That sucks. I hope you get through it

Call one of those hotlines for help. You can do better than this for yourself. You're posting about it here - you know it's a problem and there is a way to recover.

At the end of the day, you need to take care of yourself first! It sounds as if you try to buy the affections of others rather than forming organic, positive relationships. Good people won't care if you give them gifts, and will care about spending time with you and having a connection. It's better to surround yourself with quality people rather than a large amount of people. Often addictions of any kind are used to self medicate and used to escape from reality. Larger deeper, emotional issues need to be addressed in order to help heal, and fill the void you are trying to fill by buying things. In the end, it only hurts you and those who love you that see you spiralling. It's Vancouver, most people don't have money, myself included. You can still connect with others in a meaningful way and budget for yourself. You now have a choice. Get help and take the steps necessary to address your emotional issues and turn things around or continue on this path and fall deeper into debt and more serious long term issues. Reach out and please get help. By doing so, you can turn things around for yourself, but only if you take the steps to get help.

That sounds really self-defeating. Maxed out 3 credit cards at 20-25% interest?? Plus a $40K student loan? I hate to be blunt, but you're wrecking your life just so you can keep up this facade. It's time to stop the charade. It's time to say "I don't have the money" to others and yourself. You're enslaving yourself to your credit card companies and your employer; you will not have any freedom until you pay back what you owe. STOP buying gifts for others; you do not need to do this to make people happy or make people like you.

You know what I see? I was at the Metrotown mall today and it was swarmed with people. And I had pulled back and saw it from a way zoomed out perspective. We are drowning in consumer shit. There is so much crap to buy, all undifferentiated shit that looks the same from one store to the next. People swarm the mall to spend tons of money to look like exactly like everyone else. The contents of the mall and the people inside look all interchangeable. OP, you said you have a shopping addiction. What is the void that needs to be filled with buying consumer junk? Consumption is not making you happy so it sounds like it's time to discover what you really yearn for deep down inside yourself.

Joe Public says "Get help"

Ah yes, shopping for things... Your friends might not even really want the things you buy for them; they might prefer to just hang out or go for a bike ride together. Maybe it's time to rethink what it means to give a gift. I've written songs for people as a gift, it didn't cost any money. I've also hung out with a friend while I tore a cerial box into the shape of a dancing figurine. Years later I saw it taped to her computer; I think she appreciated that I created something for her in a moment we spent together.