If the simple idea of grocery shopping gives you anxiety, you are not alone. There are plenty of anxiety producing stimuli, so it’s not uncommon that you’d try to avoid the experience all together. Grocery stores actually plan their layout to “stimulate” us to purchase more products. The halogen lighting is meant to up our awareness of color, making products feel brighter, and more obtrusive to the anxious individual. Giant carts make people seem MUCH closer than they are, making crowd anxiety heightened.
The thousands of different types of products creates existential angst about choices that much worse, and paralyzes the person just trying to buy a loaf of bread (high fiber, gluten-free, thin, nutty, local, organic, Texas Style, wheat, sourdough, multi seed, this list is endless!), and that goes for every other food category that is on your list. Apples, vegetables, butter, milk, etc. it can seem impossible to just get to the checkout counter with this many choices.
During these times of unrest, it’s probably best to online order anyway, however, if the time comes where you must don the mask and brave the wilderness of the mega grocery store, there are hacks you can use to make it less stressful.
Now the stimulating environment will remain consistent, however, if you can lower the time it takes to get in and out, your anxiety will be less intense. Here are some suggestions that have worked for my patients throughout the years.
1. Make a detailed grocery list on paper.
This is possibly the best strategy to cut time off your in store experience. Look at the food you already purchase (if it’s on your recovery plan) and how much you’d need to purchase for the next week IF you are what was on your plan. Just because you might have an eating disorder doesn’t mean you get to have a shopping disorder. There is no consequence to purchasing what you need (even if you don’t follow through), so let’s at least give you a good foundation to recover. If it’s your first time shopping for a new meal plan of things your dietitian has recommended, make him/her do the heavy lifting. Have them send pictures of the actual product to your phone. Tell them you want suggestions that fit the nutrition facts, so you don’t have to look at every product in the yogurt section, for example. If you end up hating it, you can ask for another recommendation next week with the same nutrition facts. Make them work if you’re paying them.
2. Don’t go alone.
Bring someone with you who knows your main goal of getting in and out ASAP. Tell them your detailed list, and let them know they have free reign to hold you accountable for only purchasing what’s on your list.
3. Treat it like a grocery scavenger hunt.
See how fast you can get the right number of products and the right kind the fastest. Once you enter the store, the game is on!
4. Out boundaries around deliberation.
You can have as much emotion and upset BEFORE you get to the store, the crying, anxiety and deliberation can all happen while the list is being created. You know what you’re supposed to eat, how much, and when you need to challenge yourself, and with which foods. Wrote the list the way you would for someone else, but do NOT deliberate on any different types of products AT the grocery store. If you’re interested, simply take a picture and investigate later. Remember, get on and out of the store ASAP to save your sanity.
5. Free write for 10-minutes.
After you put everything away, pull out a notebook, journal or piece of paper and write all the thoughts in your head for 10 mini without stopping. This is an important step as you’ve just carried home a ton of possibly unfelt anxiety along with your groceries. These thoughts should be released from your mind so that you can go on with the rest of your day in peace.
Remember, grocery shopping can be awful. Don’t expect yourself to love it, you don’t have to. Just make sure you’re gentle where you can be, and brave where you know you need to be. The rest is just a series of hacks to avoid as much anxiety as you can.
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Scarlett Ramey, MS, RDN, CD
P.S. Hope to see you in the comments. Let’s rally together during this time and stay connected in supporting YOUR Recovery journey. The world deserves the BEST of you.♥️