Ah try not to even think about it. You are anticipating something bad will happen, Instead don't even think about it. If a negative thought comes just say you can handle it. The day you go shopping tell yourself you will be ok. You will do the shopping no matter what. If you get dizzy you will take a deep breath. If it gets too bad you will leave. It is no big deal. If you get an anxious thought like I feel dizzy, just tell yourself you are dizzy because you are looking at too much things. Trying singing a song in your head when you are in the store.
Good luck.

what helps me when I go into stores is instead of looking out ahead of me and all around, I look at the floor way up ahead of me. I can still easily see where I am going and where I am in the store to find things but the size of the store and the amount of people in there with me doesn't overwhelm me. If I am having a particularly hard time I try to stay focused on what I am there for and go on my hunt or I stick strictly to a list that way my mind doesn't have time to wander. Hope it goes well for you :)

Just relax into the feeling. Don't dread it. Go into the store HOPING the feeling will come so you can practice remaining calm. Trust your body to carry you through the process and accept every physical symptom that comes.

This may be difficult at first, but what you'll find is... the next trip won't be as bad. Eventually, you'll be looking forward to it because even though it's just shopping, you're out there with "normal" people doing normal things, and that's empowering.

Anxiety only sticks around as long as you don't want it to. Your fear of it fuels it. If you slowly take the fear of that "feeling" out of the equation, the feeling has no reason to come around... and simply stops.

"The cure for anxious thinking lies not in putting up with symptoms, but in symptoms no longer mattering."
-Claire Weekes

Bryan is very right of course! I would like to share a method from a cbt book for how to deal with panic.


here are the steps to take when we panic. it's the acronym AWARE.

A-cknowledge and accept-accept your feeling of anxiety and become aware of the symptoms. know that you are safe even though you are scared and that it's ok to panic.

W-ait. our gut instinct is to flee or change our behavior or try to stop the panic. Wait to respond so you don't reinforce the idea of being "in danger" by reacting to the panic. know that you can escape but delay the decision. stay where you are.

A-ctions to make yourself more comfortable. We're not trying to stop the panic attack. it will end no matter what and struggling keeps us ill rather than helps us get better. do belly breathing. go to axietycoach.com to see dr. carbonell do the belly breathing. also, keep fulfilling your "role." if you're shopping, keep shopping. if you're driving, merge, change lanes, whatever your role is at that time. a lot of anxiety comes from resisting our role. for instance, your role when you're a passenger in a car is to sit comfortably and let the time pass. people get anxious b/c they want to be elsewhere (but they aren't), they feel the need to walk or run (but they can't). they're resisting the role. another technique to use is "the rule of opposites". your gut instinct is your bodies response to "danger" but we're actually only experiencing "discomfort". by reacting like it's danger, the panic cycle persists. we should do the opposite of our gut instinct. if we're walking on a bridge and we're stiff, clinging to the railing and holding our breath, we should let go of the railing, do belly breathing and maybe do a hop or two. our brain gets the message that we're doing the opposite of our instinct so we're probably not in danger.

R-epeat. the anxiety may begin to get better, then get worse. keep doing the techniques.

E-nd. we are not trying to end the panic, but ride it out so we can become desensitized to it. the panic will end. they always do. the catastrophic thoughts we have never happen. the catastrophic thoughts are just a symptom of panic.

Pay attention to the idea of "roles" bc a lot of panic really does come from resisting your role. This method is not to "protect" you from the panic since there is nothing to protect you from. It is to help you become desensitized to the feeling of panic. Once you are no longer scared of panicking, it won't happen anymore.

Excellent post, Rabbits! Interesting read.