It’s the repetition of this flirtation with our reward systems that over time form habits which, in turn, become toxic relationships it can be hard to extricate ourselves from.

“When we think about fast fashion – we see clothes on size 0 models who are all towering at six foot or more, and although we know that the piece might not look like that on us, we become more interested in getting that hit of pleasure from scrolling,” Dr. Terrelonge explains. “Dopamine – which is also known as the ‘go get it’ chemical – is released when we find the exact piece we’ve seen on a model that looks nothing like us, which is compounded by the fact that we can have it the next day. It’s instant gratification.”

The misconception about dopamine in the context of online shopping, which is to say the thrill-seeking that is hunting down a piece you’ve had earmarked in your brain for aeons, is that it drives us “to want things and to seek those things out”, but not necessarily because of your liking for it, more because of the animalistic cocktail of chemicals that react within your body to hunt for what you like. In turn, this creates pleasure when you find it.

This is what actually happens to your brain when you shop online