Serious Addiction to Gear


I would like to know if gear addiction is like shopping addiction, or any other form of clinically defined addiction. A friend of mine seems to have this problem, not being able to control his urges to just buy the first thing that he feels he needs. It is starting to affect his personal relationships. Should I approach this problem like a drug addiction? I want to help him help himself. Has anyone experienced this either firsthand or by association?
fourfour
I think it's an addiction. In fact, I just had a paranoid rush that my wife had posted this. Seriously tho, it really feels like an addiction when I allow myself to be self-aware about it. A few tricks that have helped me:

1. Buying a house, resulting in absolutely no extra cash.
2. Getting out and seeing live music more often.
3. Visiting a friend who has a crap system but an awesome collection and feeling humbled by his priorities.
4. I haven't tried this, but I've heard that having babies will help you kick.
I think there could be an entire psychological conference based on what I read in Audiogon.

You think? That is quite an understatement Mark.
There may be something to it. Someone I know once called me an "AudiogoN addict".

Hi, My name is Fpeel. I was clean for 22 days. Then I saw this power cord posted for sale...
It always starts with power cords,then pretty soon its cryoed cones,then its sand or tubes.Then the nightmare really begins to pick up watts and ohms and......