July 8 column
Dear Abby: I'm a shopaholic. It's my "fix" when I'm feeling down or bored. It never used to be this bad. I purchase things and keep it secret from my husband. I am out of control. It has reached the point where I'm in the hole $4,800.
. . . The idea of cutting up my credit cards is threatening. I'm sad now, but I'd be really depressed if I had to do that.
I'm a lonely person with few friends. I'm scared and don't know where to turn. Please help me. I can't afford a therapist.
–Fashionably Lonely in New York
Dear F. Lonely:
Snap out of it. I know a woman who is in the hole a hundred times deeper than you are, yet she and her husband can afford 3 therapists. Not that they need therapy.
If you would take your friends out to dinner more often, maybe you wouldn't be so lonely.
