Shopping addict forced to sell home

41 year old Emma Sims racked up debts totaling £40,000 and when her shopping addiction spiralled out of control was even forced to sell her family home.

Diagnosed with severe depression in 2011, she and her husband Andrew faced losing their home and moving in with the in-laws but even this could not repay their debts.

Admitting that her shopping addiction led to them both becoming homeless, Emma and Andrew married in 2005, with the wedding and honeymoon largely paid for by credit cards.

Emma told Daily Mail reporters that she believes her shopping addiction stems from childhood when her doting mother used to buy her things as a way of comforting her daughter for being bullied at school.

When Emma's mother died of Cancer when her daughter was just 24, the spending got worse and Emma rapidly became a shopaholic.  Spending up to £2,000 in a single shopping spree, when she and husband Andrew got together and took on a mortgage, the strain on their relationship multiplied.

In a frank interview, Emma told reporters, "The country was in boom.  Credit was easy to get and we were always getting letters through about new cards with zero percent interest".

As a short-term solution, the couple agreed to sell their home as they could not afford to make repayments but the property did not sell for what they expected and the equity did little to make a dent in the debts.

Emma and Andrew still live with his parents and Emma is making steady progress with a therapist to overcome her addiction.

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