From a column in UK’s Dailymail.com, former Marie Claire fashion editor, Liz Jones, described her experiences being a Shopaholic, and for anyone who knows about addiction recovery and the 12 step programs, economic failure goes hand in hand with any addiction.  Jones opens the article by saying that the “excess” started with a $140.00 sweater, when she was making $30.00 a week and ballooned to purchases that would eventually reach $4000.00 for a single dress.

In the article, Liz Jones outlines some her futile purchases over the years, noting: “I often do that terrible thing of buying something – a pair of Prada platforms, a pair of Seven For All Mankind jeans – and then later finding I already have the exact same thing at home.”  Still, Jones bravely shares the story of someone who suffers from a severe case compulsiveness, which also usually goes hand in hand with any addiction.

Amongst other stories, Jones mentions how she went to the Oscars and had decided to wear one of her many expensive dresses, rather than buying a new one, but upon arriving to LA, she was so “unhappy” with what she had brought that she went out to buy a new wardrobe.  While at Barneys she saw a pair of shoes that she thought were just OK, but because the clerk informed her there were none in her size, she felt “so thwarted” that she “couldn’t live without them” and had the store fly a pair to her hotel room from their New York branch for the following day.

Although most of the anecdotes in the article are quite comical, there is no laughing matter about Liz Jones’ addiction.  Jones sums it up like this: “Shopping for me is like a drug: I get a high from making the sales assistant smile…”  Nonetheless, Jones goes on to speak of her regrets for wasteful spending and notes that it was the recent downturn in the economy that finally brought her to her senses after she faced the serious credit crunch.