Hands-chopping people’s self-help guide is coming!

　　Have all the friends received the goods that they ordered at the "6.18" shopping festival? In the face of mountains of packages, do you have mixed feelings? I was super happy when I placed an order quickly, but look at last year’s double eleven masks. Some clothes and shoes have not even been worn since I bought them, and skin care products and make-up are all over the dressing table … … Originally, it was cheap to spend money carefully, but what I bought was useless, which took up space and wasted money, which made me feel a little depressed.

　　Don’t worry, after reading the following article, you will understand the "emotional value" behind "buy buy Buy" and what "opportunity cost" is, and you will gradually return to rational consumption.

　　Studies have proved that

　　Shopping is happy and stressful.

　　"When I place an order, I think of the scene where I use it. Who will buy useless things? But often most things are useless, and some couriers have been put aside without even being opened. " Xiao a said.

　　Little b: "shopping can make me happy, it doesn’t matter whether it is useful or not!" "

　　Xiao B’s statement reflects the shopping mentality of many young people. If shopping is not to buy "useful" things, then there must be some other motives behind it. As Xiao B said, shopping also carries a lot of "emotional value" for people.

　　Imagine, we came home after a hard day’s work, lying in bed and browsing shopping software at will, and suddenly brushed an inexpensive but useless object that we had long admired. I haven’t placed an order before because "you can buy this thing or not, or don’t buy it", but today is different. I want to buy this thing to comfort myself. "It’s worth spending a little money to make myself happy!"

　　There is a scientific basis that shopping can regulate emotions. Shopping can promote the brain to secrete happiness hormones — — Dopamine starts the reward circuit inside the brain, so we can naturally feel happy when shopping.

　　On the other hand, shopping will make people feel in control, which can release pressure. Scott Rick, an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Michigan in the United States, found that retail therapy is real. Although it is not a psychotherapy method in the strict sense, when making the choice of "buy or not buy", sad people can release their emotions and restore some sense of control over their lives, thus feeling happy.

　　Over 30% of shopping addicts

　　Have a tendency to depression

　　Even if shopping makes people happy, but "indulging in shopping" will bring a lot of people pain. Modern living habits can be said to extend a sinful hand to us and chase and block our little Qian Qian.

　　There is a saying that in the era when mobile payment is not popular, people hold wallets and watch them shrink little by little, and the money in their hands decreases little by little. The insular part of the brain that deals with pain will send out pain signals, which is the so-called "spending money hurts". However, when mobile payment makes us lose our perception of money, people who are not sensitive to digital changes will find that the loss of money will not immediately make waves in their hearts. It was not until the end of the last year that I remembered that this year was "empty to come and empty to go" and I would regret it later.

　　In recent years, many people have also suffered from a new type of disease, compulsive shopping, "pickpocket addiction, not buying." The reason why people are concerned as a disease is that, like drugs, people who are addicted are out of control, and feel remorse afterwards, and in severe cases, they will be depressed.

　　A study by behaviorists found that 31.9% people who are addicted to shopping are prone to depression. The study concludes that guilt after spending money is the chief culprit, which will bring many negative emotions such as low self-esteem, embarrassment and anxiety, and the economic burden brought by excessive spending will also bring people continuous pressure and further aggravate their psychological problems.

　　Not just spending money.

　　It also consumes the "opportunity cost"

　　So, how to control your out-of-control material desires? There are naturally many methods, whether it is bookkeeping or "letting stand" the items added to the shopping cart for a few days. If you want to change, you can naturally find many suggestions. However, the premise of control is to know that one’s behavior is "out of control", and middle-aged and elderly people face a higher cost of living, so most of them will spend cautiously, and it is the young people born after 1990s and 00s who need to pay attention to the impact of excessive shopping on their lives.

　　Take the post-90s generation as an example. An e-commerce platform once published a report on the consumption and life of young people, which showed that among the nearly 170 million post-90s generation in China, the number of people who opened consumer credit services exceeded 45 million, which means that one in every four post-90s generation has the demand of "spending money tomorrow".

　　Few young people around me are misers. More people love money but spend more. They know that they are beyond their ability, but they still can’t help but "chop their hands". They arrange several entertainment bureaus every once in a while, and a year’s savings give them a trip that they just leave. Some young friends once said categorically that if they can’t spend the money they want, how can they appreciate the unrestrained life?

　　Indeed, shopping itself is not useless, and it can also bring us happiness. Many people have not reached the level of shopping addiction, self-loathing and economic collapse. But for young people, the price worthy of vigilance is that the money spent is also the "opportunity cost" that we can’t spend money on other things. No one likes to make a living, but if we have a dream to realize and want to spend money to buy knowledge and ability for ourselves, we have to start by saving a cup of milk tea every day, going to bars less and exercising restraint every time we make impulse shopping.

　　Shopping is pleasant, but it is only a kind of pleasure. Every money spent is a choice. I hope we can all make better choices.

　　Text/Chen Xiaowen Su Yunai (Peking University Sixth Hospital)