This might be a weird thing to ask but...

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I hate using public restrooms and know a lot of NT's that hate using them as well.

I long ago concluded that public restrooms are better than no restrooms at all.

Agree. I remember this road-trip I took to New Orleans with my boyfriend, decades ago, and we were always so desperate to find public bathrooms. There seemed to be a distinct lack of them, because it was a touristy area and so most bathrooms were reserved for "paying customers", and we didn't have any money to go into restaurants or bars. There were also a lot of cops around so it was very hard to just discreetly pee around the corner somewhere (as my boyfriend found out.) We both realized what a great thing plentiful public bathrooms were and how we had taken that for granted before that trip.

All that said, I avoid them when possible. If I can hold it until I get home, even if I'm uncomfortable, then I'll do so. One extreme example was when I was an an all-day outdoor Nicaraguan music festival and the only public bathrooms were porto-potties, which were baking in the hot summer sun and had been used all day long by a huge festival crowd of people committing atrocities in said potties after eating plate-lunches of refried-beans and carnitas and warm beer. I remember that day trying to decide if the shame of peeing my pants was stronger than my aversion to entering one of those potties. In the end I chose peeing my pants, but luckily I made it home before that became a reality.

I used to have big problems with that and started a thread about it a while back.

I don't find it hard to use a public restroom but I definitely prefer not to. I will put it off as long as possible. And I never sit on the seat unless I absolutely have to.

I avoid public restrooms whenever possible. I wish more stalls had hooks and shelves on which to put personal belongings so I didn't have to worry about things falling on the floor or worse. I scrub like a surgeon when I'm done. I really hate the restrooms that have an air drying machine instead of a paper towel dispenser. I like to use my paper towel to open the door to exit.

Along with all my other neuro-atypical traits, I have an APD and am just a wee bit sound sensitive. But I can handle the loud roar of public/commercial toilets flushing *if* I'm ready for it. But really, those things are a nuisance! They almost always use an infrared sensor, and so, get trigger happy with dark (black, navy, etc) tops, resulting in flushing while I'm sitting. Ewww.

The workaround? Before you sit, take a small post-it out of your purse (or wallet?) and stick it over the sensor window. Or if you are desperate (or don't carry a purse or have pockets, etc.) tear off a small bit of tissue from the seat protector, wet it with a drop of water/saliva/gum and stick it over the sensor window. Then it'll only flush when *you* want it to flush and press the button.