I'm a Filthy, Sick Person, Apparently

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Yes. I'm absolutely filthy. I carry the plague. You should burn me in a trash heap.

Let me start by saying that my sensory processing disorder makes showers REALLY painful. The water drops feel like thousands of tiny needles pricking my skin and drawing themselves across my skin as they roll down.

I can't take baths - I'm in college in a dorm. I had a bout of depression and shutdowns (and a corresponding post on here) that made me not....um....shower for two weeks. It was just too painful. I didn't eat for a week, I didn't live for two weeks.

I tried to conceal it by wearing deodorant, avoiding physical activity that would make me sweat (It's freaking winter and I don't usually sweat anyway) and by covering my hair if it's dirty.

But some poor soul got offended, and went and told someone else to confront me about it because they were too cowardly to come to me themselves. They weren't concerned....they were OFFENDED.
When the person (the stand-in) politely confronted me (and they were sweet about it), they were amazed when I said that its painful to take showers. They understood.


But they won't tell me WHO got so upset, so I am walking around on eggshells. I'm tempted to shower 5 times a day, but that would kill me. I'm so mad - I have 2 - 3 major chronic illnesses, sensory processing disorder, and depression. If they were in my situation they would understand.


Oh, and because I'm a GIRL, I have to shower more. I have to look "pretty" to be socially acceptable. Bull crap. If I was a guy I could get away with what I do - I have good,popular friends that you can smell from 5 feet away - no kidding. No one tells him to flipping shower.

EstherJ, you can avoid body odor by wiping underarms and groin area with rubbing alcohol on a towel. It is acidic and inhibits bacteria. Vinegar might work,too, but not as well in my experience. Also, baby wipes. As for your hair, if you wear it short and use a scalp massager, that could get rid of some of the dirt.

As for a full-body bathing, what about just wetting a towel and scrubbing your skin? Soap is not necessary, but if you really want to use it, there are mild cleansers that don't need to be rinsed off.

How about this product? No Rinse Body Bath

•Dilute one ounce (4 capfuls)  with 32 ounces (1 quart) of warm water. Apply with a wash cloth. Towel dry. Leaves skin thoroughly cleansed and odor free with virtually no residue.

•Used by NASA astronauts on all space shuttle flights.

Is there a swimming pool or a hot tub nearby?

May I suggest a large bowl/pot of water at a temp you like, maybe a stool/chair to bring it to a standing height, and a soft washcloth/sponge. Standing in the shower, you can sponge yourself clean without the painful spray.

Many showers also let you turn the knobs a little or a lot, not only altering temperature but also pressure! Many shower heads also have options to twist for harder or softer streams... between twisting the taps less for low pressure and opening up the head for a softer stream, you may make a shower a bearable experience.

Don't forget keep your laundry clean and smelling nice too.

Good luck!

Thank you for the amazing ideas guys!

I have to try them. No, getting out of the pool is just as bad because then water droplets sit on my skin and run down my arms and legs and that's just as bad.

I can so relate to this.. I do not have the best hygiene due to painful water spray too. When I go places with family - I will shower for them. But if left on my own I will use baby wipes, as water on a washcloth feels like I am shredding my skin off. Baby wipes sting.. but it is a livable sting.

Also the feeling soap leaves behind is one of the most disgusting feelings ever. I feel MORE dirty after a shower than before I showered.

Colloidal silver is my best friend. It kills germs and odors. Also kills tummy bugs and cleans stuff naturally without chemicals (added bonus ). -chlick here for link to generator-

Also Himalayan salt deodorant bar is good for a natural alternative for deodorant. It stings me like crazy but most deodorants break me out in a painful rash so the latter is preferable (as well as healthier)

Keep your head up. If people don't like your bathing habits... they can simply avoid you. Don't let anyone make you walk on eggshells. If they felt like you do when you shower.. bet they would feel differently. Closed minded people. Hate it.

the idea of using a sponge sounds quite good. Something I try (if I'm sweaty under my arms and don't have time to shower, or I'm out somewhere and don't have a sponge/towel/etc on me) is I just go to the sink in the bathroom, cup some water in my hands, bend over the sink, and lightly/gently sort of splash it under my arms. I find that actually can reduce a lot of the smell if you're a bit smelly. The problem with trying to use deodorant or perfume to disguise it is it actually has the opposite effect as the smell ends up combining with the unclean smell and you end up overall with a more intense smell.

Oh - and I completely agree with you about that person who must have complained. Completely out of line, and then not even having the guts to confront you themself - pathetic.

You can use baby powder or dry shampoo for your hair. They don't particularly clean your hair but they absorb the oil and make your hair feel clean.

I really used to hate showers too, and had to rely on baths, which I'd still avoid because I hated getting out of them to try and dry off in a cold room with a rough towel.

Using fabric conditioner on towels may make them nice and fluffy, but it makes them less absorbent, so you have to rub harder to get them to soak anything up. Cheaper towels with synthetic fibres in them are also too scratchy, as well as new cotton towels that haven't been washed enough, and hot enough to soften them up a bit. You might be better off trying towels or a bathrobe made from hemp or bamboo fibre which are softer fibres than cotton. Bamboo fibre is also naturally bacteria resistant.

When I visited Japan I picked up a few new bathing habits, like sitting down in the shower, pouring water over myself with a small bucket instead of using the spray head (although I have it set to mist, so there are no big drops hitting me when I do use it), and drying myself off with a damp hand towel/flannel before stepping out of the shower into a colder bathroom. Get it wet, wring it out, and quickly run it all over yourself, and it'll pick up far more water than a dry towel. Once you've got rid of all the drops you can practically air dry, and because there's less water to evaporate, stepping out of the shower cubicle isn't as cold.

Japanese baths make far more sense than western ones. You sit upright in them, instead of lying down, so they can fit into the space taken up by a shower cubicle. The baths are really hot, so much so that they're painful when you first get in, but it really helps open all the pores and relax tense muscles. You're supposed to wrinse off before and after getting into the bath, but you can use either the shower or water poured from a bucket.

I can't stand showers unless they're really hot, and I have to turn the cold tap on in the wash basin to make sure less cold water is getting to the shower mixer. The heat seems to dull other sensations, probably because it's so strong it blocks them out.

Plus it's full of salt and/or chlorine you don't want staying on your skin... no... pools are no substitute for bathing.



Hey, we all have to live and work together... to be stinky is to be selfish and not care about others... you'd be offended if someone beside you on the bus was doing something rude - like poking you, saying rude things, farting repeatedly... subjecting other people to your terrible odour is every bit as rude. Yes, it's perfectly reasonable for them to get upset - and just as reasonable for it to be your responsibility to try and keep offensive smells at bay. Sometimes it can't be helped... usually it can.

Besides, we want to try and fit in with other people at least a little bit... right?

What I'm definitely NOT saying is that people should put up with offensive odors and bad hygiene. I don't like it when others are smelly, and i understand how that feels.

What is UNACCEPTABLE is when people are rude back, and totally misunderstanding, and hurtful. All they had to do was ask....not go talk to someone else. I would have thanked them for letting me know and explained that I had been very sick and it was hard to bathe. But no - they had to embarrass me.

If you're a woman, you should also keep in mind that when you have your period, you have to clean your groin somehow. Not only does blood stink to high heaven but you can get a serious urinary tract infection if you don't get it off there.

They may have asked someone else to talk to you because they were too shy, or too embarrassed or too afraid of offending you or didn't know what to say, etc. Maybe the person who asked someone else to talk to you has trouble talking to people themselves. You never know. I do get that it's embarrassing though and I get how you feel about it. It seems like a much bigger deal when somebody asks somebody else to talk to you.

As for ideas, you might want to try whats called a "PTA bath". That's pits. tits and ass. Those are the parts that stink. I was without hot water all summer and cold showers suck and my mother was a b***h about me showering over there so I did the PTA bath a lot. You just get a washcloth and soap and water. Wash the areas standing in front of the sink.

I'm not quite sure what type will work, but a piece of fabric tied over the shower head w/ a rubber band, will alter the spray so it falls like a faucet. Just make sure to take it off to dry afterwards.

I like OliveOilMom's "PTA" bath. But make sure to include ur groin as EmoGlambertAspie said. The crotch can be a bigger issue than pits, stink-wise.

The "A" in the "PTA" bath includes the groin. That whole area.