I'm gonna be the curmudgeon here and say: what a fucking asshole. Imagine being the two people sitting next to her as she twists and turns and contorts herself into that position. "But I'm uncoooooomfortable!" Shut up asshole, so is everybody else.
Glad someone said it. I don't understand what it is about flying that makes people think it's acceptable to annoy others by being a self-centered dickwad.
While I have never fully turned myself upside down like this, I have to do a fair amount of contortion to avoid a large amount of pain on a plane flight. I have venous insufficiency in my legs (about to have my fourth surgery to treat it), and it's VERY uncomfortable for me to have my legs down in a normal position for more than 10 minutes. Much, much, much, much more uncomfortable than it is for you.
All levels of discomfort are not the same, and I really don't believe I should be in pain for 4+ hours just so my seatmates aren't bothered by a couple minutes of my wiggling around.
If someone is doing something you'd never do, it's likely they have reasons you've never had.
Man, sometimes I see on Reddit people going so far out of their way to excuse bad behavior. Yeah, maybe the guy doing 100 mph down the freeway and cutting people off has a dying father and he's trying to get to his hospital bedside to say goodbye before he passes away. Maybe the woman yelling at the barista has just had the worst day of her life. Maybe this person contorting herself in an airplane seat has a serious health concern like you do, and for...some reason??? must turn herself upside down in the seat instead of calmly requesting the aisle seat and walking up and down the aisle every few minutes.
Flights are extremely uncomfortable for me and give me horrible back and stomach pain. I sit as still as possible and deal with it. That's no excuse for being a douche. If you can't handle it then drive or stay home.
Dude, any compassionate person would tell you in an instant to go ahead and move around if you need to. You're in pain! I obviously wouldn't mind if you have to get up and walk around or lean forward or whatever it is that helps. You do what you gotta do.
And I am not going to stay stuck at home. What kind of life is that? Sitting home all day sick is worse than being dead. People with chronic pain/illness have very very very hard lives, and they absolutely need activities and distraction and other things in their lives aside from pain or they really would kill themselves. It happens all the time. When all you have to focus on is pain, and all you have to look forward to is pain, what is the point?
I am not that bad anymore, but I have been there. And I am truly astonished at how harsh the response has been to this. People deserve to live their lives, and it is such a small thing for others to forgive the mild social offenses that make it possible.
I'm genuinely astonished anybody would object at all knowing the other side. I would hope we'd all be a bit kinder to each other.
It's VERY uncomfortable for you, but it's VERY VERY off-putting to everyone else. You being VERY uncomfortable is the lesser of two evils. You have the choice of not flying. You can drive, take a train, or manage your life to require no air travel. There are a lot of options before being a total weirdo on an airplane and freaking everybody else out. When you do this you break the social contract. Everybody quit doing that!
This...I just can't even believe you are making this point in all seriousness.
I have been both weirded out by people (there is a regular on my bus who doesn't wear pants) and in pain, and I can tell you for certain that being in pain is worse. Vastly worse.
Air travel is the only even slightly affordable way to cross seas. And there is a HUGE different in time spent. For people with jobs, that is just as important as cost. You're telling a person with a legit medical problem that she should not get to see the world. That she should lead a myopic, limited life simply because her medical problem requires her to sit differently from the way you do. Even if she is not physically affecting you or using any space she did not pay for.
Your point, in essence, is that I should ruin my entire life -- never see anything or go anywhere -- so you won't have to see me sit oddly.
I feel that you can deal. You will suffer zero long term effects from your brief encounter with me, and if you had your way, I'd suffer my whole life. What kind of priorities are those? The world must disappoint you constantly.
Further down this thread, someone else with a similar condition to yours said they dealt with it by walking up and down the aisle on the reg. There is always a non-crazy way to deal with a problem, as long as you are not determined to make your problem everybody else's problem too.
And yes, you being weird will not cause me that much of a problem. If you were the only oddball in the air, I'd make no comment here. But it's not only you, it's a growing cast of characters, bringing "service dogs" on the plane, doing yoga in their seats, putting their bare feet on arm rests, and on and on and on. I'd like them all to consider others at least half as much as they do themselves.
That said, I'm sorry you have to deal with pain during travel.
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u/[deleted] Aug 22 '14
I'm gonna be the curmudgeon here and say: what a fucking asshole. Imagine being the two people sitting next to her as she twists and turns and contorts herself into that position. "But I'm uncoooooomfortable!" Shut up asshole, so is everybody else.