Most people think that if you just get on a budget, your spending problems will end. With all too manypeople, this isn’t so. Amongst my other duties, I have been working with people who have gotten intofinancial trouble. I am a trained psychotherapist and life coach who was hired by a consumer debtcompany to help their clients get out and stay out of debt.

Looking at life behaviors as well as financial behaviors is essential to help with compulsive spendingbehaviors. To me, they are all related. People behave the way they do for reasons that make sense tothem. The problem being that some of these behaviors are self-destructive and destructive to others.

What are the reasons that someone would continue to buy items that they do not need or possiblycannot afford? Therein lays my mission. A collaborative exploration was necessary to find “the reasons”and to find substitute behaviors rather than the current destructive behaviors to satisfy the reasons. Ofcourse, different people have different reasons. Some common reasons were that people felt unlovedand buying new things would give them a chemical rush not unlike that felt when being in love.

Shopping could bring a sensation of feeling privileged or at least, not denied. Self-esteem or insecurityissues seemed a common thread. Working to explore and resolve these core type issues gives a resultand a more lasting result. The spending is merely a symptom of what is really going on. It is important toaddress the underlying emotions.