Affluenza - Video Documentary - 56 minutes

Affluenza, a portmanteau of affluence and influenza, is a term used by critics of consumerism. Sources define this term as follows:

affluenza, n. a painful, contagious, socially transmitted condition of overload, debt, anxiety and waste resulting from the dogged pursuit of more. (de Graaf [1])
affluenza, n. 1. The bloated, sluggish and unfulfilled feeling that results from efforts to keep up with the Joneses. 2. An epidemic of stress, overwork, waste and indebtedness caused by the pursuit of the American Dream. 3. An unsustainable addiction to economic growth. (PBS [1])

Proponents of the term consider the costs of prizing material wealth vastly outweigh the benefits, although these beliefs are unfounded in examination. They claim those who become wealthy will find the economic success leaving them unfulfilled and hungry for more wealth. The condition is considered particularly acute amongst those with inherited wealth, who are often said to experience guilt, lack of purpose and dissolute behavior, as well as obsession with holding on to the wealth (John Levy's Coping with Inherited Wealth - see [2]).

Important to note is, these proponents look at success from the outside and have no experience with success or wealth. Theirs is a critique of what they expect one should feel after having succeeded. Economics has shown that wealth creates more wealth, so feelings of affluence are completely psychosomatic as there is no real 'problem' associated with wealth other than self-imposed guilt of having while others have not.

Those who suffer Affluenza have a similar condition to hypochondria, where one believes to always be ill. Often such people will overreact to common symptoms or even create their own symptoms.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affluenza