Does anyone else start to feel light-headed in supermarkets?

[dreamylove]

The other day I was in Costco and around 30 minutes in I started to feel quite light headed and kind of spaced out. It felt like when you are zoning out and day dreaming except I couldn't snap myself out of it so was walking around in this day dream-like state trying to navigate my trolley around people that I could see but couldn't focus on if you know what I mean. I soon forgot about it as soon as I was outside I felt normal again.

Then a couple of a days later I was in Tesco. Again, I was fine for around 30 minutes and then started to get the same zoned out kind of feeling and start to be a little irritable as I want to hurry up and leave. I am ok and both times the family members I were with did not notice anything I just felt a bit slow when trying to navigate the trolley around people and the aisles and when packing the shopping at the till. Again, as soon as I left I was fine.

Since then I can recall feeling like that in Ikea and sometimes when clothes shopping in, e.g. Primark. However it is always in shops I am in for quite a while and is around the 30 minute mark that I start feeling like that.

I think it may be either a reaction to the fluorescent lighting or perhaps nervousness at being in crowded shops? I was wondering if anyone else ever feels like this?

This is why I love shopping in Lidl. It doesn’t trigger any anxiety. Tesco and Asda are a bit of an ordeal by comparison.

For me it's anxiety, every bloody time im in asda

Yep. I studied this 20 years ago at uni and I still remember it. Most of those places recirculate the air so no Much fresh Air comes in, only a small % and this has a physical effect.
Same reason why you need to get some fresh air into your car.
I can’t remember all the details but yes

When I was pregnant I had this is any kind of supermarket, bank tc environment. It was very annoying as I'd feel fine before going in!

It might be the air con - I know some emit a low hum that's barely detectable and it can make some people feel ill.

Only when I have to pay

Yes, this happens to me and has done since childhood. I used to beg my parents to leave me in the car because it made me feel so unwell. I thought I was the only one!

yes. I feel really dizzy and queazy.
it's the artificial light and the sound of the ventilation.
I suspect it's psychological for me. as I was stuck on a ferry during a storm. artificial lights, loud ventilation and a violently rolling ship...

I find places without windows get me. Not just supermarkets.

I used to go to an art supplies shop and was fine at the front of the shop but to get to the useful stuff I had to go to the bits where there were no windows which would save me a lot of money because I had to leave before I had finished shopping.

Basements of shops make me dizzy and the supermarket I prefer to use also. I end up sitting down while someone else does the checkout so also save money there as I don't get my full shop and top up elsewhere by which time I can't be bothered so just get the bare essentials.

Much worse when I am tired.

I always need a poo after about 30mins in a bookstore. I've written about this before on here. Apparently it's to do with feeling relaxed.

Said this a few times on here- the way I new I had really bad depression and anxiety is when I started getting physical effects in supermarkets, to the point id run out of their halfway through.

@Twocoffees Interesting you say that, I don't recall ever feeling like that in Aldi or Lidl, although I think I tend to be a lot quicker in there than in Tesco or Costco.

@Patroclus I have suffered with anxiety in the past year although it has been very specific situations where I feel panicky. I worry whether the symptoms I am experiencing are my anxiety becoming more generalised as I have noticed my anxiety has changed from occasional panic attacks in specific circumstances to be of a constant but lower-level anxiety. May I ask, if you don't mind sharing, what were your physical symptoms you had in supermarkets? Was it easy to identify them right away as anxiety or did it take some introspection to determine that the physiological effects was occurring due to anxiety?

If I have PMT it always comes out in supermarkets. I hate everyone, they’re all getting in my way.

Always get about half way round IKEA and announce I have to leave right now. Husband gets very perplexed. I thought it was just me.

On a serious note I have seen quite a few people pass out in supermarkets. I’m sure they had other conditions but I think the strategies these companies are employing are very unpleasant.

Kinda.

My vision goes wavy and I zone out slightly.

Hence I do all my food shopping online

@KenzoBaby

Mariko Aoki phenomenon. I get it too!

Yes. Most large supermarkets make me feel spaced out after a while. I have to focus really hard on the list.I love our tiny Lidl.

I feel funny in certain shops. Toys r us used to make me feel really tired, I would start yawning as soon as I went in (nothing to do with the kids! Happened when they weren't there as well!). Places like currys/PC world etc make me have the worst headache and feel sick, which I think is due to the smell. Can't go in the lift in my local next or tk max as it gives me motion sickness!

I used to get it really badly when I was pregnant with DS2 in one particular shop - DH had a foot injury at the time and tended to wait in the car (as the only driver/to do the heavy lifting) while I went around the shop, and I kept having to text him to come and rescue me, and then one time I actually almost blacked out and had to sit down on the floor - the staff came running over and gave me a free bottle of water.

I thought I had low blood sugar the first time so the next few times we made sure to have a big lunch first, but no difference. We just stopped shopping there in the end.

On the time I nearly fainted the staff said it would be the lights. They were really worried about me when they saw I was pregnant. I was fine, though, just a bit lightheaded - it was so weird. I mentioned it to my midwife and she didn't seem concerned at all.

My mum gets it due to crowds, but crowds don't bother me like that at all. It was just something to do with the lights or yes perhaps the ventilation.

l have been to Ikea twice and both times something happened to me,not sure how to explain but ended in tears the second time.

I also need a poo in bookshops, mostly second hand bookshops. Is it the dust?

With supermarkets, they're designed to be alienating as pp's said. That can trigger feelings of anxiety. Always worse by like a million times if you're hanging, because that makes you feel anxious anyway, probably.

I feel giddy in some shops. I never know whether I am having a hypo or not. It feels very similar.

Wow, I thought that was just me! I only get it in Asda. The one time in my life I've ever had a migraine (a silent one but with visual disturbances) was in there too.

Oh wow, I never realised this was a thing, but yes I get this too.

I also feel like the ground is vibrating gently under me at times.

I suffer with anxiety and panic attacks, although I'm generally able to stifle them and talk myself down.

Perhaps the two are linked?