shopping without dropping

Noting the date on the calendar, I realized today that I’m going to have to start thinking about Christmas shopping soon.  (Groan.)

I always dread having to do lots of shopping because it so time and energy consuming.

In my opinion, shopping is a lot more fun to talk about than it is to do.  

Somehow when I enter a big department store, the energy just drains right out of me. 

There’s just way too much stuff, and it’s noisy and crowded and it takes forever to find what you’re looking for. 

I’ll go there with a list of ten items, and then having spent multiple hours only to buy two items, I’ll feel exhausted and head home.  Talk about frustrating.

I always thought this might have something to do with Narcolepsy until my husband admitted that he also feels like all the energy is being sucked out of him when we go to KaDaWe (a giant department store with seven floors in Berlin). 

I thought to myself, Yes! This happens to PWN too! :-)

I do think that one of the main reasons I hate shopping is that it consumes a lot of energy.  Perhaps if I didn’t have Narcolepsy, I would enjoy it more, but I don’t think so. 

However, I do think I would do it more often if it didn’t take so much out of me.

When you have a limited amount of energy each day, you tend to notice when things take a lot of energy and leave you feeling drained and tired.  As a Narcoleptic who already struggles with alertness and energy, I do my best to avoid activities like this when I can.

While we’re on the topic of energy, yesterday I found a good explanation on a forum of how Narcoleptics have a limited amount of energy.  I thought that it was worth sharing.

“A chronic fatigue specialist puts it like this: All healthy "normal" people have 100% energy to use each day. Think of it as 100 pennies to spend.  You spend so much getting up, showered, dressed, getting to work, working, etc. There are still quite a few pennies that you chose how you will spend.  If you have a health condition that limits your ability to remain awake, or lessens your energy, you don't have 100 pennies. Maybe you have 80- if you do, you will have to make more careful choices, but you can "fake" a normal 100 penny day pretty well.  If you only have 60 or 70 pennies, it's not so easy.

Bottom line- you can spend your pennies however, but there aren't as many as most people have, so you'll have to economize somewhere. You can probably do any of the things you want, but maybe not all of them at the same time.  For a lot of PWN, it seems that the right treatment can give you more pennies, but you probably will never have 100. I found this a good way to visualize the struggle- but I don't have narcolepsy.”

Knowing that I have less “pennies” than people without Narcolepsy, this year I’m going to try to stress less about shopping and be more efficient with my time and energy.

I’ve even brainstormed a list for myself of a few new ways to do this.  :-)  Here they are below…

Ellie’s ideas for saving time and energy on shopping for gifts:

1. If I am going to use the internet to shop for something, I am going to pick ONE website and then buy what I want from there.  As opposed to what I usually do: look at eight different sites for the same thing and then worry about which item I should be buying.
2. If I go to the mall, I’m going to decide what I want to buy for someone BEFORE I buy it and where I’m going to do it.  In other words, I’m not going to look in 20 stores for one person, hoping to magically discover the perfect present (normally it doesn’t happen, and I have to just pick something anyways).  I’m going to decide what to buy each person before I leave the apartment.
3. This year I’m going to ask my sister (who likes shopping and is good at it) in advance what she is doing for our other family members, so I can contribute to whatever she is doing. She always knows what everyone wants, and we usually buy some gifts together anyways.
4. I am going to remind myself that Christmas (or the holidays) is not about giving “the best” gift but spending time with family and friends and giving thanks (in addition to whatever religious activities you might do). Sure, if I spend less time on this I might end up giving less original gifts, but quite honestly, I don’t think anyone will notice, while I will feel much better.  I might even be able to avoid a migraine or two. 
5. When in doubt, stick with the stores/places you know (i.e. amazon, Nordstrom’s, etc.).  This is not the time to be venturing into places you know nothing about.

How do you feel about shopping?  Do you have any strategies or tips for saving time and energy?