The Consumerism Trap

Overconsumption and overspending during the holidays.

Danica Davis
4 min readDec 26, 2023
photo by freestocks on unsplash

This time of year, it peaks. The commercials and ads that email you with absolute urgency about items and junk that you now need more than air and if you don’t act immediately then you lose out on an expensive deal.

We all know the pressure to buy, buy, buy this time of year. And that pressure seems to be from all sides. The expectation to spend can start to spiral out of control. The dopamine hits from purchasing and giving gifts can create a vacuum of spending and overconsumption that can take over lives and ruin finances for months to come.

We can start to lose discipline in our habits and just like eating, shopping can turn into a compulsion. It can be hard to resist the urge when we are getting bombarded with ads and email campaigns to spend more and more along with the growing expectation to give gifts to basically everyone that we have ever known during the holiday season.

Sometimes the compulsion to spend can go beyond reckless seasonal spending and move into a diagnosable mental health illness called oniomania, or compulsive spending.

How does it get to be too much?

Overspending can become a problem before we even realize it. Shopping, much like other pleasurable…

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Danica Davis

Functional Nutrition Counselor and mom to 8 amazing humans. I am passionate about nutrition and mental health as well as raising amazing humans