To ask if anyone else feels unwell/confused in shops and supermarkets?

[hatetheshops]

Nearly every time I go shopping I seem so find myself feeling really unwell and confused. It's hard to describe but I feel dazed and disorientated like I can't focus on what I'm doing. I'm young and otherwise healthy... I first noticed it happening in large supermarkets/shops like Tesco, B&Q, Costco. But now it seems to be every shop. I'm wondering if it's anxiety, although I don't think that I feel anxious in shops and there's other situations I find a lot more anxiety-provoking that don't cause the same effect?

Does anyone else relate?

I’ve been getting this the past few months but mine is due to panic and anxiety disorder and switching meds. I nipped into a bakery before and felt like I was going to fall over the whole time. I went to Farmfoods the other day and the same thing - felt like I was going to fall over and really unsteady. It was raining and dull outside but the lights were bright and the flooring didn’t help either. It’s an awful feeling. I’m in the process of going back to my old meds so really hoping things settle and I can go to places soon.

At the Tesco I used weekly (or more) I always thought I was going to faint at the till. I had to deep breathe until I’d packed the trolley and got out into the fresh air. I don’t feel like this at the Tesco I use now. It’s an odd and horrible feeling.

Yes, my family joke that I'm like a character in a computer game that is running out of health bar. I have a limited amount of time I can cope with, then I have to get out and go home.

Online shopping is a lifeline.

I seem to get this every so often. I always feel a bit 'weird' in shopping centres and big supermarkets. Strangely there is a charity shop near me that I often feel almost sea sick in. Not sure why. I'm definitely not anxious in the shops (as far as I know).

It’s the lighting.
Dh notices this in certain shops.
Try wearing your sunglasses indoor the shop or a wide brimmed hat.

Yes, anywhere I have lots to look at, especially on both sides. Supermarkets, IKEA, Museums, Stately Homes are places it's happened to me.

Not ND.

I'm going to try motion sickness pills next time it might occur, although I do all my shopping online so no plans soon. I get terrible motion sickness, so think it is a similar inner ear, balance issue.

Yes, just crept up on me over the last two years, only in supermarkets though. I'm absolutely fine in M and S 🙂I put it down to over stimulation. Quite often I feel like I'm going to cry, food shop online mostly now.

It’s the lighting. It can make people feel weird.

I never seem to be able to find what I'm looking for, I can spend ages looking for the right cheese or variety of apples etc and I get worried I'm annoying other people by getting in their way.

Only felt like that since Covid, it's like my general life confidence has disappeared and been replaced with a weird self-conscious anxiety.

I had this but mainly when I was pregnant. It happened in places with suspended lighting (not just supermarket, it also happened in a museum and a conference centre). I had to lie on the floor or leave.

I haven't been pregnant for ten years but I still get a little bit "stressed" or dazed in large spaces where the lights are at a different level to the ceiling.

I assumed it was a weird sensory thing I've always had that was heightened by hormones/ morning sickness when I was pregnant.

I get it sometimes, full on nausea from going round and round up and down aisles

I get really dizzy in the supermarkets, I think it's the bright lights and the glaring bright floors.

I used to feel sick in our local Sainsbury's cafe. Overhead fluorescent lights like every supermarket, but large very tinted windows. Pil like to eat in there and I just wanted to puke.

I have heard this from many people. Weirdly though I have a trauma-based dissociative disorder and big supermarkets are one of the best places for me to be able to become grounded and reconnected.

Long aisles WITH clear signage........ that bears no resemblance whatsoever to what is on the shelves is even worse IMHO.

Yes. Autism. Eat defenders and sunglasses can help

The Trafford Centre is like the seventh circle of hell.🔥

Oh my goodness, I get this. It also happens when the sun sits low in the sky in autumn and winter, it actually makes me feel sick. I recently had to have a bright light shone into my eye and I nearly vomited and went all dizzy and sweaty. I am forever turning bright lights off in my classroom, someone called me a vampire the other day.

I was in Tesco early this morning, got there around 8.40 and it was the usually noisy beeping, lights music and announcements. Then just before 9 a man said over the annoy that quiet hours was starting and honestly the difference was immense. No music, till sounds either very, very quiet or off, no announcements, lights dimmed slightly. I honestly felt like a weight had been lifted. I dont usually shop on a Saturday so didn't know that they did this. Apparently it is every Wed and Sat between 9 and 10. Personally I would like to see it all the time.

Yes, this has happened to me since childhood. I'm now 45. Particularly happens in shops with high shelves and narrow aisles. I cannot go into the Range at all. Primark is also a no go. I have ADHD.

Yes but I find most shops horrible. Bright, overwhelming, noisy, full to capacity, confusing.

Theyre not designed to be beautiful, enticing or relaxing, theyre designed so that you spend a lot, in a rush, without thought.

Yes! I feel like this and I don’t know why. Maybe it’s the lighting? I feel overwhelmed by all the products and can’t concentrate. It’s slightly better if in with someone else who can push the trolley.

Yes I get like this if I have to do a big food shop. I normally do it online but last week I got my delivery date wrong so had to go to Sainsbury's with 2 of my son's after school and I was shaking at the end of it. Funnily enough if it's purely treat stuff not a normal shop I'm ok

Remember its in their interests for us to lose control and not be able to think straight in the supermarket, we end up impulse buying and buying things we havent thought through

Its a ploy

Yes, completely get this. There's a massive Sainsbury's near us and I just don't go there anymore any more. It makes me feel like I'm going to faint, especially if I'm there alone, it the person I'm with has wandered off.

I just go to Lidl/Aldi and Waitrose now; I can get everything I need with that combination, and actually find what I need in shops that size. Who here actually needs an entire aisle of loo roll or pasta sauces too choose from?