Supermarket anxiety in eating disorder recovery
Humans gotta eat. And in order to eat at home, we need to shop for groceries. This typically mundane task is one that some can perform on autopilot, cruising the aisles with a podcast blasting through their Air Pods and little thought about what they’re tossing into their carts. But for others—like people with eating disorders or in recovery—grocery shopping can be a daunting experience. Enter a phenomenon called supermarket anxiety.
The linked article describes supermarket anxiety as a paralyzing fear of the act of grocery shopping, mostly based on a perceived lack of control:
“This anxiety can stem from various aspects of the shopping experience, including sensory overload, large crowds, the vast array of choices, the need to make quick decisions and navigating unfamiliar layouts.” — Dr. Rebekah Wanic, Psychologist
But for people struggling with eating disorders, supermarket anxiety can extend beyond social anxiety, agoraphobia, and worries about contracting an airborne illness like COVID-19.
Let’s explore what supermarket anxiety means for eating disorder recovery.
What does supermarket anxiety in eating disorder recovery look like?
When added to what’s presented in the aforementioned article, eating disorder–specific supermarket anxiety can pile on a few extra layers of worry. In this section, I’ll detail how generalized supermarket anxiety can dovetail with eating disorders to make the simple act of grocery shopping your (and your ED’s) biggest fear.
Option overload
Supermarkets like to think they’re designed to make shopping easier for the consumer. But the sheer existence of dozens of (or more) options for each food category is enough to make anyone go mad. This is especially the case in U.S. supermarkets where aisles, which can extend for what feels like miles, can be devoted to just one food, like cereal.
When we’re presented with too many options, we have to eventually make a decision, which leads us to the next point…
Decisions, decisions
When it comes to deciding what products to buy, we can get caught up in the frenzy of the simple act of making that decision.
Price analysis based on the weight of the product, generic vs. name-brand, quality vs. quantity—it’s a maelstrom of metrics that can blur our judgment and lead to us grabbing whatever meets our eye line just to be done with it.
Even though we’re not being timed, it can be hard to ignore the rush of our fellow shoppers around us, which can further hinder our ability to make sound decisions.
Shopping with an audience
Food can be a sensitive issue for most people with eating disorders, so when you give stranger witnesses a front-row seat to our weird food choices, we can become even more anxious. In an ideal scenario, we’d be able to shop in the world’s smallest grocery store that only sells our “safe” foods and allows one shopper at a time. But recovery (like the world) isn’t that simple.
Panic at the checkout line
Regardless of the width of the aisles or the number of fellow shoppers careening their carts around corners stacked to the ceiling with promo items, supermarkets can be tense environments. Nowhere is this felt more than at the checkout line.
Not only did we have to decide which products to buy, but now we have to watch them slide across an electronic scanner, sometimes have their weight taken, and then get stuffed into a bag in the most space-saving way possible.
“What’s the big deal?” you may be wondering if you’re not in recovery or in the throes of an eating disorder.
The big deal is the worry that we will suddenly realize a product we chose was a mistake. Maybe we accidentally selected a food that is too tempting to keep in our house. Maybe we went against the meal plan we worked so hard to create with our nutritionist.
We’re worried we’ll have to make a scene by removing any mistake items from the checkout process. That people will see this scene. That the checkout clerk might announce this loudly enough for other shoppers to hear. Or that we’ll just have to keep our mouths shut and pretend everything is OK, slugging the mistaken food back to our homes and deciding what to do with it in privacy. But at least we’ll be out of the supermarket.
Buyer’s remorse
Back at home, we’ll have to face (yet again) the results of option overload, our hurried decision-making, and our frantic selections, all in an effort to get the heck out of the store as quickly as possible. But the decision-making doesn’t stop once in the safety of our homes. We now have to decide how and when these foods will be consumed. And this kicks off the next series of anxious decisions.
How to overcome supermarket anxiety in eating disorder recovery
It’s not all dented cans and leaky milk cartons—there are ways to get ahead of this. Here are a few tips for overcoming supermarket anxiety in eating disorder recovery.
Plan your visit
Any budget grocery shopper will advise making a list of what you plan to buy before you go shopping so you can avoid impulse buying. This strategy can be helpful to those in eating disorder recovery, as well.
If you see a nutritionist regularly, ask them to help you create a list and ask for ways to stick to it when you’re in the moment. Study your meal plan before you leave the house, or jot down the ingredients in a note-taking app so you always have it on hand in case the opportunity for an impromptu grocery trip presents itself.
Take a practice trip
If you’re not used to the American supermarket, it can be nothing short of overwhelming.
The tall shelves and even taller ceilings, the acreage of real estate, the mile-long aisles. This is why a practice trip might be a great first step to shopping.
Armed with the list you created in step 1, peruse the aisles and make a note of where your items live in the store. You won’t have to commit to buying anything just yet—you’re only getting the lay of the land so that when you return, you’ll feel a little more comfortable finding what you need.
Ask a friend to join you
If you’re not quite feeling courageous enough to take a trip on your own, ask a trusted friend if they would be willing to accompany you. This can be a part of your practice trip or a real shopping journey. Be sure to tell them about your fears beforehand, as well as any specific foods or aisles you’d prefer to avoid.
After this trip or any other trip, write down how it went. You can get started by answering the writing prompt at the end of this post.
Checkout line check-in
Once you’ve built up the courage to embark on an official trip to the store, look for ways to drown out the noise around you. For example, waiting in line to check out is the perfect place to go inward.
If you need to, close your eyes and take a few deep breaths. If your surroundings don’t allow for this, take inventory of your current feelings and fears by asking yourself where they might be coming from.
Consider online shopping and delivery
If your anxiety is too crippling to make in-person shopping a possibility, toss the task to technology. Most grocery stores partner with delivery companies that, for a fee, will deliver your groceries right to your door, eliminating the need to make the trip yourself. Plus, you won’t be distracted by shelves upon shelves of options. You can search for exactly what you need, add it to your digital card, and call it a day.
If the fears mentioned above seem like a lot to take in, that’s because they are. This is intended to show just how difficult a weekly chore can be for someone in the midst of their ED or in recovery.
But just like any other fear we face in life, we can find ways to overcome it and/or work around it. Exposure therapy, digital solutions, and relying on the support of our loved ones are just a few ways to abate supermarket anxiety and make grocery shopping just another chore.
Pause & Prompt
In the supermarket, I feel…
This camera is complex, complicated, and hard to understand unless you have experience with it. So are eating disorders.