Lucy, a 37-year-old woman, struggled with compulsive shopping, spending up to 700 weekly, driving her into debt. She found shopping provided an escape from reality, likening it to drowning in clothes. Initially unaware of her shopping addiction, she sought help and learned from a therapist about her condition, oniomania. Lucy's collection of clothing consumed an entire room, several suitcases, and a storage unit. Influencers online normalized her excessive habits, reflecting a growing issue of compulsive buying disorder that affects an unknown number of individuals.
'It was the first thing I would think about when I woke up. You keep looking for clothes in the same way someone might keep drinking because they haven't quite reached the point of escapism they were hoping to reach.'
'Clothes acted like an armour to not feel the feelings that I did in real life,' she explains. Lucy has no idea how many garments she owns, but they take up an entire room in her West Yorkshire home as well as several suitcases - and a 35 sq ft storage unit.
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