If thats true, I must be one of the most well balanced people walking the planet.

Not for me, I think I just spend all the time. It's bad.

When I am pissed off or upset, nothing makes me happy and I walk in and out of stores without buying a single thing. Happened yesterday, nothing thrilled me at all.

When I'm sad, I try to cheer myself up by buying myself something inexpensive that makes me happy. I don't go overboard, and I don't buy food. Usually it's a new pen, some nail polish or something from the dollar store.

(WebMD) Watch your wallet if you're feeling sad and have the world on your shoulders. "Misery is not miserly: Sad and self-focused individuals spend more." That's the title of a new study on why the blues can be a budget-buster. Why do people spend more when they're sad and focused on themselves? The researchers' theory boils down to retail therapy. "Our working model proposes that sad and self-focused individuals spend more on commodities because they seek self-enhancement," write the researchers, who included Carnegie Mellon University's Cynthia Cryder, PhD, and colleagues. Sad Spending Cryder's team studied 13 women and 20 men aged 18-30. First, participants got $10 for their study participation. Then they watched a video clip. Some saw a sad video clip from the film The Champ, in which a boy's father dies. Others watched an unemotional National Geographic video about Australia's Great Barrier Reef. Next, participants got a writing assignment. Those who watched the sad video wrote an essay about how they would react if they were in a situation like the one shown in the video clip. The people who watched the Great Barrier Reef video wrote an essay about their daily activities. The researchers counted the number of times that people wrote "I," "me," and "myself" in their essays and used that to measure participants' degree of self-focus. Finally, participants were invited to bid up to $10 from their study payment to get a water bottle. Costly Emotions People in the sad video group paid more than those in the nature video group for the water bottle. The average bid for the water bottle was $2.11 in the sad video group, compared with $0.56 in the Great Barrier Reef video group. It's not just about feeling sad. It's the mix of sadness and self-focus that tends to loosen the purse strings, according to the study. The results will be presented tomorrow in Albuquerque, N.M., at the 9th annual conference of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology and in the June 2008 edition of Psychological Science. http://tinyurl.com/34byk4

I like to shop when I am sad and I like to shop when I am happy. But usually shopping for me means, to find a bargain to resale and make more money. I guess I am too strange for this survey. lol ;)

Not for me. When I'm sad, I don't feel like shopping.

Um, yeah I've experienced that. I tend to engage in impulsive buying when I'm down.

I think that is when they call it Retail Therapy.

According to the latest newspaper, it seems to be. It doesn't work for me. The sadder I am, the more likely I am to stay home, mostly in bed.

Yes...I'm one of those. When I am sad...I will buy something to make me happy. It only works for a little while though.

The first thing when I get f**ked up is go online and buy something for my computer.

Yes, it does seem to happen a lot. http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080208/sadness_spending.html?.v=1&.pf=banking-budgeting - - - - [Here is an EXCERPT from the website for you] - - - - AP Sadness May Encourage More Extravagance Friday February 8, 5:02 am ET By Mark Jewell, AP Business Writer Study: Sadness, Focus on Self, Impair Ability to Spend Wisely BOSTON (AP) -- If you're sad and shopping, watch your wallet: A new study shows people's spending judgment goes out the window when they're down, especially if they're a bit self-absorbed. Study participants who watched a sadness-inducing video clip offered to pay nearly four times as much money to buy a water bottle than a group that watched an emotionally neutral clip. The so-called "misery is not miserly" phenomenon is well-known to psychologists, advertisers and personal shoppers alike, and has been documented in a similar study in 2004. The new study released Friday by researchers from four universities goes further, trying to answer whether temporary sadness alone can trigger spendthrift tendencies. The study found a willingness to spend freely by sad people occurs mainly when their sadness triggers greater "self-focus." That response was measured by counting how frequently study participants used references to "I," "me," "my" and "myself" in writing an essay about how a sad situation such as the one portrayed in the video would affect them personally.

When I'm sad, I don't feel like going shopping. Maybe if I did I'd feel better . . . at least until the bill came.

Many people use spending as an emotional response, just like eating. There could be many moods to motivate you to spend more depending on who you are. I have heard though that it's true that you spend more when you're down...probably to try to divert your attention or buy something fun.

I think so, because they get instant gratification from having something new. Although, later they feel regret for buying something and might get worse. It's a fine line to walk.

Yeah, I know a lot of people who do... it's called Retail Therapy!

When I am happy I'm content and I don't need a thing. When I am sad I always shop and over spend. For me, it's like having sex with the wrong person (enjoyable for the moment)and waking up in the morning and regretting the whole thing. just Broke...lol

I think it's called Retail Therapy... the catch is that if you spend more than you have get in debt, then your really really sad.

Yes it's true. It's a proven fact people use money to get over depression and go on shopping runs to take their mind off of it. Not a good thing later when they see their credit card bills. Spending time with friends and sharing your thoughts is much cheaper.