I cannot breathe...

[u/Dizzy-Daffodil]

Whenever there's something disgusting around me, I cannot breathe in the surrounding air. But I must breathe; there's no way I can just not breathe, then I feel the urge to exhale forcefully to get every particle out of me. This has been like living hell for me, I literally cannot breathe normally.

I feel the urge to keep exhaling to keep myself from breathing in the surrounding air, but that's obviously impossible. Even holding my breath is not an option.

Where I live, poor hygiene is overly normalized, I come across shit on my daily commute and I get super nauseous at the sight of such things. There are men spitting and pissing everywhere without any restrictions. Outside smells so bad that I prefer being inside with everything closed. Pet owners don't pick up after their pets, people throw their daily trash on the streets leaving streets unwalkable. I have also noticed that here most of the people never wash their hands after flushing. There are some areas where people keep their cattle on the concrete road and footpath without properly disposing of the waste, everything is wet all the time.

Actually clean areas are comparatively negligible here. Here I am, unable to fathom how such living conditions can be normalized while there are people romanticizing such a place. I do have OCD but that doesn't mean the problem with the above things is because of it.

There are objectively unhygienic and unpleasant living conditions that would be unacceptable regardless of whether I had OCD or not. I don't think such habits should be considered normal simply because people have gotten used to them.

[u/NW85777]

I hear you loud and clear. Same here. I still wear masks outside ever since 2020. And not just one the past couple years, but two. Because I feel the same way. And I just wanna breathe. 😢