This Portland single mom is using EMDR therapy to beat a spending addiction. The Ramsey Show hosts give her some hacks and dare her to do 1 thing live

“It’s trauma,” she said, sharing that she’s undergoing a special therapy — Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, or EMDR — to work through it.

But Breanne really wants to break her overspending habits now, even while she’s in therapy. She recognizes it’s a serious problem.

Every month, she spends up to half her $4,800 income on fast food, gifts for her daughter and impulse buys. She’s already $90,000 in debt racked up from credit cards, personal loans and student loans.

Warshaw and Coleman were impressed with Breanne’s candor and courage live on camera.

“You’re way tougher than a lot of people,” Coleman said (1). “I want you to harness that.”

The hosts then offered Breanne some tips on how to deal with her overspending and challenged her to take another big symbolic step live on camera to break the cycle.

Dealing with trauma and compulsive spending

The Ramsey Show co-hosts acknowledge the mental-health dimension of money problems.

An estimated 5.8% of U.S. adults struggle with compulsive buying disorder (2). Research has linked this behavior to childhood abuse, neglect or emotional trauma (3).

This matters because overspending driven by trauma or emotion doesn’t respond well to a budget alone.

Many people need therapy to heal triggers and rules or rituals to stop repeating destructive behavior like compulsive spending.

EMDR, which Breanne is doing with her therapist, can be used to treat compulsive spending (3), but clinical evidence of its efficacy is limited.

Studies suggest that cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) has success at reducing urges and buying episodes in the short- and medium-term (4).

Still, Warshaw and Coleman argued therapy alone might not be enough.

They offered a “reverse psychology” trick: when tempted to spend, Breanne should imagine the regret and guilt afterward, and how spending will make her feel.

The idea is to shift the automatic spending trigger from “feel good now” to “feel bad later.” It may rewire the emotional response tied to spending. Over time, that mental pause may reduce or stop impulse buys.

In addition to psychological hacks, Warshaw recommended Breanne practical actions, citing James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, and his approach of breaking bad habits by automating good ones (5).

For example Breanne could set up automated withdrawals every paycheck to pay her bills, so the money’s not there to spend.

Then Warshaw and Coleman suggested Breanne take part in a dramatic, symbolic act — physically cutting up her credit cards, live on camera.

Cutting up credit cards as a ritual, especially in public or in front of a friend, not only creates a spending buffer, but it symbolizes closure on past destructive habits and power over credit.

It activates a sense of accountability and commitment — not just to yourself, but to others.

For people working through trauma, combining therapy with behavioral safeguards can be a potent one-two punch: therapy helps reprocess emotional wounds, while rituals and rules give time for impulses to pass.