism.
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