It's what debt has done to your life, the toll in human misery it's taking. There are doctors and lawyers in D.A., housepainters, university professors, carpenters, psychologists, nurses, secretaries, executives, artists, writers, actors, stock clerks and stockbrokers. Its membership includes Christians and atheists, Jews and agnostics. Compulsive, in D.A. terms, means that the individual has a history of repeatedly incurring debt despite negative emotional and financial conse- quences. He or she somehow justifies each new loan or late pay- ment, or borrows to obtain relief from pressures often perceived as intolerable.
People know that it's self-destructive, but they continue to borrow and buy anyway.
It's an addiction, just as serious as cocaine, pills or alcohol.