Scared to use public bathrooms?

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This is one of my least favourite traits. Urinating there is fine but I used to hold onto whatever was in the vault, if you know what I mean, until I got home. There just was no way it was going to happen in public. Of course, when I became homeless years later, I had no choice. I wonder, though, if this is an aspie thing.

I don't necessarily think it's an Aspie thing. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that public restrooms are disgusting -- almost anyone would attest to that. I think it has a lot more to do with what people are willing to ignore to relieve themselves. I personally don't like to use them if I don't have to -- but when I do, I refuse to touch anything I don't HAVE to touch in there. I often use my shirt sleeve to open and close the door, etc.

Most people are apparently filthy. Public restrooms are a testament to that.

Or is it that it isn't their own personal space so they feel like they can urinate on the floor or on the seat and no one will be affected?

I feel the same way. I have to be in real distress before I will use a public bathroom.

Public Bathrooms and busses have one thing that freaks me out in common, they smell really bad and I dislike this.
It's not like something I can just ignore, it's strong and distracts my mind and makes me feel numb and bad.
I do sometimes manage to urinate in public bathrooms but then I always have to use the normal toilet, not the object that was made merely for peeing.
Still, the smell and the fact that you can often hear people from the outside or in the restroom talking, makes it even harder to me.
It only sometimes works but often I am forced to hold it back

I ALWAYS use the stalls if I have to urinate in a public bathroom... ALWAYS. The urinals splash back really bad. Who wants tiny droplets of urine all over them? Also... in the rare occurrence that I do HAVE to use a urinal... it is terrifying. For one, people have no sense of privacy in a public bathroom for some reason. If there are 6 urinals open I will go to the one at the far end (that way I can block someone being on my right side)... but I swear EVERY TIME this happens someone will saddle up to the urinal directly to my left, even though there are others open. What's even more terrifying is that they want to engage in small talk! What would I possibly have to say to stranger while urinating?!?

My younger brother would stand there and sing the old Burger King commercial: It takes two hands to handle a whopper.

^Perfect!

Last edited by sackcoat on 20 Feb 2013, 6:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Did he really sometimes do this or is it just you being sarcastic?

Sarcasm or not... it's a funny thought.

Of course... I would never do it. The fact that I would be in a public restroom, at a urinal, about to be covered in tiny droplets of urine from splash back, and next to another person who is trying to engage in small talk would be enough to ruin my day. I definitely wouldn't have any focus left to be funny.

Personally, I hate using public bathrooms. They bother me for multiple reasons, though I'm not to sure which of them is the main reason. Possibly trauma related, as a child beaten up and choked in a bathroom by a much older kid. I also really hate the idea of other people being able to hear me pee. It just really creeps me out. Peeing feels personal to me. It's not something I want to share with random strangers.

I generally speaking only go to the bathroom at home - so before I leave the house is a must, and when I get home I generally go straight away.

It was one of the most awkward things about living in sheltered accommodation after my house burnt down, sharing bathrooms with the other people who lived there. *shudders* I just wanted to pee in my own toilet.

I don't enjoy public bathrooms because of many reasons mentionned above: it's filthy, smells terrible and people can hear you pee or worse; take a dump and fart when doing so.

Seriously, why can't America have nice public toilets like in Japan? I was amazed at how clean public bathrooms were when I visited the country. They even had the water noise you could turn on so people couldn't hear your peeing sound. Their toilet was pretty high-tech, with all sort of buttons doing certain things for the user.

I was shocked - SHOCKED! - when I went to the NY Public Library one day to use the bathroom. In the huge men's room there were, like, 15 stalls and NONE of them had doors! I guess that's to discourage the homeless or addicts from using them to take drugs, but still!

The worse toilet I ever saw in my life was at a campsite in Rhode Island. A dog food-sponsored trials event was going on which I'd stumbled upon. The outdoor toilet? Forget it. Poop everywhere - floor, walls, ugh!

The cleanest was at a hotel near the Rhode Island airport. When you walked in you were greeted by soft lavender odors and piped-in classical music. Warm hand towels sat in a basket; the faucets looked golden.

Bus toilets are bad. Airplane toilets are bad. Fast food restrooms aren't that bad, but it all depends where you go. Some are cleaned regularly; some have insects living in the nooks and crannies.

Back in the Roman gladiator days the toilet was just one long seat with many holes and no privacy so people sat to the left and right of use doing their stuff. I would've used the forest.

Last edited by redrobin62 on 20 Feb 2013, 7:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Sounds to me like you have paruresis. I have this; I have great difficulty using urinals and have to use the cubicles, even though they are often disgusting. Some people with paruresis can't use public toilets at all. Here in Britain it can even get you out of jury duty.

He really did sing it. I've heard him do it and I've seen other people walking out of the restroom laughing when he was in the restroom.

The whole purpose was to draw reactions from anyone else in the restroom.

When I was certain dorms in college, there were five crappers in a room at end of each floor with neither doors nor walls between them. Just one after another. The crapper closest to the window was reserved for seniors, the next for juniors, the next for sophomores, and the last two for freshman. You could move down if yours was occupied, but never up.

The cleanest I've been in was some private club in Houston where we had a meeting one day. It was really luxurious including individual cloth hand towels instead of paper towels.

It had a full time bathroom attendant. I had no idea whether or not we were supposed to tip him.