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Comment by MisterTea | Hacker News Reader

"Public restroom shyness"? Some people are so uncomfortable going bout their business in public that they have trouble getting things moving. I used to work with a guy who would leave work for the day if he had to take a dump as he would only shit at home which was an hour commute one way.

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Back when I was commuting to an office, my favorite thing to learn about a building was where the least-used bathroom was. I would make my daily paid-to-poop pilgrimage to this sanctuary.

It was a slow and spiritual journey, like walking on knees to the Basilica of Guadalupe.

I was quite uncomfortable (but managed to get the business done) for the first week or so after arriving in the US (business trip) due to the inch-wide gaps around stall doors. When flying back, going to the toilet in the first European airport was very... moving.

I contracted for a company in the US (I'm in the UK usually) and the stalls were terrible. Big gaps between the doors and frames, and really big gaps underneath the dividing walls too, so you could identify your co-worker by their shoes. The ability to put a noise to a face was really quite off-putting.

Be assured, no one is spying on you or cares that you are pooping.

That wasn't what I said.

Come to Scandinavia. We are blessed with almost no “stall” type restrooms. Wherever there’s multiple toilets, they’re each in a separate proper tiny room.

The exceptions seem to mostly be older fast food places and roadside taverns.

Just a quick thing I discovered for people experiencing this when they are in a stall.

Plug your ears.

I don’t know exactly why it works but for me it’s magical in its ability to get things moving.

If you have stage fright while at the urinal, start going tricky math problems in your head.

Are you from the US? US public bathrooms are especially bad for privacy, because they only have thin wooden walls that start about 15 inches above the floor (so that anyone passing by can see if someone is laying on the floor, passed out).

In my country, where drug use is not such a big problem, bathrooms have actual brick walls, giving a person inside much more privacy.

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