Do you find you spend money to alleviate your worries about the future?  You may not even realize this is happening, but if you find you are dealing with large credit card bills despite being concerned about your financial situation or the world at large you may be engaging in doom spending.  It’s not a new phenomenon, but it could be a sign of a deeper problem.  

Doom Spending Is a New Name For an Old Problem

Over-spending has been around for a long time, but has recently come to the forefront because of people’s emotional reaction to world events that seem out of control.  They may very well be out of control, but that is nothing new either.  What is at the heart of all of this is peoples’ collective anxiety that is fueling spending that over extends their ability to pay for things.  Credit card companies have made that an all-too-easy thing to do because of a ‘buy now pay later’ mentality that has taken over much of the choices consumers make.  A recent statistic was that the average US consumer has several thousand dollars of credit card debt they are carrying. The ever-growing cost of living is also a part of the problem as well. The reasons for this vary, but it is a growing problem.   

Doom Spending is Really About Anxiety and Trauma

When we’re growing up, we take in how the adults around us tend to cope with stress and their own trauma. This can get taken in by children in the form of their own stress and anxiety, as well as modeling how the adults cope with it. If you grew up in a household that had anxiety and trauma in it, then you’re more likely to react in ways that are similar to your parents ways of reacting to stress and trauma. Doom spending can be seen as an addictive behavior, much like drugs, alcohol, and other addictive behaviors.

What To Do About Doom Spending

The first thing to do is to realize you have a problem with this issue. You may get a some message from a spouse or another family member about credit card bills, or you may realize that you have a pattern of compulsive debting. The second thing is to talk to a trusted friend or a family member about this problem. The idea here is to be able to admit this to another human being, and to get support to get help in addressing the problem. From there, several different avenues can emerge, but all of them need to be ones that help address the problem head-on. It may be attending a support group, or it may be meeting with a therapist like me, or it may be a reputable program for establishing a pattern of financial responsibility. The key is getting effective help to deal with the problem, and not just retrenching yourself in more compulsive spending, or to isolate yourself from others.

You’re Not to Blame for Doom Spending

One of the key things to realize is that it’s not your fault that you developed this problem, nor is it anybody else’s fault. It’s kind of a side effect from the cultural situation we find ourselves in these days. Even though it’s not your fault that you’ve got all this compulsive spending problems, the key is that you take responsibility for your compulsive spending. The steps above allow you to do that. What many people wind up doing as a way to cope with the problem is to declare bankruptcy, or to sign up for credit card consolidation services. These are attempts to solve the problem, but oftentimes they can serve as a way to avoid dealing with the internal feelings that most often drive peoples’ spending behaviors. A quote by the famous author and neuroscientist Jill Bolte-Taylor is that we are feeling beings that think and not the other way around. So getting a handle on your feelings is an important step towards being able to resolve whatever problems with compulsive behavior you may have.

Getting Professional Help With Doom Spending

Some people do need to find professional help for their doom spending, particularly if they have anxiety or trauma issues that are at the root of this or other compulsive behaviors. I’ve been helping my clients to address and overcome all kinds of addictive and compulsive behaviors for my entire social work career. If you want to find out whether I can help you with this issue, then I encourage you to call the number at the top of the page or two fill out the form below, and I will get back to you at my earliest convenience to schedule a free 20 minute phone consult if you live in Texas or Maryland. That way you can find out whether I can be of help to you in addressing this addictive behavior. In any case, I urge you to get help for this problem in some way, shape or form, as doom spending may be a new phenomenon, but it’s been around for a very long time.

Visit our page on anxiety therapy to learn more about how Scott can help you with doom spending.

About the author:  Scott Kampschaefer, LCSW is a private practice therapist in Frederick, Maryland.  He has an extensive background in working with depression, anxiety, and bipolar disorder at a clinic for older adults with these disorders in Austin, Texas.  He now works with adults and adolescents 14 and up in private practice. His most recent book is titled The 5 Pillars of Addiction Recovery and is available for purchase on Amazon and in paperback on this website.