In the
Movies: Confessions of a Shopaholic
There are many movies containing characters suffering from
an addiction. They portray the addictions is many different ways and can be
either accurate or inaccurate. The movie I recently saw was Confessions of a Shopaholic starring
Isla Fisher. I chose to watch this movie because I am in no way a shopaholic.
Shopping is not one of my many hobbies so I find it very difficult to
understand such a behavioral addiction. By the time the movie ended I had
gained much more insight to the addiction, both positive and negative.
Confessions of a
Shopaholic was released in 2009. It is a comedy/ romance movie. This made
it very entertaining for me to watch but it also lacked the seriousness of
having a behavioral addiction. Isla Fisher plays the role of Rebecca Bloomwood,
a journalist currently switching jobs with high hopes of obtaining her dream
job. She ends up picking up a job for a finance magazine in which she has a
column advising readers on how to save money. This is ironic because she is a
shopaholic and is horrible at saving her money. She is 1000s of dollars in debt
and is avoiding the debt collector. She has support from her friend/roommate,
but other than that she keeps her problem from everyone else.
I think the movie did a good job of portraying the triggers
for addiction, however they didn't focus much on the treatment and recovery
which made it seem fairly simple compared to what I have learned in class.
Throughout the movie I felt both anger and sympathy towards Rebecca Bloomwood.
When the debt collector was trying to get a hold of her and when buying a
bridesmaid dress seemed difficult I had a lot of sympathy for her. This is when
she was in the guilt/ shame stage. You could see that she knew there was a
problem but she was also trying to deny it. She was lying to herself. However,
since shopping isn't my area of expertise, I found it hard not to get angry
when she made horrible choices (either buying something she couldn't afford or
buying what she wanted and not what she needed). This feeling of anger is
exactly the lack of support than many addicts experience. It comes from a lack
of knowledge and understanding of addictions.
Rebecca’s best friend was supportive but was not necessarily
pushing her enough to get help until the end. She was the only one who knew her
level of debt and she did her best to help her with it. In the end she forced
her to go to a Shopaholics Anonymous meeting. Rebecca’s family was what pushed
her to become so materialistic. Her parents could have afforded to buy her
nicer things but instead they were very cheap which made her feel excluded from
peers. Because of this she did not want them to know about her debt problem.
However, when they found out they were there for her to count on which is very
important for recovery.
As I said before, I think this movie did a good job of
representing triggers of an addiction. With her job and home area there was no
way for her to go about her daily life without walking past shops she
constantly wanted to go in. Whenever she had a meeting, interview, or event for
work she felt the need to get a new outfit for it and once it was on her mind
she believed it was necessary. I do not think that the recovery/treatment part
of the movie was accurately portrayed. She went to Shopaholics Anonymous and
she took steps towards recovery that we have learned about but much of it was
skipped over making recovery seem easy. It is important for people to know that
recovery from an addiction is difficult and is a day by day process. Triggers and
cravings will always be there.
I could see a direct connection between discussions in class
and Confessions of a Shopaholic.
Triggers were one, but I also recognized the importance of “people, places, and
things.” I saw this movie as very informative and I really enjoyed it.
