How crazy is this? (I just need to say this and can't on facebook, for obvious reasons)
My mom is retired. She doesn't leave the house much. She can but she doesn't. She hasn't been to the grocery store in weeks. I offered to go to the grocery store for her. She lives over an hour away. Now, she wants to go to the grocery store WITH me.
This has been happening a lot lately. She waits for me to offer to do stuff for her, so she doesn't have to go anywhere alone. I'm not exactly sure if I'm helping. You know what I mean??? I think that I may be making the situation worse.
I so relate to this from mom's side - I have some anxiety and depression issues - most of the time I'm ok but when it hit me, going shopping - especially grocery shopping - was very difficult. I have abandoned several carts in a desperate rush to get away from all the people, the noise, the colors, the everything. I've been known to pay double for something small at 7-11 because it's not so overwhelming. When I was feeling like this, my mom would sometimes come over and
shop with me. I hated to ask her to do it, she lives a state away! But she would - I should say it's
very rare that I asked lol. Now, when I have it available, I'll take an ativan or valium. That really helps, and I can
shop on my own. I also had a few sessions with an anxiety specialist and that helped me to learn how to get out on my own.
The problem with needing help in situations like this is that it can spiral out of control - the most important thing is re-learning how to be 'on your own'. I know it got much worse for me when I got laid off - the structure of a daily routine and being around people every day kept it at bay I guess. maybe she could find a social group to spend time with locally?
Anyway - not sure what I'm trying to say here. I guess it's something like - give her a fish now but also teach her how to fish? So that's my 2 cents.