Help! I don't want to go to the supermarket!
OT suggestions from ASD clinical pscyh re coping with supermarket.
1. write list and know shopping items. be organised before you leave house
2. IPOD IS A MUST. filter out all extraneous noise with music and ipod.
3. Sunglasses (an essential because of the blinking lights and glare everywhere and all the people and movement.)
4. hat if need be, to cut out extra light.
5. practice diaphragmatic breathing - belly breathing - which increases body oxygen flow and reduces anxiety and panic. Simple, works very well.
backup plan - quiet seat somewhere if it gets too much.
It has made a huge difference to me.
Well, now I'm sure it's not agoraphobia since pleople is not the problem.
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I don't care for supermarket shopping by myself, but I think it stems from my problems visually locating things. I could be staring the vinegar in the face, for instance, and just simply not "see" it. I find this very frustrating. It seems to take a long time for me to get the shopping done.
Exactly! And most of the times I don't realize I've picked the wrong product until I got home... not helping.
I cannot remmember how the store is organized though, wich makes it impossible (I could get lost in a one-way tunnel I've been walking throug every day of my life with the directions in a paper at hand


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The main thing that makes grocery shopping hard for me is that there are WAY too many choices. Let's say you want plain Ritz crackers, like people have been buying for 40 years (at least in the U.S.). You go to the cracker aisle, which goes on forever, and stand in front of 99 varieties of Ritz cracker. Whole wheat, low-fat, low-salt, miniture, cheesy, sour cream and onion, spicy, Mexican, Fun-Shaped, parmesan cheese, 100-calorie pack, mulit-grain, gluten-free.... It's insane. And that's just the Ritz crackers. It's the same problem with every other product. And meanwhile, standing there in a daze trying to remember what you came for (or that you need to look at the list in your hand), the speakers are blaring, "My baby takes the morning train! He works from nine to five and then...He takes a MARY CAN I HAVE A PRICE CHECK ON THREE to find me waiting for him!
"

I completely understand what you mean!
The choices are as well a very dificult thing, now a days I always base my choices on quiantitative qualities, I always pick the cheaper so I save my self one philosophical hour deciding the best choice to finally, after the conclution change my mind. Still it takes time until I calculate (my dyscalculia



This is how it wroks for me:
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Dianitapilla: I made my very detailed planing at home of what I needed to buy and how.
Then I spend HOURS walking aimlessly in a place I don't belong with four employees following me to see if all this time I'm not just trying to sneak something in my pocket with my suspicious attitude of "I'm lost already for 2 hours in a small supermarket I've been every week everytime 2 hours aprox. walking around with a paper on the hand like I'm looking for something and yet I will end up asking you for help", then when I get to the cashier I don't have enough money to pay so I have to take out half of the things I chose. When finally back at home turns out I forgot to buy something very important that was listed, and also bought something different than what I tought I was buying. So finally I spent 2 stressful hours trying to buy 4 things, chose 10, bought 6 and only 2 where right
Luckily we always laugh about my screw-ups but don't expect me to enjoy doing the groceries. Then I spend HOURS walking aimlessly in a place I don't belong with four employees following me to see if all this time I'm not just trying to sneak something in my pocket with my suspicious attitude of "I'm lost already for 2 hours in a small supermarket I've been every week everytime 2 hours aprox. walking around with a paper on the hand like I'm looking for something and yet I will end up asking you for help", then when I get to the cashier I don't have enough money to pay so I have to take out half of the things I chose. When finally back at home turns out I forgot to buy something very important that was listed, and also bought something different than what I tought I was buying. So finally I spent 2 stressful hours trying to buy 4 things, chose 10, bought 6 and only 2 where right

I don't get panic or anxious, I feel lost, absorbed and overwhelmed

I always make lists of everything otherwise my chaotic brain would take over me (ADHD+AS+dyspraxia is not a good mix). I *HEART* LISTS! I will keep on doing them.
Music will definitely be on the check list.
Getting stoned it's a good one


Sunglases I never thought about, I will try it and see what happens. Hat doesn't make much of a difference, makes me look cool though

Thanks a lot for your advices! hopefully next monday I will manage to do it! Wish me luck!

Ps: sorry for the long post and the possible misspellings.
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Dianitapilla