You may have seen recent articles in the press quoting research which seems to imply that some women are more likely to spend "excessively" in the 10 days before a period starts. The inference was that the boost from so-called retail therapy allows women to deal with the unpleasant, negative feelings created by hormonal change at this point in their cycle. Before going on I would, as a therapist, take issue with the concept of retail therapy as any boost achieved is only temporary, often leaving guilt or remorse later, when the reality of the overspending becomes obvious when the bank or credit card statement arrives. Rather than therapy, it is more like a habit or an addiction that seems to soothe and does not actually relieve the underlying problem, and which over time can become a problem in its own right.
We began last time looking at how changes in behaviour could sometimes be understood by understanding changes in hormonal levels in the body, the idea being stimulated by a research project purporting to show that women were more likely to overspend in the 10 days before their period began. This whole area is really difficult for many people where it's all too easy to use hormones as an explanation and therefore an excuse for behaviour. We sometimes hear phrases like “it wasn’t really me" or, as a reason for dismissing someone’s behaviour, that she is "just being hormonal" or that it is "just the time of the month" - in other words, take no notice.