Retail Therapy...Good or Bad?

Ahhhh, nothing feels better than a little retail therapy, right?  Let's face it, it's always fun to buy yourself a little something.  A new pair of jeans, maybe a new purse, or those hot pink shoes? 

But when does a little retail therapy turn into an obsession?  Or perhaps a crossover or transfer addiction?  I only ask because I've been looking back over my past spending habits.  At first after surgery, I was very frugal.  It was great to go into the grocery store and only buy $25 worth of groceries for the next 2 weeks, if not longer.  If you were like me, in the beginning, you were proud of yourself for making the decision to have surgery, but you weren't seeing results right away, so you were somewhat depressed.  But, after that first 50 pounds came off, you were on top of the world!  Nothing could go wrong, no one could get you down...except for that stupid scale!

So, to make myself feel better, I bought myself just a little something.  It might have been a smaller sized t-shirt, a pair of exercise/yoga pants or maybe even a new movie.  It wasn't anything big, just a little pick me up.  Since then the "gifts" have become more and more frequent and more and more expensive.  I somehow have managed to tell myself this is okay.  I pick up overtime at work so I can buy myself something that I more than likely don't need or even worse, won't even fit me for long.  I am wasting my money, which, in a time like now and the economy being so bad, is so irresponsible.  I have always prided myself on having a level head and on making good decisions, but lately I have been letting impulse take over for my common sense.  

Do I have a transfer addiction from food to shopping?  Yes.  Am I going to let it consume my life like food did?  No.  I think the fact that I could/can recognize this pattern or obsession is a good sign.  That much like food, if you step back and think about it and ask yourself, "Do I really need this?" that I will find out that the answer is no and that the urge will pass.  I always knew that surgery was a life changing process and that it wasn't going to be easy, but when you step back and take a look at yourself and your addictions, it's a real eye opener.  I am thankful that I was able to see this now and can hopefully try to curb it before it gets worse and even more thankful that the only thing I'm addicted to is shopping.  I'm not going to sit here and beat myself up over this, instead, I'm going to call it a bump in the road.  I'm going to fix the problem, look for triggers and move on.