Shopaholic Wonderland

Ahh the holidays – time for eating great food, exchanging gifts, seeing friends and family, raising a cup of cheer, and shopping.  Chances are you know a shopaholic but that isn’t polite to say.

Actually shopaholic is a humorous, media created word that really isn’t official medical language. The real term is oniomania- a term for those who show uncontrollable and/or compulsive behavior. The word is based on Greek words which mean “for sale” and “mania” (another word for crazy) so literally it means crazy for sales.

However if you’re a chrematophobia sufferer, you could never easily suffer from oniomania. (Chrematophobia is the fear of money or wealth.)

There is a phobia for everything out there and these phobias are great conversation starters at holiday parties: “Excuse me but do you suffer from enochlophobia?”

Maybe not.