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Is anyone else not comfortable changing in front of others?


Waist of Thyme

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Waist of Thyme

It seems like most everyone is perfectly fine changing into costumes or uniforms with their peers, but I've never been comfortable with changing clothes while someone else is present. It makes me feel vulnerable.

In middle and high school we had to take a year of physical education, and we had to dress out in locker rooms. I never did. I just wore the clothes I had on that day. Having points taken off my grade was better than having to undress in front of other people. I don't think kids should be penalized if they're not comfortable with changing in front of other people, and I don't see an actual need to dress a certain way for PE to begin with.

I acted in plays in high school, and most people changed into their costumes in the backstage room where the props are when we were about to rehearse or perform. I always just wore my costume for the entire day.

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The Great WTF

It's probably because of my big family and the total lack of modesty that comes with them, but I actually tend to be more uncomfortable dressing up than undressing in front of other people. If I'm naked, I'm naked, end of story. It's just another naked body. Everyone has one and everyone's seen them. But when it comes to clothes and makeup and hair, I'm mostly indifferent to the whole thing and not very good at fashion or the like, so I feel a lot more insecure when I do dress up because it's something that I feel like people have valid grounds to judge me on.

Stupid logic is stupid, but that's how my brain works.

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Oh gosh, meeeeeeeee! I couldn't ever do that. Some people would say the normal 'We're all (gender/biosex) here, no worries.'

If I had to change in front of others, I'd be covered with a towel the entire time, regardless of anything. If in a locker room, I try to be in a place where nobody is. I love locker rooms with the stalls to change in. If they don't have them, I'll often just slip into a bathroom stall to change. I'd often wear my swim things beneath my clothes, rather than risk exposing myself.

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I would NEVER undress in front of people for PE or whatever. In the gym, they had those glass doors that were just a little cloudy so you couldn't make out details, but you could still see pretty much everything... so I always took my clothes into the shower stall, changed there, but put a giant beach towel over the door so no one could see anything. Other women would just walk around completely naked, but I am not comfortable with people seeing me that exposed if I don't know them well.

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I'm fine with being in underwear, we used to change for skating and stuff, but I absolutely despise taking all my clothes off in front of people. What makes it worse is when my friend laughed at me for not wanting to take my swimsuit off in the locker room at the pool...

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ObsessedWithCats

I hate it. Ever since year four (age 8/9) I've hidden while changing. We couldn't do PE in our school uniform, and PE was compulsory until year 11, so I had to change, but I was one of the first in my class to object to changing with others at a young age, and I never got comfortable.

If I wasn't keeping my underwear on (if I was changing for swimming) I changed in a toilet cubicle, and no one could convince me otherwise. If I was keeping my underwear on I'd hold my clothes so they covered as much as possible in the meantime. Since I finished compulsory education and thus compulsory PE I don't even wear anything shorter than my knees any more, let alone actually changing anything other than a hoodie/coat in front of people.

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Vyanni Krace

I hate changing in front of others. I've gotten more used to it now, and I don't cringe and try to hide away as much, but I still try to find the best ways of changing without showing much skin.

Its even worse in swimming though.

While I understand why its an open changing room in the normal changing rooms (sort of), I simply cannot understand why the swimming pool changing rooms are the same way.

Both the boys and girls swimming changings rooms are basically just one room (though boys are separated from girls, obviously), with no cubicles.

And we're not allowed to wear our swimming costumes under our school clothes either, which basically means we are forced to strip down completely naked in front of one another.

We do find ways around having to do this though. We either try to hold our towels up around ourselves as we change (which usually fails), or ask a friend to hold up a towel while you change. People have tried to hook their towels to the coat-hangers but it doesn't leave you much space to change in, and it only really works in corners-even then, there is a high risk of the towel slipping off the hangers.

Not to mention that the changing room is always very wet and slippery, absolutely full of spiders and cobwebs because the windows are always open because they are stuck and no-one can reach them, and its also kinda dirty because when people walk into the changing rooms, its straight in from the grass (there's no actual path-way leading up to the swimming pool) so mud and grass and stuff is brought in.

Its horrible, and people have been complaining about it for years, but nothing has been done about it. AND, they always make us do swimming in winter, so you get the added bonus of freezing your butt off for ages while you wait for the teacher to come along with the key, then freezing ALL over again when you leave the swimming pool. We have showers, but no one uses them after swimming because most of the spiders are in there and they're just awful.

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I'm with Great on this one: I don't feel fussy about being naked around other people. I've practised swimming for six years (2005 to 2011), twice a week, and I would always have a shower and walk around naked in the dressing rooms until I was dry enough to put on my clothes again. Of course the dressing rooms were separate for men and women, and I'd have felt awkward otherwise, but that's just because I'm fairly self-conscious and I know that most people are sexual and straight, therefore being naked around people of the opposite sex isn't the best for me :P

Things change when it's someone I trust though. With a loved one (possibly even with a close friend) I'd have no qualms on nudity whatsoever. Bodies are just bodies after all.

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Fatal Pancake

I remember when I studied Performing Arts at college. My tutors mentioned that at some drama schools, they got you to undress and act out a scene, like being in the shower, in front of the class, to show that you were completely comfortable with what you were doing.

Never have I been terrified at such a thought before. I wanted to cry.

I never ended up at drama school, studying the sciences now and I can't imagine any labs will ever ask me to strip naked! (Unless there's a contamination... let's hope I'm the most safe biologist in the world). But even now, the thought terrifies me. I have to go into a private cubicle at the gym or wear my costume under my clothes when I go swimming so I don't have to remove any underwear in front of people. Some ladies in the changing rooms strip there and then... I'm just completely uncomfortable with the idea.

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candicemon

I have no qualms about changing in front of other people, even if I have to strip down bare. I don't even think about it most of the time. It's a huge joke among my close friends because they've all seen me completely nude at some point or another. I'm not an exhibitionist by any means, but I'm not shy either. Like SilverKitsune said: bodies are just bodies.

I did hate changing in the locker rooms in high school, but I was struggling with some really intense body image issues at the time in addition to the issues I was having with my sexual identity. Everyone already thought I was a lesbian (me included) and I didn't want to incite riots if my gaze accidentally ended up in the wrong place.

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1/100 of me

I think it's perfectly natural and quite common to feel at least a little uncomfortable changing in front of others, especially strangers, and I'm sorry your gym teacher wasn't more understanding. Try and find a bathroom stall or a secluded little room somewhere so you won't get so overwhelmed. When I was in high school, there were a number of people who preferred to change for gym in the bathroom down the hall instead of the locker room because it was more private.

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SorryNotSorry

It's ironic, but although I don't change in front of other guys if I can help it (luckily the municipal pool has a few stalls with shower curtains), I'd have no compunction against walking down the street in my birthday suit in the middle of summer if public nudity was legal.

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If I didn't have scars...and as long as I'm wearing underwear. Luckily, my gym class doesn't swim. I run around town in a sports bra all the time anyway.

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starbucksranger

In middle and high school we had to take a year of physical education, and we had to dress out in locker rooms. I never did. I just wore the clothes I had on that day. Having points taken off my grade was better than having to undress in front of other people. I don't think kids should be penalized if they're not comfortable with changing in front of other people, and I don't see an actual need to dress a certain way for PE to begin with.

I acted in plays in high school, and most people changed into their costumes in the backstage room where the props are when we were about to rehearse or perform. I always just wore my costume for the entire day.

I did exactly these things, and I agree that a student shouldn't get penalized for not feeling comfortable getting dressed in front of others- How is my wearing jeans hurting anyone else in the class? It isn't. Bathrooms were out of the question, too. The stalls are too small and people are jerks in school bathrooms.

It also took almost a year for me to get used to dressing in front of my cat, I guess the fact that I can now is a step in the right direction, eh?

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I'm not comfortable being /naked/ in front of other people, but I have no problem changing in front of others. Doing so on a coach bus with 40 other people with nothing but the sunshades blocking you from public eye will do that to you.... LOL! Yet another positive aspect of my personality that I can blame on high school marching band >3

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Ritchie333

Never had a problem with public changing rooms. They're separated by gender anyway. It's more of an issue in public toilets where it's perfectly acceptable that some guy will quite happily get his nob out in public view three feet away from you. Just look straight ahead and ignore it.

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I have never been comfortable changing in front of other people, and would avoid it if at all possible. I don't even like looking at my unclothed body, I am not going to display it in front of strangers.

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When we first started to change for gym, I was a little uncomfortable (age 11 or so) but then it got to be too much of a bother after a month.

Although my one friend did manage to change inside a locker for the entire year. It was a mesh locker so you could see through it. And while it was tall enough, I think it's only due to her gymnastics training that she managed to change at all in that tiny space. (And of course I had to do the mean thing and stick a pencil inside where the lock goes so she couldn't get out. Boy, was she ticked.)

I have no problem with nudity at home... which is a good thing since Roomie 2 likes to prance (sometimes literally) around nude.

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howyoufeel_org

well, I never had that issue, and I do not think I meet someone feeeling like that.

But that can be a cultural thing, because here we bath alot of sauna together all our life.

But i mean it nothing wrong to feel like that if it does not makes you feel bad or it stops you from doing your daily activites.

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Kitty Spoon Train

I grew up in a place where nudism was practically mainstream - except among those who were highly religious Catholics. It's not that way any more over there now though - because unfortunately since the fall of communism, the old mores have come back to some degree. But I digress...

With me it depends on the socio-cultural context a lot. If I walk into a change room where everyone is nekkid and acts like it's no big deal, then I do the same. But if everyone else seems to be trying to hide it (draping towels, trying to hide in toilet cubicles, etc), then I might feel funny and do the same.

Really it's just my introversion talking more than anything I think - I don't like being conspicuous, or the centre of attention in any way. I prefer to blend in. But no, I don't think there's anything unique about nakedness for me that makes me extra edgy. It's all about how much it would be conspicuous in a given context.

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Striped Sweater

It used to make me really nervous. When I was in middle school, I'd always change into my P.E. uniform in one of the bathroom stalls because I was so mortified of people looking at me. Then in high school I took another P.E. class and was on the swim team and in another extracurricular that required costumes. I started out changing in the stalls, but then I figured out some good tricks for changing without exposing anything and changed with everyone else. Public locker rooms and stuff though? I still opt for a stall. Most of the people in those locker rooms are not my peer group, and for some reason that makes me uncomfortable.

It's more of a personal thing for me. I don't hate my body or anything, I just don't want others to see it. It's definitely has nothing to do with nudity. That doesn't phase me in the slightest.

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Notte stellata

Growing up in a country where lack of privacy is the norm + being extremely nudity-positive = couldn't be bothered less. Public changing rooms, public baths, nude beaches, whatever, as long as I'm not the only one (or the only female) naked. :D

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Sockstealingnome

I'm uncomfortable but I'll do it. I just learned to change quickly and live in denial that anyone might be looking. However, don't even ask me to get naked. That is done in complete privacy or not at all. Ironically, I do run in just my sports bra during the summer. It's that or get really bad shirt tan lines while my shirt is drenched in sweat. I think if I actually liked my body I would be more comfortable.

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MissUnderstood

I hate changing in front of people but I can change shirts without showing anything as I can put one over the top and pull the other one off. I always out my shorts on under my skirt so I could just take the skirt off and remain fully clothed the entire time :)

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Yeeah, no. I'm not comfy taking clothing off in front of others. I was homeschooled and never had to do the gym thing, fortunately, but I was in swim lessons. Fortunately, there were plenty of stalls available for more modest/squeamish kids like me.

I also find it incredibly uncomfortable to have another person taking their clothes off in front of me, even if they're a guy removing their shirt. Nevermind that I'm fine if I see a guy walking down the street with no shirt on. I didn't say it made any sense! :rolleyes:

My best friend is the complete opposite, though, and has stripped down to his tightie-whities right in front of me without much, if any, warning. I find that it's best to become very interested in something nearby at times like that. ^_^

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Waist of Thyme

I'm glad that I never had to swim. Not only does swimwear expose more skin than I'm comfortable with people seeing, but there's no way I could go back in the water again after having almost drowned once.

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I can't, won't, change in front of other people if it's not emergency. Being out of my clothes and having people see me without it makes me feel fragile and vulnerable, somehow.

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Unfortunately due to a lot of abuse I have bestowed upon my body I have had many embarrassing quick de-clothing episodes. On top of that I have also had quite a few embarrassing medical procedures. Because of those I don't really mind. I wouldn't do it upon request and I certainly wouldn't do it for the hell of it. I hated getting changed for P.E. and I still think that communal showers after said lesson were one of the reasons my latent Asexuality became more anxiety ridden, but all in all it's no longer a problem for me.

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