with the therapist or participate in a meeting of the self-help group. If family support is completely eliminated, those affected should not be afraid to seek support from an addiction counselling centre. After all, support is one of the most important cornerstones for the successful implementation of first aid measures. Relatives should urgently avoid showering the person concerned with accusations, criticism or blame. Rather, they should be aware of the psychological vulnerability and lability and lovingly support you and not let accusations or "how could you let it get so far?!" sentences fall. The child has literally already fallen into the well, the affected persons are helped by active support that is oriented towards the future and does not repeatedly address the stressful feelings and events of the past.
Credit cards and cheque cards should be issued or blocked as a first measure and only cash payments should be made. Thus, those affected are compelled to be able to buy things only for the amount they carry with them. It is advisable not to let this amount be too high, but to take only the amount that is really needed for the purchase with you. In this way, the attitude to money is changed. External support should be sought for these steps so that this measure can be implemented without compromise. Those severely affected can, if the basis of trust permits, even hand over their finances to another person for a certain period of time. However, this should only be seen as a short-term measure, primarily for self-protection. The buying addict must finally learn a new buying behavior in the long run and should not be completely incapacitated from all financial things for an indefinite period of time. It is important to note that relatives should always treat those affected with respect and treat them at eye level. From the moment he asks for help, he is well aware of his problems and wants to be supported and not condemned.
Confrontation exercises in department stores can be helpful. Putting things aside before paying and leaving the store again without buying anything can be a measure that can counteract buying addiction. In this way, the affected person can learn to control his or her impulses and record his or her first small experiences of success. Usually the compulsion to buy something vanishes when the people concerned have resisted the atmosphere of the shopping malls or the pedestrian zone and were able to escape from the situation. From the point of view of behavioural therapy, these exercises are intended to counter-condition the previous behaviour.
If purchases have to be made that were previously the object of desire, those affected can first take a look at the product in the shop accompanied by an escort. The purchase itself should not be made until the next day, so that the person concerned can reconsider the purchase decision and become aware of the necessity of the product.
For everyday shopping, it helps to write a shopping list and meticulously adhere to it. It often helps to ask someone to accompany you when you are shopping, so that no deviation from the shopping list can take place. The creation of the shopping list should best be done with a trusted person who, in case of doubt, can question the necessity of a certain matter. The shopping list should not include things like "butter" or similar products. The brand and the quantity should be written down specifically. Thus the urge to "have a look" is completely suspended and shopping step by step is no longer perceived as a euphoric activity, but perhaps even as a nuisance.
Sufficient time should be allowed for purchasing. Those who rush through the aisles under stress tend to pack things that they don't need or to compensate for the stress caused by unnecessary shopping in those moments. Since buying is the central problem of the buying addict, he should consciously deal with this action and under no circumstances rush through the aisles stressed out with the aim of escaping the "dangerous" situation as quickly as possible and just not fall into a shopping frenzy. On the contrary, purchasing should be conscious and above all concentrated. The aim is to maintain control over one's own behaviour.
A combination with breathing exercises can help to maintain calm. Instead of planning a bulk purchase once a week, it is advisable to make small purchases several times a week. Large purchases can often trigger a feeling of stress or even excessive demands. Affected people can get stressed by thoughts like "will that last a whole week now?" and tend to buy compensation food for fear of not having enough food in the house. The feeling of control and security plays a central role in this organization and the fact of preventing overbuying.
Even if the person concerned does not go shopping alone, he should ask himself, especially for purchases that do not serve daily use such as toilet paper: "Why would I like to have this watch/jacket/DVD now? "Do I really need them? After the realization "I have a shopping addiction" the affected person is not forced to live abstinently from now on and not to be allowed to buy any more material things. The people affected, just like people with a shopping addiction, have the desire to watch a DVD or to buy clothes. They just need to develop an awareness of why they want to own these things and value them. If the person concerned is aware of the purchase and knows his motives, it is legitimate to buy material valuables.
It is also advisable to keep a purchase diary or purchase records. This should record which goods and products have been purchased at which price. If the expenses and the number of the purchased products are written down and in black and white, it is no longer possible for those concerned to lie to themselves.
The purchase diary can also be extended by your own income and kept as a household diary. Nowadays, household diaries no longer have to be listed in writing, but can be created online. However, it is advisable to keep a household diary by hand, especially for those with a shopping addiction. In this way, the awareness of income and above all expenditure is trained and the brain is better able to remember which expenditure was made for which price. It is important not to create the household diary on the side in front of the television, but to sit down at a table and document your finances with full attention. The advantage of a household diary is that, in contrast to the purchase diary, services are also listed. Since certain services, such as a visit to a hairdresser, can also fall under the term shopping addiction, the person concerned can thus see how often certain services are called upon and whether this is necessary at all in the intervals that have occurred so far.
Sports, meeting friends or painting can help distract you from the urge to buy something. Affected people are encouraged to take on new hobbies or to take up old ones that they have discarded as a result of addiction. For example, those who used to visit the climbing hall regularly or go jogging every morning can take up these leisure activities again in their everyday lives.
Customer accounts both online and on-site should be blocked to reduce the risk of recidivism. Purchases on account or payment by instalments should be avoided completely. It also helps to delete credit card information or payment data from all pages on which those affected have made purchases so far. A potential purchase is of course not made impossible in this way, but it is made more difficult in a certain way. If the person concerned has to enter his or her payment data, he or she will gain time to question himself or herself and his or her current actions and possibly even cancel them.
With the help of youth protection, affected persons can even block entire pages and prevent themselves from shopping. The best thing to do is to ask a trusted third party to block the pages. This prevents the temptation to simply release the pages again with the help of a PIN.
Advertising blockers or filters can help shield some prohibited stimuli from themselves and completely eliminate advertising on the Internet. This makes it easy to eliminate various temptations while surfing.
In general, this should be avoided in the future, online, via television channels or catalogues shopping. In order to minimize the risk of relapse, catalogues should be cancelled or the corresponding television channels blocked.
In addition, a list can be created with all the things that the affected person already has or even position them clearly visible in the apartment. It is also a good idea to carry this list with you when you shop, and even to take it out at times of doubt and remember that you already own this product. In particular, products that have not yet been unpacked or even used should be listed. On
