Lily Allen has been having therapy to tackle her spending addiction after splurging cash on lavish items following the success of her West End Girl album.
Lily Allen has been “shopping like an insane person” following the success of her album West End Girl.
The 40-year-old singer explained that she is in therapy for her spending addiction after splashing the cash on lavish items since the release of her critically acclaimed record – which addressed the end of her marriage to Stranger Things actor David Harbour – in October.
Speaking to her best friend Miquita Oliver on a Christmas special of their Miss Me? podcast, Lily said: “I’m just playing with my huge diamond and emerald ring, I bought myself a little present but it’s not that little.
“You’ve go to treat yourself and mark the moment. I’m convinced I’m a billionaire. Handbags have been bought, jewels and a car have been bought.”
The Smile hitmaker revealed that she has been in Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing Therapy (EMDR) as a result of her excessive spending.
Lily explained: “I start doing EMDR therapy four months ago and it’s been life changing. EMDR therapy is a special type of therapy that stimulates the brain and creates new pathways to certain behaviours or traumatic experiences.
“This is what is working for me currently, I’m not a doctor though.”
She continued: “You usually start by deciding an area, like a traumatic experience you want to focus on and visualise the experience and identify the feeling that are coming up in your body and mind and the pain levels go down.
“If you’re trying to stop a negative behaviour like spending or drug taking, you do the opposite and think of the good feeling and try and dissociate that feeling from your self-worth.
“In my case a handbag, you separate it by saying this handbag is making me a better person. It is really interesting and I’m not clear on the science but it is working for me.”
Meanwhile, Allen suggested that she has a better idea of the “pain” she caused during her first marriage to Sam Cooper as a result of her separation from Harbour.
Lily – who has daughters Ethel, 14, and Marnie, 12, with Cooper – told the Observer newspaper: “Having done things that were not very nice in my first marriage, I have a better idea of the pain I may have inflicted.
“I’ve learned how horrible it is to be on the receiving end of that.”
Lily Allen in therapy for spending addiction after ‘shopping like an insane person’
