While there’s no compulsive shopping gene, there are several theories about why people are more susceptible to addictive and obsessional behaviors. It might have a genetic basis, but Annie Gurton thinks the reality is addictions are more likely to have an environmental cause.

The drive to connect and communicate is in fact so strong it exists even in the absence of the communication methods most of us know – it’s a drive we can’t hold in any more than the instinct to eat or sleep.

If you’ve ever become bored with eating the same kind of lunch every day, looked at your sleeping partner and wondered what you ever saw in them or regretted your career choice, you’ve felt the effects of one of our most highly developed survival mechanisms.