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AIBU?

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Original poster

Coughing lady at the movies

157 replies

HibiscusAndPineapples · 15/09/2023 14:52

Went to the cinema to watch a film, and the lady seated behind me spent the better part of the entire runtime coughing. It wasn’t just muffled coughs here and there either, but full on, loud, non-stop coughing.

Any quiet/tense moment in the film was completely ruined by loud coughing.

AIBU to think that anyone with a cough as loud and relentless as this should just stay away from the cinema?

OP posts:
Iam4eels · 15/09/2023 18:52

anunlikelyseahorse · 15/09/2023 18:44

Aren't lectures compulsory though? Mine were, and not attending due to a cough would not have been an acceptable reason to miss a lecture.

Show quote history

I was going to say the same.

A cough can linger on for several weeks after the initial bug has gone, around 3-4 weeks is within the realms of normal. Should people stay home from university/work/life for four weeks, if not longer?

teaandtoastwithmarmite · 15/09/2023 18:55

Someone at work coughs because of the air con. Says she's fine at home. Once I was coughing in a film and this miserable cow turned round and said 'coughs and sneezes spread diseases'. I was only about 17 and she was lucky I kept my trap shut 😂

Iam4eels · 15/09/2023 18:56

There are a million reasons why she might have been coughing, including some health conditions/disabilities that can cause a chronic cough. The trouble with going out in public is that it's full of the general public and some of them are going to be noisy.

limitedperiodonly · 15/09/2023 19:00

What a cunt. Was it me?

Pinkywoo · 15/09/2023 19:01

ChristmasFluff · 15/09/2023 17:40

@Roselilly36 OP has explained this woman came in coughing and was buying popcorn coughing.

An asthmatic cough has a particular timbre to it, because we aren't able to expel the air through our contracted pipes. It's a comparatively quiet and wheezy cough, not what the OP is talking about. Asthmatics literally cannot expel the air fast enough to do repeatedly loud coughs, and most of us know that coughing doesn't help anyway (and in fact makes things worse) so we try to avoid coughing if possible.

Many people with chronic lung conditions do choose to use Netflix out of not wanting to have an uncomfortable time themselves, let alone spoil things for others.

The fact this woman had no strategy in place (such as using huffs) has me believing she's just someone with a chest infection who doesn't give a shit.

I'm asthmatic and if I have a cold (which normally then becomes a chest infection) I absolutely have a loud chesty cough. However I wouldn't then go to the cinema and piss everyone off!

Wingedharpy · 15/09/2023 19:02

Some medications (ACE Inhibitors) , which have nothing to do with chest conditions, can make some people cough and, the more you try to suppress said cough, the worse you cough.
Could you have moved seats OP?

fairyfluf · 15/09/2023 19:02

If you don't like the public doing things humans do with no control over then don't go out in public

limitedperiodonly · 15/09/2023 19:03

Is anyone going to whine about their misophonia

cptartapp · 15/09/2023 19:03

DH and I have been coughing similarly all week.
We both have COVID.

PuppyMonkey · 15/09/2023 19:03

fairyfluf · 15/09/2023 19:02

If you don't like the public doing things humans do with no control over then don't go out in public

Grin
Original poster
HibiscusAndPineapples · 15/09/2023 19:06

There's a difference between going out in public to a farmer's market for e.g. and going to the cinema where you'd naturally expect a certain level of quietness.

OP posts:
Dolores87 · 15/09/2023 19:06

She might have had a chronic health condition and people with chronic health conditions should be able to enjoy normal life.

I mean it would have been better for her to pick a quiet showing and sit further away from people but with out knowing why she was coughing so much I can't really say she shouldn't have been there.

Mouldyfoodhelp · 15/09/2023 19:06

My mum has COPD and sometimes has a coughing fit in the middle of a film and we try to handle it, and straight after lockdown when we went out she always developed a small bout of nervous coughs.

When my local cinema got an imax screen we waited weeks for the smell to go and it was when IT chapter 2 came out and there was a double showing of the first and second.

First film she was coughing pretty continuously, the interval between the first and second we asked to move into the normal screen and was fine.

I do think if people know they have issues ( like a cough - not disability in general before someone tries that on)they should make reasonable adjustments to save others hassle, but if she's suddenly developed a cough I can see why she may think it could disappear as soon as it arrived.

Mouldyfoodhelp · 15/09/2023 19:13

Mouldyfoodhelp · 15/09/2023 19:06

My mum has COPD and sometimes has a coughing fit in the middle of a film and we try to handle it, and straight after lockdown when we went out she always developed a small bout of nervous coughs.

When my local cinema got an imax screen we waited weeks for the smell to go and it was when IT chapter 2 came out and there was a double showing of the first and second.

First film she was coughing pretty continuously, the interval between the first and second we asked to move into the normal screen and was fine.

I do think if people know they have issues ( like a cough - not disability in general before someone tries that on)they should make reasonable adjustments to save others hassle, but if she's suddenly developed a cough I can see why she may think it could disappear as soon as it arrived.

Just been corrected after discussing with mum and we actually changed halfway through first film

limitedperiodonly · 15/09/2023 19:16

@HibiscusAndPineapples pardon me for bothering you

Foggyfoggyfoggy · 15/09/2023 19:16

3 out of the 4 of us have asthma and didn't cough once.

TheThingIsYeah · 15/09/2023 19:17

UmbrellaSoldiers · 15/09/2023 17:48

I rarely go to the cinema now. It's so expensive and more often than not ruined by someone talking / on their phone / kids mucking about. It's not worth the risk.

Of course the coughing woman should have taken herself out! People are just so selfish.

Likewise for the same reasons. I'd love to go to the cinema if it was empty, or guaranteed no annoying twats, but I can't risk myself having a Michael Douglas in Falling Down moment so I choose to stay at home. Although it depends on the fillum. I've been to see Saving Private Ryan and one the scenes were so intense you could hear a pin drop in the cinema.

Train journeys are situations I can adapt to. I have been commuting over 25 years and it's like the second people enter the carriage they forgot what a tissue is. Sniff sniff sniff in stereo, it used to drive me insane but now I just stick the headphones on and blank it out.

OnAFrolicOfMyOwn · 15/09/2023 19:28

Sniffing is what I can't stand. FFS blow your nose!

housethatbuiltme · 15/09/2023 19:31

ChristmasFluff · 15/09/2023 17:40

@Roselilly36 OP has explained this woman came in coughing and was buying popcorn coughing.

An asthmatic cough has a particular timbre to it, because we aren't able to expel the air through our contracted pipes. It's a comparatively quiet and wheezy cough, not what the OP is talking about. Asthmatics literally cannot expel the air fast enough to do repeatedly loud coughs, and most of us know that coughing doesn't help anyway (and in fact makes things worse) so we try to avoid coughing if possible.

Many people with chronic lung conditions do choose to use Netflix out of not wanting to have an uncomfortable time themselves, let alone spoil things for others.

The fact this woman had no strategy in place (such as using huffs) has me believing she's just someone with a chest infection who doesn't give a shit.

I'm asthmatic and my cough is very loud, deep, rattly and 'barking'.

Its triggered by fluid trapped on scar tissue that causes violent spasms, theres no way for it to be 'quiet'.

I also suffer broncospasm that don't tend to include a cough at all.

Theres no one right way to cough or one size fits all... your asthma symptom is not indicative of everyone elses.

Flymetothetoon · 15/09/2023 19:42

This is why I haven't been to the cinema since T2 came out.

cushioncovers · 15/09/2023 19:44

fairyfluf · 15/09/2023 18:03

If she has a chronic health condition that gives her a cough are you saying she should be banned?

Yes pretty much, she ruined it for everyone else. Selfish behaviour on her part.

TheSpikySpinosaurus · 15/09/2023 19:45

NeunundneunzigHorseBallonz · 15/09/2023 14:53

Did you think about asking if she was okay?

🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄

What would that have achieved??

Youdoyoutoday · 15/09/2023 19:46

Snotty bloke behind my friend in the pub and then he sneezed, not covered and blow snot and bogies on to the back of my friends head!! 🤮🤮
I heaved repeatedly and had to leave the pub!! 🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮

C1N1C · 15/09/2023 19:48

Babies at the cinema... why???

Floogal · 15/09/2023 19:54

Flymetothetoon · 15/09/2023 19:42

This is why I haven't been to the cinema since T2 came out.

Terminator 2 or Trainspotting 2???

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