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We're all accustomed to them now and most of us have accepted them almost like modus operandi of modern times but do any of you experience irrational levels of stress and anxiety with security guards and cameras in shops? I remember when I was much younger having many such irrationalities when masses of cameras first started springing up everywhere but with education in security I learned a lot to dispel many of the myths I'd imagined and was able to quell some of the anxieties I felt back then. However with education there is always the danger of knowing too much and that can backfire and make one even more self-conscious to the point of pure paranoia. Even now I get uncomfortable sensations when I'm looking up and round at the signs over the shopping isles of shops I don't know so that I can easily navigate to the correct section of the shop but then accidentally ending up locking sight with security cameras (which seem only to beg to be stared at with their huge bug-eyed appearances) and then feeling as if I'm being followed by every camera and security guard until I've finished my purchases or walked out empty handed (which in a way is even worse as every security guard is suspicious of people leaving huge supermarkets without having made a single purchase). I had one such experience yesterday when I was in a DVD store and I suddenly got this surge of anxiety because I'd taken my coat off before entering the store due to being way too sweaty and I'd wrapped it up and held it in an ever-unravelling ball in my arm which I had to keep re-wrapping. I became self-conscious that it was bad to have my coat wrapped in my arm this way (bearing in mind thieves use these ploys to conceal things) but could do nothing practical about it. Well that was it wasn't it - as soon as I'd thought that, I could do nothing to forget it and the anxiety intensified. I decided I didn't want to buy anything as nothing took my fancy and that only made things worse. I slowly began to gravitate towards the exit and I floated near the security fences on a kind of high-alert that they were following me - I exited the store and just froze in cold petrification for several moments in the precinct where again there were more cameras and just very nervously began to walk away from the store. You see from the point of view of the Security agents I would probably have seemed highly suspect and that thought was circulating round my mind at the time which only made it worse and I could see no way to stifle those feelings to help me relax. And I needed to escape that situation (that discomfort) but again any hasty exit would make me look even more suspect. Of course I understand the common reason for having security in shops and elsewhere for our protection but it does a lot to undermine our confidence too. There's nothing worse than feeling you're being following/stalked/watched which only intensifies anxious-behaviour which makes them even more likely to follow. And all of this has made me wonder if any one else here has experiences like this. What are your experiences with security?