Published July 22, 2025 | By Alyx E, Founder of Collectors MD

Online shopping addiction often flies under the radar. It hides in plain sight—cloaked in convenience, marketed as retail therapy, and rationalized through free returns, buy-now-pay-later options, and next-day delivery.

But the compulsion runs deeper than the transactions themselves.

At its core, this kind of behavior isn’t really about the items we’re buying. It’s about the dopamine hit—that momentary emotional lift we get from pursuing something new. The late-night scroll. The rush of clicking “place order.” The anticipation of a package arriving.

These moments start to serve as emotional crutches, especially when we’re feeling anxious, stressed, lonely, or disconnected.

For many, returns become the built-in excuse. People say, “I return most of what I buy,” as if the absence of a financial loss cancels out the harm.

But returning the item doesn’t erase the behavior. In fact, it’s part of the loop.

Buy. Anticipate. Regret. Return. Repeat.

It’s not always about what’s in the bag. Sometimes it’s about the chase, the click, the anticipation, the distraction, the dopamine. And all of it gets masked as “just shopping.” But when the return label becomes a reset button for your emotions, it’s time to take a deeper look.

With every cycle, the brain gets more wired—not to want the item, but to crave the chase.

It’s no different than someone at a casino saying, “Well, I left with the same money I came in with.” That might be technically true. But the time spent chasing the high, numbing emotion, or escaping discomfort still reflects a compulsive pattern—one that often gets dismissed because it doesn’t look like a problem from the outside.

Eventually, it’s no longer about the stuff at all. It’s about avoiding a feeling. Numbing a thought. Distracting from something deeper.

And that’s when it stops being “just shopping.”

It becomes something worth noticing. Worth questioning. Worth taking seriously.

#CollectorsMD
When the return label becomes a reset button for your emotions—it’s time to pause and take a deeper look.

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