The Supermarket
- 20 Aug 07, 7:35 PM
I hate food shopping. Every week, I put off going to the local supermarket until the last possible moment, when all that is left to eat are stale crusts of bread and mouldy cheese hanging around like a bad smell in the fridge.
I don鈥檛 know what it is. It鈥檚 like a mental block I have about a) going out of the house and b) facing up to all those mums with screaming kids and people dithering over the latest two for the price of one offers at the end of the shopping aisle.
Of course, I always leave it until the worst possible time e.g. mid morning on a Saturday, when the traffic is at its peak. I haven鈥檛 got the sense to get up early and push myself through before the rush. At six o鈥檆lock in the morning my sluggish and depressed brain is not ready to function for at least another three hours.
When I am not feeling so hot, in the early stages of hypomania, it feels like everyone is looking at me, nosing in my trolley and they know exactly what I am thinking. I feel so exposed that it鈥檚 like I鈥檓 walking around the supermarket with no clothes on.
When I am feeling depressed, my decision making capacity completely evaporates and I cannot decide which type of bread to buy 鈥 white or wholemeal, thick or thin, big or small, crust or no crust. There are so many to choose from and I just can鈥檛 make up my mind.
So I leave it, and leave it, until I am picking the bits of mould off the bread and toasting it and eating tuna fish or mackerel out of a can.
When I am shopping, I need plenty of space. That invisible personal comfort zone of protected air around me. I really hate those dozy individuals that shove their trolley right up my behind when I am trying to pay with my credit card at the till. It happens every time. I have to say, with gritted teeth, 鈥渆xcuse me, would you mind moving your trolley back so that I can pay please?鈥 and they sheepishly move back out of my space.
I haven鈥檛 tried internet shopping. This involves pre-planning which is not an option when you are frozen in time by depression. I can鈥檛 seem to get past the home page and work my way through all the menu options. It鈥檚 just too difficult to try something new when you are depressed.
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Comments
Oh, I could have written this. You've got the depressed shopping experience down to a tee, and this is exactly why Domino's makes so much money out of me.
Yep, guess the fast food market makes a lot of money out of me also for the same reason.
Please feel free to adapt the "When I am manic" and "When I am depressed" comments as appropriate for DLA applications.
If you can get yourself past that login screen, I heartily recommend the internet shopping experience. Really. As a tactic, may I recommend writing a list then typing the products into the site's search engine. It makes the process rather less dragged-out and brain-frying.
And, of course, no staring and no confusion.