Shopping Anxiety

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This post is just a vent, not a request for help.

I have trouble with dealing with people in large groups. I decided to help out my wife by doing the grocery shopping for her. How busy can it be on a Sunday afternoon?

Apparently, very busy.

To make matters worse, we are starting a new diet including many, many foods that I had never heard of before, let alone located on the supermarket shelves. It took me an age to find things and so I was in there for over an hour.

Result? Extreme anxiety to the point of feeling nervous and wanting to abandon my trolley and run away. The last time I felt like this it triggered three months of agoraphobia.

Need some time by myself to calm down and somewhere to vent. Thank you Wrong Planet!

I hope you feel better soon.

The worst part for me is the bagging up and paying for it, worrying that the person at the checkout is going to throw me a curve ball by making a comment on one of my items or say something random. It really doesn't help either when they move things around to different aisles. If there are people getting in the way as well I can become very agitated.
Self serving checkouts should theoretically make things a bit easier, but you get people waiting behind watching your every move, so I don't like those either.
It's a huge relief when I walk out of those places.

Sorry you went through that. Where I live weekends are the worst at the grocery store. Lots of people in the aisles don't bother me as much as long lines at the checkout. In lines I have to distract myself by playing Flow on my phone or something.

It is the amount of people that is clearly making you nervous as you mentioned above. Do you also become nervous when you have to pay for something?

My anxiety level at the checkout is determined by the events that lead up to the finalisation of the purchase.

If I am on edge upon reaching the checkout, I will worry about things like whether or not I have enough money to pay for the goods. If I am shopping at 9.00 pm and the supermarket is quiet, the checkout procedure is usually stress free.

If there is a queue at the checkout, I am much more likely to become anxious. I think people are looking at me because I am strange. There is nowhere to hide.

I am anxious when I am in an unfamiliar shop and need to look for specific things which I have no idea of placement of but not when I am in a familiar shop and it's up for me what I buy. In that cases I just follow the route I always follow and look at the shelves, picking stuff I like and checking out new things. But if they change the placement of stuff or one of my usual things is gone I get anxious just like in an unfamiliar shop.

I, too, have sensory overloads, everytime I go into grocery stores, malls, and stuff. But it suddenly slow down.

I often feel anxious when I go shopping alone, mainly because I just don't like open spaces with lots of people, and also because I often worry people will think I'm shoplifting.

I had severe agoraphobia and panic disorder for a few years back in the 90s and couldn't leave the house without my husband there and even then it was hard. I went to tons of therapy and such and learned a lot about it and am completely over it now but since you mentioned agoraphobia I wanted to ask if you have it. Also, one of the worst places for people who have it is the grocery store. I don't know why thats true but it is. I've read it and been told that by several therapists and also I experienced it myself.

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I'm giving it another shot. We will see.
My forum is still there and everyone is welcome to come join as well. There is a private women only subforum there if anyone is interested. Also, there is no CAPTCHA.

The link to the forum is http://www.rightplanet.proboards.com

If I am shopping by myself, I usually don't have much of an issue with it. I get in and get out. However, when I take my mom shopping, who is legally blind, it takes forever and then I start getting stressed and have to watch that I don't snap at her ( this is one of the few ways she gets out of the house, so she isn't in much of a hurry).

I've never been the store by myself, but I get super anxious whenever I'm alone.

Whenever I'm at the deli, I get scared that people waiting will get pissed at me because I'm blocking the line or taking too long with my order. I also get anxious about screwing up whenever I go up and talk to somebody.

That's why I like going shopping on weekdays.

I used to (relatively) enjoy grocery shopping with my Dad back in the 1970s when I was a young boy in Canada.

When I moved out on my own in 1989 I had to do my own grocery shopping. No problems really.

But I've noticed that as the years go by I hate crowded grocery stores weekend afternoons.

Nearby we have a Superstore and a Safeway across the street from each other. Everybody goes to the Superstore because it has lower prices, and is larger/has more selection. It's mainly the seniors who shop at the Safeway.

Sometimes I'll go to the Safeway if I just need some basic stuff because I don't wanna interact, worry about sensory overload at Superstore, even though (except for milk) I pay the higher price.

I think the best advice to anyone with 'the gene' is to try and do your grocery shopping an hour or two before the 'market closes. For me, both of them are open till 23h (11 pm). So the best time to go is after 21h (9 pm) or even sometimes after 19h30 (730 pm) after people have put their kids to sleep so there are no screaming kids and generally fewer people there.