‘Shopaholic’ hoarder buys items to fill the void after her mum died from cancer

A ‘shopaholic’ hoarder who filled a hole in her life buying things she neither needed nor wanted finally feels like she’s got her life back after admitting she had a serious problem. 

Donna, who didn’t want her surname or location known, had purchased so many items over the past nine years that every room in her home was completely full.

Her endless shopping spree was sparked by the tragic death of her mum in 2014 who lost her battle with cancer.

The grief sent Donna into a spiral of spending so deep she needed to get a second job to afford it all. 

But now she’s determined to stop and admitted her mum would be ‘horrified’ at what she was doing, so she’s giving it all away.

Donna bought things for the pleasure of buying them, but by the time she got home it would feel like a waste of money and be added to the piles and piles of other unopened goods. 

‘I don’t open it, I don’t use it, but I can’t help buying it,’ she told A Current Affair.

‘Shopping gives me comfort. It’s a void for the loss of my mum and best friend.’

But recently, reality finally hit her hard. ‘It’s depressing… I’m too embarrassed (to have people visit).’

Donna had a brand new Dyson vacuum cleaner, still in its box. She didn’t need it, she had a perfectly good Dyson sitting just metres away from it across a cluttered room. 

She also had enough cookware for a restaurant, enough blankets for a B&B, and a massage gun in perfect working order – because it’s never been used. 

There were paintings, lampshades and three cappuccino makers. There were unworn shoes and unread books. Her garage was full to the ceiling of things in rubbish bags containing second hand products.

Inside the house, nearly everything she had was unopened, still in boxes, with the price stickers attached. 

Donna knew she needed help to change her ways and called Mark Stephens, a habit-breaking specialist and hypnotherapist. 

‘Pretty much everybody has some sort of bad habit,’ Mr Stephens said. ‘Whether that’s staying up late, social media or chocolate or biscuits or lollies, or whether it’s going shopping.’

He hypnotised Donna, amid her own clutter, to help ‘reset her mind in a positive way’.

‘I don’t need it, I don’t want it and I won’t buy it,’ she said, while under hypnosis. 

The years she has wasted so much time and money on began to dawn on Donna. 

Donna (pictured) had so much stuff she lost track of it all and almost every centimetre of her house was cluttered with what her relentless shopping bought

She sought help from Mark Stephens (pictured), a habit-breaking specialist and hypnotherapist

After Mr Stephens’ intervention, not only did she take ute loads of rubbish to the tip and give lots of very valuable goods to charity, she deleted all her shopping apps.  

Her home is now clutter free and she said her mum would be happy for her. 

‘I feel I have my life back and will never go back to that shopping addiction again,’ Donna said. 

Weeks later the only thing she’d bought since was food.