Shopping addiction is nothing more than another manifestation of a process in which someone over engages in a particular activity to the exclusion of others to perhaps even the detriment of themselves and it manifests itself in the involvement of shopping, not too far away from gambling. The individual doesn't anticipate a reward like a gambler does with a slot machine but the idea that you shop. You own the prized object and there is an exhilaration, an excitement, optimism. Let's say you were blue before you went into the store or let's say you were sitting at home and watching TV and the shopping channel is on and you buy this thing and there's an excitement. That excitement, it feels so good inside and it becomes a central dominating force where you continually look to shopping to guide your actions and guide your day-to-day world to the exclusion of other more healthy adaptive ways of coping with uncomfortable feelings or difficult life circumstances. For more information go to http://aaalternatives.com