I don't think she has anxiety about grocery stores. I think she has anxiety in general. And I honestly can't blame her. Look at her. If I looked like she did, I would be freaked out being around normal people too. She's a complete fucking spectacle. Can you imagine seeing a 500 pound woman waddling along, clinging to a cart for support, wheezing and gasping, sweating and ruddy faced in the middle of Canadian winter? Honestly, part of me wonders why she doesn't just do the online grocery shopping thing. But I think if she did that, that would be the end of her. She already admitted that she has fast food delivered these days, so she's clearly discovered UberEats. If she figured out she could have groceries delivered too, she'd never leave the house again.
I love how she vacillates from being the object of desire of random men when she has her story times to telling the truth. She has anxiety that someone is going to directly speak to her and say something about her weight and poor condition. Or worse, she'll hear them talking about her, real or imagined, behind her back.
On social media she can put forth a persona, not that anyone with an IQ above room temp buys it, and she can be Chantal, size 30 temptress of Ottawa who studied honors English and has all sorts of adventures. (Fake) adventures that betray just how few social interactions she has had in life and her absolute ignorance of social mores. All of which she thinks makes her cool, edgy, and interesting.
She can put all of her dirty laundry on line because she can control the interactions. AKA block and delete. In real life, no such function exists. Unlike her smug, bitchy, "confident" persona she cosplays, Chinny runs from real life confrontation. "Mommy! Look how FAT that lady is!!!!", " Hey, honey if you lost some weight you'd be a looker. You have a pretty face" , "Ma'am we don't carry your size,. I can get you some websites that cater to super plus sizes.", "You must feel so uncomfortable. I remember when I was pregnant and gained 60 lbs. I wanted to die." etc...Those would be the nice ones. Then there are the assholes and teenage boys that would just rip her a new one while pointing and laughing. She comes home with misplaced rage and inflicts it upon herself (eating) and the anonymous people on YT who echo what she knows everyone is saying about her even if it is meant with honest concern. Rage, binge, block, delete. Rinse. Repeat.
When she goes out with Peetz, she feels less of a loser and Peetz probably does protect her to some degree. Their outings are still very carefully assessed to make sure that Chinny doesn't have any unnecessary human contact- Late night food runs mostly drive thru fare, deserted parks, visiting the Mammoth Cheese during the week when tourism is low same with the petting zoo, Christmas lights in the car, dumpster diving for Rollos.
Of course, the biggest factor in changing this is to lose fucking weight, but it would mean giving up her one true friend- Food. Particularly fast food. Arby's is always there for her to make her feel better. Pizza Pizza dries those tears right up. Ronald makes her forget the bad stuff. Unfortunately for her, Chinny doesn't like work or discomfort. So we will just cycle around until she succumbs of sleep apnea or some other obesity related condition. We all, know how this will end. The when is the question.
Edit to better space paragraphs.