Excerpt from The Money Trap
Overspenders
Compulsive spending and compulsive debting are a very effective way of keeping unwanted feelings at bay. They are, like any addiction, an attempt to manage anxiety, and to find a way to feel good about yourself. Essentially, compulsive spending and compulsive debting are a defense, a comprehensive system designed to avoid psychic pain. Spending and buying bind anxiety, give a little ego boost, and produce the momentary illusion that all is well. And, of course, there is that extra added attraction for the spender and debtor –that all the spending and buying is meant somehow to demonstrate how worthwhile they are, something in their deepest reaches, they do not believe.
Carl Jung once said that he considered addiction to be a form of low-level spiritual quest. The core of the problem, he said, was not with the substance. The substance was simply the symptom of underlying emotional problems–what he called spiritual imbalances. That is why addictions are progressive. The ante keeps getting raised. Because what is sought is not what is missing, there can never be enough of it.