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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.

Read the rest: http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/personal/02/08/sad.shopping.ap/index.html

I just bought a $1,ooo.oo bookcase today cuz it looked pretty and I was mopey due to low blood sugar.

My best friend is constantly in debt because when he feels depressed, stressed or sad he goes shopping. Since he has expensive taste the credit card bills pile up quickly! I am just the opposite. I hate shopping period, sad, happy or indifferent I avoid malls.

Yeah, that can go for any indulgence. I have clinical depression, and before my doc finally hit on the right meds to treat it, I didn't shop, but I sure as hell ate. With the weight gain that happened with one of the meds I was on, I ballooned up beyond all recognition. For a while it seemed like Ben & Jerry were my only friends, but I can easily see how it can be Benjamin, Alexander, Abe and George...