I found out after checking my savings in a few months. Went to buy surplus grain from Sawhill farms and needed to withdraw 1000. thought ATM was broke until I check the Chase app and find a lousy 300 dollars left. I called her and just spoke for a bit before bringing it up and when I did she paused and just went “oh” and hung up. I got home she was already in bed and I ended up getting high and sleeping on the futon again. Next morn she tells me that I have to think about paying off some debt. Debt? I brought up the missing money and that’s when she broke down and told me she had been watching eBay live and buying a bunch of shit we don’t need. I checked out eBay life and shits bleak. It uses the short form media format so you can just swipe through live auctions. She got addicted to spending but using klarna because she thought it would cost less. Turns out I’m over 9000 in debt. There’s no way to return some of this shit. I think I’m going to pay it off but then have a serious discussion about the relationship because I don’t think I can be with someone who is financially unstable. But I love her and she helped me out when I was in a toxic relationship.
Frankly this isn't an internet behavior though hers is enabled by it (and steps should be taken to address that by her). People have been doing this to their partners since at least the advent of painless credit cards and the debt associated with it if not before with things like store credit.
She needs to commit to no more shopping apps, closing that account once you make as many returns and re-sales of bought goods as you can (and limiting her own access to it during that time), work hard on understanding the difference between "needs" and "wants" and budgeting only a limited amount for "wants" and sticking to that as part of self-discipline.
At the very least /she/ not you needs to make the effort to save the marriage and fix her problems. You can lead her to counseling but she needs to really be proactive and if it's a situation where you're dragging her around trying to fix her and she isn't putting in the effort well you should recognize that and act accordingly as she has to want to acknowledge, show remorse, make amends, and change. You can be there for her but don't allow her to turn this into a pity party for her.
I disagree characterizing this as the same as drug addiction because it's not. It's poor impulse control, poor financial literacy and some of it might stem from other mental health problems but it's not an addiction anymore than lots of sex, masturbation, or porn use would be despite what self-flagellating Christians may say. It's a feel good behavior that is not an addiction which she ran away with against any financial sense and in that respect it's not that different from a partner who cheated and said they just lost control of their feelings because it's the same pleading of "forgive me for being irresponsible, selfish, and not thinking or exercising impulse control that most people beyond their teenage years have". In both cases it's about self-regulation and making choices including self denial and thinking through consequences for yourself and others rather than going with the flow of whatever is easiest or feels most fun in the moment and then hiding it. And like cheating the fact she went behind your back, betrayed your trust makes this a big problem for the relationship.
I disagree with your assessment that it 'isn't an addiction'.
These apps, especially auction house apps using buy now, pay later schemes, are specifically designed around triggering gambling addiction behaviors. It is basically the same way that micro transactions work for kids. Granted, it doesn't seem as severe as a full-blown gambling addict (where you don't even need to get anything to stimulate the behavior), but nevertheless, it is the same dopamine response malfunction, is a behavior specifically preyed upon by capitalism, and definitely a sign, at this stage in adult life, of some underlying mental health issues. At the core of the issue isn't the personal failure of the individual but a society that allows and tolerates this kind of exploitation of the underdeveloped and unwell.
That said, while I disagree with your diagnosis, I agree with your general solution at this time.
Yeah no. If it's gambling addiction then so is a mall shopping spree because they have signs with blinking lights and other positive reinforcement including sales people who will be disappointed if you don't buy after their pitch.
People hide problems of responsibility behind technological wizardry claims. Yeah there are big problems with abusive psychology under capitalism. Yes some of them have been refined a bit and are newer but this isn't gambling. Gambling you stand to win back money if you succeed and there's the thrill of blind results driving people to keep pulling the lever in expectation of the excitement of the unknown and the prospects of that. We can talk about children with a lack of impulse control being preyed on by lootbox mechanics because they're kids but adults need to have this kind of basic skill to survive under capitalism. That skill being a modicum of self-control. But this is knowing exactly what she was purchasing and how much it could come out to.
I agree it's a sign of some sort of mental unwellness but I'm not sure it's something diagnose-able with a DSM code and in that sense it could be quite hard to treat with therapy as it would likely involve really confronting their inner self, who they are, formative history, etc which are things many people find hard and would rather avoid. If they're already avoiding the not that hard work of financial discipline then short of something seriously challenging to their life forcing them to confront themselves they may not have it within them to face the hardship of this kind of self-investigation and course of change. Maybe the threat to their marriage will do that but often it takes a bigger jolt than that and often such a jolt of sufficient level isn't reached at all and the person goes through life with constant crises and no real healing. I hope for OP's sake and that of their partner they are able to get at root causes and find some healing but I hope OP is realistic about this being a common problem that may not end well either.
As far as dopamine response that's why I brought in sex "addiction" and porn "addiction". There are cases in the literature of people who will compulsively masturbate to the detriment of their well-being, who will shirk jobs, responsibilities, a social life to sit home and just pleasure themselves. Masturbation however is not an addiction nor an abusive behavior and their problem does not stem from masturbation or incredible sex toys but from motivation, self-discipline, etc. Often people with ADHD or other problems with long-term goal-setting and thinking have problems in the nature of that type of thing of self-destructive short-term thinking behavior that neglects longer-term goals. But the solution isn't to say "oh it's an addiction, not your fault" but to understand it is their fault, they need to find ways to cope, to discipline themselves, to avoid triggering things, and to survive and thrive in the world they find themselves in by adapting.
Abusive psychology under capitalism is a plague and ruins a lot of things and lives but it is not an addiction and doesn't stem from addiction and compulsive behaviors are not addictions and should not be regarded or treated as such because it's missing the real problem on a personal level (yes, yes capitalism is the REAL problem but OP can't do anything about that).
You literally just restated my whole thing back to me, just disagreeing with the language around "addiction" back at me. I disagree, because I view 'addiction' as a spectrum of behaviors. And even within your own definition, which I disagree with, the fact of the matter is that it is an auction house. You don't know if you are going to win. That is the thrill of the thing. Hence why it is in the spectrum of gambling addiction.
This is pretty irrelevant though, as even a drug addict is still responsible for their actions.
I get it though, you don't like the semantics. However, as you yourself said, "Adults need this kind of skill in order to survive capitalism." And the cause may be a lack of self-disclipline, brought on from potential mental illness (not going to diagnose the cause, however several large and sudden purchases can be a sign of a manic episode). Hence why, maybe, thinking about as a self-destructive and addictive behavior, in need of treatment, is a better way to think about it. Or maybe she is just a shitty person, as many people with and without mental illness are.
However, just because you can't do anything about capitalism doesn't mean you have to apply a neoliberal bootstrap ideology to mental health. However, if they are unwilling to engage themselves in self-crit, there is very little that can be done.
It doesn't really matter what you call it, as long as they are looking to solve it and correct the wrongs they have done.
Edit:Also I am not getting into sexual addiction or whatever, just because I literally don't know anything about it.