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High of the buy

Hi Friend,

Last year, many of us particularly Melbournians, became prisoners in our own homes, and many of us to came face to face with the ghosts of purchases past.

With no visitors on the horizon the clutter in my hallway was passed over. Background noise. Elevator muzak.

You’d think this tableau of clutter would act as a warning. Unfortunately, it didn’t stop me from coveting new stuff. Not a chance.

“The antidote for my mediocrity is just around the corner.”

“The very next purchase might be the one that allows me to fulfil my worldly purpose.”

It’s true, even academics who study this stuff are susceptible to the allure of indiscriminate acquiring or as we like to minimise it retail therapy…

Surfing the virtual strip-shops and stumbling across a bargain gave me a buzz and I knew it was the hit of dopamine that erupts when novelty and reward come together and activate the motivational systems of my brain. But I still indulged.

All I needed to do was click ADD TO CART and BUY NOW. Now that I realised how satisfying shopping online was, the avenues for getting my hands on the “high of the buy” were endless. Anything I wanted could be in my hands within days.

Frictionlessly effortless.

I anticipated the Postie ringing the door bell and imagined tearing open the box.

“Yum, new stuff. Wow (Japanese anime eyes glittering)!”

Seconds later -

“Hmm what’s for lunch?”

I was shocked by how quickly the high wore off Friend.

Like other hedonistic pursuits I quickly forget the let down and…

found myself chasing the scream once more.

Just two clicks away.

Even though it isn’t included in the definition of hoarding disorder in the DSM-5 excessive acquisition is a specifier (along with level of insight). It’s a little bit of a contentious topic with some researchers believing there are a proportion of people who hoard that are not compulsive acquirers. Clutter simply builds up because they just don’t through anything away. At all. Ever.

Some of my colleagues say there is little evidence that this happens with any statistical significance and suggest that excessive acquiring is likely to have occurred at some stage in the person’s life even if they don’t engage in the behaviour at the time of assessment.

To be honest it’s not something I worry about but researchers like that type of esoteric fight.

We talk about dispossession so often; however, often the starting point in my work is halting the flow of objects into the home. Finding an alternative activity to engage the areas of the brain related to novelty and reward is part of the treatment.

Understanding the fleeting nature of pleasure is also key to recovery.

I’ll leave you with a quote from Bruce Hood’s latest book Possessed: Why we want more than we need:

“We assume consumerism is motivated by the pleasure of acquisition, but in fact it is the pursuit that really compels us to constantly fill our lives with stuff. When we are motivated to acquire, we have a goal that is intrinsically rewarding. We may feel disappointed or thwarted if we fail to achieve that goal but, equally, we are not satisfied by success because acquisitions rarely deliver the expected pleasures we anticipate (p.147).” (My underlining.)

Mic drop my friends.

Until next week :)

Jan <3

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