HELP! I’m a Shoe Addict

Addiction comes in many forms, and mine happens to be shoes.  At one point in my life, I remember losing count after 200 pairs of shoes.  I don’t have that many pairs anymore, but I definitely still have a lot. I try not to count them  ― it gets depressing.  How did i get here you ask? I started out buying just about anything and everything I liked that was cheap, it really didn’t help that my mum use to travel to Italy and you can get some really nice cheap shoes there. When I reached about 18 and got a part time job, I was now able to afford shoes that were more expensive, to add to my growing obsession. I didn’t care how much to be honest, if I could afford them…..they were mine. The excuse that I used to make myself feel better was that I was a size 8, so it was practically impossible to find a pair of shoes that I fit. Therefore if I ever came across a pair of size 8 shoes, they were sent from above, the good Lord heard my cry.

All these shoes started becoming an organisational problem; I didn’t have anywhere to put them. It also didn’t help that I wasn’t the only shoe nut in our family.  My sister started to catch shoe fever around the same time, and was hauling them in by the dozens every time she went out.  Between the two of us, these piles of shoes were becoming an accumulating mess that was hard to look at. My mother felt sorry for us and allowed me to transfer my shoes to our store room; to me it was my new walk in shoe cupboard. This new move made my obsession worse, as I now felt I had more room, there was room for expansion.

You see the thing with my addiction is that I never plan to buy a pair of shoes…it always just happens. A typical day would be on my lunch break, minding my own business not a shoe in mind. Then it just happens, I walk past a shop window and OMG…the shoes of my dreams are staring at me. They are beautifully positioned in the window. I try to walk away but that would be a sin, so I convince myself that I will just try them on, bearing in mind I’m a size 8 so they may not have my size. I’m always prepared for bad news in this instance. However, this occasion, I ask the sales assistant and guess what she has a size 8, now someone tell me this is not a sign from above. I ask to try the shoes on, still with no intentions of buying them. The sales assistant brings the shoes in a fresh box; I’m excited but act very calm, my eyes light up and I start feeling giggly. You would think I was in love, well to be honest I’m soon to be in love with these shoes. I try them on and……they fit like a glove. They are meant to be, they are mine and they are going home with me. From this point, nothing can change my mind they are already bought in my head. I carry the shoes to the till myself, in fear of losing them…..yes I know I sound mad, but I’m not, it’s just love at first sight….

Anyone who’s stood in a shoe store and contemplated whether she’d really miss eating for the next couple of weeks will tell you that shoe addiction is a very real thing. A recent poll of 1,057 women found that the average woman owns 19 pairs of shoes and only ever wears four of those regularly. We’re going to hazard a very unpopular opinion here and say we think 20…no wait 40, okay, 50, yes 50 pairs means you’re dancing on the edge of an addiction. Slowly but surely I am trying to get rid of my obsession and it has improved but I think I need time…..

Simply put my name is Franki and I am a “Shoeaholic”