Lily Allen, whose latest album, West End Girl, has been lauded for its brutally honest lyrics, says she has been battling a shopping addiction. Photo / Charlie Denis.
Lily Allen, whose latest album, West End Girl, has been lauded for its brutally honest lyrics, says she has been battling a shopping addiction. Photo / Charlie Denis.
British singer Lily Allen has revealed she has been receiving treatment for a shopping addiction, admitting the issue had spiralled.
Speaking on the latest episode of her Miss Me? podcast, the Smile singer said she sought professional help four months ago, linking her compulsive spending to low self-esteem, according toThe Sun.
“I think I try and get rid of [money] because I don’t think I deserve it,” she said.
Near the beginning of the special Christmas episode, Allen is heard saying, “I’m just playing with my huge diamond and emerald ring, I bought myself a little present but it’s not that little”.
The Sun also reported the 40-year-old was seen emerging from a new $250,000 Porsche this week, clutching a new $38,000 Hermes handbag.
Allen told her co-host, TV personality Miquita Oliver, that she was undergoing a form of psychotherapy called eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy.
“If you’re trying to change your attitude towards a traumatic event, you try and think about how painful that event is from one to 10 and then you activate the stimuli, which in my case is these two vibrating balls that I put in each hand and you sort of close your eyes and put yourself in that situation and then try and identify what the feelings are that are coming up actually in your body, and in your mind,” she said.
Lily Allen opened up about her spending addiction on the latest episode of her podcast Miss Me? Picture / Supplied
“And then you do that sort of five or six times and you find that the pain level associated with it goes down and down and down.
“If you’re trying to get rid of a negative behaviour like spending or drug taking or drinking or addiction to sex or whatever it is, you do the opposite.
“In my case a handbag, you try and separate yourself from thinking this handbag is going to make me a better person.”
Allen said she was happy with the results of the EMDR therapy, although she admitted she was not “clear on the science of how it works”.
The diva’s latest album West End Girl, released in October, received high praise from critics who lauded its catchy pop hooks and brutally honest lyrics.
In it, she detailed her feelings of pain and betrayal from her divorce from her husband of four years, Stranger Things actor David Harbour.
The album has resulted in a career resurgence for Allen.
She followed up the album with a sold-out tour and an acclaimed performance on Saturday Night Live.
