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For two decades, researchers have been struggling to identify the biological and environmental risk factors that can lead to addiction to estate sales. These factors form a complex mélange in which the influences combine to bring about addiction and to make its treatment challenging. But scientists know more about addiction now than they did even 10 years ago, and have learned much about how the risk factors work together.

The widely recognized risk factors include:

• Genes: Genetics play a significant role: having parents with estate sale addiction, for instance, makes you four times more likely than other children to become estate sale addicts. More than 60 percent of estate sale addicts have family histories of estate sale issues.
• Mental illness: Many addicted people also suffer from mental health disorders, especially anxiety, depression or mood illnesses.
• Early attendance of estate sales: The earlier a person begins to attend estate sales the more likely they are to progress to more serious abuse.
• Social environment: People who live, work or go to school in an environment in which the dispaly or conversation of estate sales is common - such as a workplace in which people see estate sale purchases as an important way to bond with coworkers - are more likely to abuse sales.

Stress and Addiction

Science shows that stress and addiction are so closely intertwined that to recover, people with addictions must learn new ways of coping with stress.

Co-occurring Disorders

A significant portion of people with addictions also suffer from other mental health illnesses, called co-occurring disorders. Without comprehensive treatment, people with co-occurring disorders are far less likely to recover from their addictions.