...I was just talking to a friend and fellow ADHDer (who will soon be writing a guest post for this here bloggity-blog!) and we were talking about shopping. Here's a typical experience for the two of us:
I walk into the store, full of hope, full of enthusiasm. I don't have a lot of money, but I don't really care, I may just browse to enjoy the experience and clear my head. Somehow, I end up with a bunch of stuff draped over my arm that I'm really excited about...somehow I go to the dressing room and try it all on...and usually, I give all the clothes back to the changing room attendant.
Two reasons: women's clothes are so fucked in the sizing that I have a hard time finding things that fit properly. But there's another bigger problem...making decisions about what to buy and not buy make my head hurt. It's totally overwhelming and in my free time (what little I have) I don't like spending time being overwhelmed. I could have been in that store for two hours, looking at stuff, trying stuff on...and will walk out with nothing. USUALLY I walk out with nothing.
My friend was just telling me that she does exactly the same thing because it makes her really cranky, having to make all of those decisions about the clothes. It's the worst, too, when you are on a limited budget because then you have to think about all the combinations of things you can and can't afford...ugh...
I'll generally agonize over it while perusing the shelves again, realizing I already saw everything on my first pass, remembering what worked and didn't in the dressing room, berating myself because buying pants shouldn't require that much thinking, wondering why I'm agonizing over it at all, then wondering why I'm agonizing over my agonizing, until I finally just walk out. No clothes. Today was different, I bought a sweater, but only because my boss gave me a $50 bill for my birthday the other day and I had one $50 item that I had been wanting for two years...that decision was easy. All the rest...fuck 'em. I gave a big pile back to the attendant today...
My sister gets exasperated with me when shopping (I think I touched on this in an earlier post where I discussed getting stuck on the fiber content of socks while my sister aged 7 years waiting for me because I couldn't figure out which socks to get because I was overwhelmed by the choices...). She's even less patient than I am. So she'll just grab a ton of clothes, buy ALL of them, and return the ones she doesn't want later. She doesn't like to have to go to the dressing room and try things on. Technically she's not diagnosed with ADHD but...really? Haha...hmmm.....
Whatever...my point is that ADHD makes shopping annoying...haha :) I wish I could make clothing magically appear and disappear instead of having to go through that process at all.
I walk into the store, full of hope, full of enthusiasm. I don't have a lot of money, but I don't really care, I may just browse to enjoy the experience and clear my head. Somehow, I end up with a bunch of stuff draped over my arm that I'm really excited about...somehow I go to the dressing room and try it all on...and usually, I give all the clothes back to the changing room attendant.
Two reasons: women's clothes are so fucked in the sizing that I have a hard time finding things that fit properly. But there's another bigger problem...making decisions about what to buy and not buy make my head hurt. It's totally overwhelming and in my free time (what little I have) I don't like spending time being overwhelmed. I could have been in that store for two hours, looking at stuff, trying stuff on...and will walk out with nothing. USUALLY I walk out with nothing.
My friend was just telling me that she does exactly the same thing because it makes her really cranky, having to make all of those decisions about the clothes. It's the worst, too, when you are on a limited budget because then you have to think about all the combinations of things you can and can't afford...ugh...
I'll generally agonize over it while perusing the shelves again, realizing I already saw everything on my first pass, remembering what worked and didn't in the dressing room, berating myself because buying pants shouldn't require that much thinking, wondering why I'm agonizing over it at all, then wondering why I'm agonizing over my agonizing, until I finally just walk out. No clothes. Today was different, I bought a sweater, but only because my boss gave me a $50 bill for my birthday the other day and I had one $50 item that I had been wanting for two years...that decision was easy. All the rest...fuck 'em. I gave a big pile back to the attendant today...
My sister gets exasperated with me when shopping (I think I touched on this in an earlier post where I discussed getting stuck on the fiber content of socks while my sister aged 7 years waiting for me because I couldn't figure out which socks to get because I was overwhelmed by the choices...). She's even less patient than I am. So she'll just grab a ton of clothes, buy ALL of them, and return the ones she doesn't want later. She doesn't like to have to go to the dressing room and try things on. Technically she's not diagnosed with ADHD but...really? Haha...hmmm.....
Whatever...my point is that ADHD makes shopping annoying...haha :) I wish I could make clothing magically appear and disappear instead of having to go through that process at all.
Try Consignment Shops in Affluent areas...You will get variety & quality...some stuff not even worn. There would be only a few things maybe of what you are looking for ( you won't go crazy over choices)but they would be priced at like 20% of what would be in a retail store....A friend of mine is a VP in a company and she picks up Donna Karan clothes for peanuts.
ReplyDeleteI think I just have to accept that shopping is never going to be a "fave" for me...lol...although your suggestion is a good one :)
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