Is shopping better than therapy?

IT'S a timely admission to make. While the rest of the country's shopaholics are getting their fix in the January sales, Girls Aloud singer Nicola Roberts has claimed she can't get enough of hers – namely on Christian Louboutin heels.

The redhead said it was those iconic red-soled platforms that helped her deal with years of bullying, rather than the love of a bargain, and she decided the buzz of a new pair of shoes actually was more effective than hours of therapy.

Nicola, now a solo singer with her own cosmetic brand and a new single in the shops, has previously spoken openly about her battle with the bullies – she was constantly referred to as “the less attractive one” in the band as she grew up in the spotlight alongside revered beauties like Cheryl Cole. And she says in order to deal with the taunts, she decided to give up the hours on the coach she initially sought, in favour of her own version of retail therapy.

“It's too expensive,” she told a magazine.

“I'd rather sit there all night thinking until I couldn't think any more, then reward myself the next day with a pair of Louboutins.”

But Paul Buckley, consumer psychologist at Cardiff School of Marketing, thinks the porcelain-skinned 26-year-old is deluding herself.

“It's very common with people with a psychological difficulty to turn to shopping as a quick fix,” he said.

“We call it a displacement activity – we do something else to take our mind off the problem, which it does temporarily.

“We get a buzz, but it doesn't last long – maybe hours, or a day maximum.

“And the problem is still there. Shopping for heels is just painting over the cracks.”

While treating ourselves to the bag we've been lusting after isn't exactly going to worry the doctor, Paul says the real problem arises when we constantly turn to the high street or the luxury website to distract us from issues elsewhere.

“Very often with a compulsive shopper, it starts with that one shop when they're feeling down and it carries on,” he points out

“It's like taking a drug, an anti-depressant – we think we can't function without it.

“But it has no long-term benefit.

“We can't spend away our problems.”

And hasn't the recession taught us that shopping actually doesn't cure all ills?

“I don't actually think there has been a dramatic drop in the amount of shopping,” adds Paul.

“Figures out this week show shopping sales are down by 3%, which is nothing when you consider the amount of discounts in the run-up to Christmas.”

But really, do we need to be that concerned if we're spending and spending away that bad day at the office?

“Of course it's fine when you're shopping for genuine pleasure and need, it's when it becomes an attempt at a long-term cure that it becomes a problem,” warned Paul

“A better way would be to look at the problem and think, ‘What are my options here for changing the situation I'm in?'

“It's all product placement; apparently the average person can be hit with around ￡15,000 of marketing a day so it's no wonder people get addicted. And a pair of heels for ￡600? You could buy around 10 hours of therapy for that, and the affect would last longer.”

True. But would it make our bottoms look as pert, Paul?