A few months ago, I woke bolt upright in bed and panicked. Why in the world had I placed a huge bid on an online shopping auction site earlier that evening? What in the world possessed me to think I could not live without that particular item? What about the 20 other things I had recently unpacked from their shipping containers?

Shopping—especially from online auction sites—has become one of my new early (or sometimes late) warning signs that I am symptomatic. I struggle with this a lot....