Worst case of PTSD (Post Traumatic Shopping Disorder) I've ever seen.

Also the first case.

On a recent afternoon, while running errands before I had to pick up my kids from school, I froze in the orange-juice aisle of a big-box store.

I feel like this is less of an opportunity to consider writing an article on the burdens of choice and more an opportunity to consider calling child services.

So many different brands lay before me: Minute Maid, Simply, Tropicana, Dole, Florida's Natural, Sunny D — not to mention the niche organic labels.

It gets worse for author Adam Fleming Petty, who is, yes, a full grown adult man, or at least that's what it says on his driver's license.

And each brand offered juices with various configurations of pulp, vitamins, and concentrate.

He reacted like any grown adult would in a similar situation and the emotional maturity of a toddler.

The sheer plenitude induced a kind of paralysis: Overwhelmed by the choices on offer, I simply could not make one. I left the store without any orange juice.

There's no shame in walking away from a fight you know you can't win.

You may have emerged the victor this day, Sunny D, but don't get too comfortable.

In the meantime, his kids will just have to learn to deal with scurvy on their own.

Sadly, Petty's trauma does not stop with an eventual decision. Oh no, making a decision can be even worse.

Even when you manage to make a choice, you can find yourself wondering whether you made the right one. Sure, that Chobani strawberry yogurt was pretty good, but what if you'd gotten Oikos instead? Or Fage? Or those Yoplait Whips?

Indeed, what if you'd gotten the Yoplait Whips.

What.

If.

Through this lens, what seems like a modern benefit — 100 different kinds of ice cream! Every imaginable chip flavor! Hot-dog buns sliced on the side or on the top! — can become a bit of a burden.

Hot dog buns sliced on the side or the top?!?!

Fortunately, Petty has a solution (if a vaguely Soviet one).

It seems what we could really use at the grocery store is not more choice, but less. Not freedom to choose, but freedom from choice.

Well, from some choices, primarily the ones Petty doesn't care about.

In some areas of my life, like picking out clothing, a brand is important to me — I know which label of jeans fits me best. But I really don't care about the brand of granola I buy. My groceries don't need to be the absolute best on the market; I just don't want them to be the worst. A solid B+ is good enough for me.

And what's good enough for Petty is good enough for you.

Mercifully, there exists a portion of the retail sector I think of as the "single-option store," or SOS. The offerings at these establishments are deliberately whittled, typically leaving only a handful of each item to choose from.

Petty cites Aldi as his SOS of choice.

It sells the basic grocery staples, whether produce or pasta, while largely eschewing name brands. Instead, it provides its own line of items. Its in-house orange-juice brand, Nature's Nectar, makes up the majority of the stock. The only real decision I have to make is how much pulp I want... The time I save from choosing among the pared-down choices means I often find myself speed-running through the store.

Petty might not know this, but you can do that in any store. Most have store brands, or you can just settle on a few things you like. You can pare down those choices yourself rather than relying on someone else to do it for you, like a child. That's how I shop. I have a handful of preferences, and typically choose whatever's on sale.

Still, the SOS is good at what it does: providing limited, mid-tier-quality food options, and maybe chipping away at my hundreds of daily decisions. I'll gladly take that trade-off for the time it saves me, as well as the mental space it clears. Now on my afternoon errand runs, I can head to my local SOS, get some store-brand orange juice, and bask in the freedom of not having had to make any choice at all.

"Is not this simpler? Is this not your natural state? It's the unspoken truth of humanity that you crave subjugation. The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life's joy..."

Petty knew exactly what he was doing, of course, and knew the reaction it would get.

There's something to be admired in someone that comfortable in their own skin.

Even if the skin is that of a crazy person.