Lemondrop

"Mall" is a four-letter word this holiday season for many people in precarious financial and employment situations.

But there is a group for which it's impossible to resist a chance to shop, especially with all these sales going on. They're called shopaholics, and this holiday season is proving to be the most tempting in recent years.

The heavy markdowns and promotions retailers are peddling this year to stimulate spending is, for the shopping fiend, "like giving matches to a pyromaniac," says April Benson, a New York psychotherapist who specializes in the disorder. It is, of course, characterized by an obsession with shopping and unnecessary spending.

One of her clients, Nikki, has maxed out 15 credit cards and amassed more than $80,000 in debt, much of it on merchandise she's never even used. And the ability to shop online is enabling uncontrolled consumers to hide their behavior.

Serious Business
Popular culture likes to mock compulsive shoppers -- there's a movie due out in February, starring Isla Fisher, called "Confessions of a Shopaholic" -- chalking up the behavior to "being a woman" or "being materialistic."

But in reality, shopaholism, which Stanford University researchers said in 2006 affects 5.8 percent of the U.S. population with near-equal numbers of women and men, is just as addicting as alcoholism.

Click here to read about what might cause shopaholism.

The difference here is that the danger is less physical but more mental and financial. Compulsive buyers often suffer from other issues, such as depression, anxiety and substance and eating disorders. Some individuals rack up tens of thousands of dollars in debt and are unable to pay their bills.

A Cultural Diagnosis?
Some experts and authors think our culture of consumerism has produced damaging effects that reach beyond the individual shopper. For instance, did a hankering for a hot sale come into play when a Wal-Mart employee was trampled to death on Black Friday?

And what about future generations? Earlier this month, Toronto-based author Julie Kinkaid released Overturning the Tables: Consumerism, Children, and the Church. She worries that retailers' "relentless marketing" is turning children into careless spenders (sit near a toddler during a toy commercial, and we guarantee they'll screech, "I want that!"). Is it time to start teaching personal finance classes in kindergarten?

Tell us: Are you, or have you ever known, a compulsive shopper?