Is 'retail therapy' a real thing?

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – When you need a little pick me  up, do you go shopping?  You know, go searching for a little retail therapy?  Not like you needed extra incentive, but we are being bombarded with ads offering deals and steals. So, can shopping really make you feel better?

Is 'retail therapy' real? We took that question to a psychologist to find out if shopping can boost your mood.

Dr. Scott Bea with the Cleveland Clinic said, "It can be visual, it can be auditory senses that are stimulated, but it gets us sensing."

Dr. Bea says shopping is enjoyable because it appeals to our senses.

"That gets us out of our own thoughts and a lot of times if we can get away from thinking about ourselves we feel better," Bea said.

Dr. Bea says you don't even have to spend money - window shopping can do the trick as well.  For a lot of us, it can be fun hunting around for something and simply thinking about the future possibilities a new item may bring. He says those thoughts produce delightful brain chemistry with relatively low hazard.

If you enjoy retail therapy, Dr. Bea suggests using it to reward yourself. It's even better if you save for that reward rather than buying something impulsively with a credit card, which you may regret later.

"If you plan it out and said I'm going to save for this thing or I'm going to reward myself for a new behavior maybe working out or eating differently, maybe accumulate those funds to do a little retail therapy then that can feel really, really good and you pay no real price for that," according to Bea.

Dr. Bea warns retail therapy should be pursued with caution because, like a lot of other things, it can become a compulsion.
The three signs you need to watch for so you'll know if retail therapy can turn to shopping addiction; If shopping is the only way you can make yourself feel better, you regret what you buy, or you have credit card debt, then retail therapy isn't for you.