Have Nothing to Wear? - what it means psychologically

"Maria and Tony have been together for years... Over the years, Maria has grown to complain that she has "nothing to wear" -- even though her closets are full of clothes."
The mental attitude "having nothing to wear", when coming from a socio-economically affordable class, psychologically reflects some deep mental attitudes that an individual might be fighting with.
Here are some of them -
1. Burnout!!!
Most women love and enjoy shopping, picking out clothes and getting dressed. 
Its a natural socially acceptable de-stressing exercise.
If you no longer enjoy this process, you might be experiencing more than just occasional blues: you could have burnout.
A woman's life is extremely hectic. - Family, friends, husband, boyfriend, children, kitchen, work... There is too much to do, with too little time.
Every task does put some stress on their mind... Normally the brain-mind complex look to counter this stress by regulating the mind-body chemical system.
When this stress is beyond the "natural control" of the body, it leads to depletion of pleasure chemical in the brain like "serotonin". 
One of the commonest expressions of this burnout is neglect or avoidance of previously pleasurable activities, like shooping.

2. Bored
Tony complains to me that Maria is always saying she has nothing to wear - but her closet it full... he further adds that she will buy new clothes probably every week. Use them the very same week, and then get bored with them...
He wants me to show her some practicality.
Most Men are not very finicky about dressing and their clothes. They can have the same wardrobe for years together.
As a psychiatrist i can tell you that most Women are different, they crave clothing novelty. Nothing makes them feels better than putting on a new outfit.
A mind game were by a psychological adventurism is satisfied with social acceptability and recognition. This gives them an emotional high, similar to that of an orgasm.
Thats one of the reasons why you'll find woman posting photos on Facebook in brand new and counting the amount of likes she gets.
Its the need to satisfy this need for attention, that they get bored with their wardrobes very soon.
If there is a lack of "excitement" in their life, then there is chance of a higher boredom and which stops them from experimenting with different cloth combination.

3. Body Concerns
Our society is conditioned to judge a female member much more by her physical appearance than it is to judge a male.
Still parents stop their girl child from "eating" because it will make them "fat".
Social judgement of a lady by her body structure, leads to extremely high body scrutinizing within the female gender.
Dresses are seen as measure of physical appearance, and even slight weight gain or weight loss affects the subconscious mind strongly.
"Maria will complain to Tony - Nothing looks good on me... i have grown fat.. you will not love me anymore."
The physical body is changing every day.. and specially in women... Since change is not acceptable... body concerns reflected by "tight" or "loose" dress, can become extremely high anxiety causing and lead to very high stress levels.

4. Hoarding - one outfit is never enough.
Shopping is one of the socially acceptable ways of releasing anxiety. 
Businessmen know they can make more money in sales than in the entire year, because the mention of sale increases the anxiety level of female customers and forces them to spend much more than planned.
Women with high restlessness levels, are known to buy more than one garment at a time. Its an obsessive compulsive behavior, were they will buy a few garments and then promise themselves this is the last spending of the season/month/year.
The very next day or within the next week, they will be again indulging in "binge" shopping.
This obsessive compulsive shopping is always accompanied with hoarding. 
I have met many cases were the - Husband, family, relatives don't realize that the lady is using Shopping as a silent way to drown the painful emotions that she is battling subconsciously... she will stuff her closets, then her car trunk, even kids room with clothes she bought compulsively. 
She will be "counseled" - asked or ordered not to buy any more clothes or do any more shopping, but she will find it increasingly difficult to control.
Her interest in most of the clothes immediately finishes as soon as she stores them. Hence she might wear only one set of clothes or always complain she doesn't have anything to wear.
written by -
Dr.Hemant Mittal (MBBS, DPM, MD(mindmantra))
(Psychiatrist, Motivational Writer and Counselor)
email – eksoch@gmail.com
website – www.mindmantra.in
clinic address- 15, shreeji plaza, next to ice n spice restaurant, opposite seawoods station, seawoods (east)
Navi Mumbai

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