New Show Spotlights Shopping Addicts

For those who are hooked on TV shows about addiction, Oxygen is offering a new fix: a show called My Shopping Addiction, that will—as the title suggests—document the lives of people who can't control their compulsion to shop. "I shop when I'm happy, I shop when I'm sad, I shop when I'm tired, when I'm bored, when I'm mad," says Marceia Hawkins, one of the addicts to be featured in the show, in a clip from an upcoming episode. Hawkins visited TODAY this morning, along with clinical psychologist Ramani Durvasula, to discuss the addiction that landed her on the show. "Every time I go to the store, I pretty much have to spend," Hawkins said, a compulsion that has driven her to spend over $90,000 on shoes and dresses alone in the past decade. "I've gotten into credit card debt, you know, maxing out all the credit cards." She describes how her financial ruin, which propelled her to borrow and steal money from friends, helped her to finally realize she had a problem. "It very much is (a real disorder), because people are bringing themselves to financial ruin," said Durvasula. "They're hurting they're relationships; they can't stop themselves.... This can really bring a life down and create years of debt and create really big problems in all areas of their lives." Hawkins claims to be doing much better now, thanks to consolidating her credit cards, and with the help of the docu-series, which will premier October 15.