Is anyone finding it hard to wear a mask?

[Thewheelsonthebus23]

I haven’t been wearing a mask to go to the supermarket or shops because I find it so hard to breathe in. I do have a cloth mask I bought online. I practised wearing it around house and I felt like I wasn’t getting enough oxygen and almost passed out. I suffer with panic attacks anyway.
Fortunately I have my own car and don’t need to use public transport, but I’m thinking they’re going to made it compulsory in shops and supermarkets next.

There's a way of adjusting a mask to make it fit more snuggly.

If you have the ordinary surgical masks with elastic loops

Fold mask in half horizontally
Tie a knot in each elastic loop as close to the mask as possible.
Tuck the edges of the mask in, like wrapping a present

When you put the mask on it should fit snugly around your mouth and nose and under your chin and not have big gaps at the sides.

I hope this made sense. You might find a tutorial on Youtube

They steam your glasses up!

Ironically on a thread like this a lot of people will not want to adjust it to fit better because that means people will panic more as it will be more enclosed

I was just thinking about this today, I'm asthmatic and worse since chest infection/ COVID in March. I've tried good quality disposable with a filter and fabric ones but I feel like I can't breath and by time I'm out supermarket my chest hurts. I'm really hoping we can get regular click and collect or deliveries. Thankfully we live rurally and no public transport to catch anyway.

What kind of masks are people wearing that make your glasses steam up????

Tried a few now. My glasses steam up, I can't see, so have to pause, remove glasses and touch face more, wipe glasses, put them back on, touch face again, so counterproductive.

I'm in Singapore where we're not allowed to leave the house without a mask unless we're running or riding a bike. We're also not allowed to talk on public transport. The temp can be 36° with humidity, it's horrible wearing a mask and I'm also menopausal 🙄.

A spot of lavender oil on your mask can help with the panicky feeling.

that's a good idea :)

Lavender oil I'll have to have a look at that

It’s very unpleasant. You can smell your own breath and your glasses steam up. I’m not convinced it helps much - the holes in a scarf are way bigger than a virus particle. I could cope for a couple of hours but I can’t see how anyone can realistically wear one for a full day at work.

Buying a mask with a 2-way vent will prevent spectacles from steaming up and enable you to breathe.

I have a couple of those Seasalt handybands that I can just pull up for going into shops, I doubt they offer any protection to myself especially with pulling it up and down but they are a face covering so do satisfy that need. I just wash them at 40c after wearing. I find them easier than a mask to wear but they do get a bit sweaty when it is hot. DH wears his running buffs which are similar.

I'm having problems finding a small-enough mask - even children-size don't fit well - so am using a scarf/bandana. Still can't get the bloody thing to sit right without steaming up my glasses...

@NotEverythingIsBlackandWhite wearing a mask with a vent defeats the point. Those ones with an outflow valve are much easier to breathe in but are designed for eg painting and decorating where the object is to prevent inflow of matter rather than outflow.

I live in Malaysia and I don't think it's compulsory to wear masks here but everybody does (though non Asians seem more reluctant to wear them/don't wear them properly). No problems with glasses fogging up that I've noticed but maybe that's the environment here.

I tuck mine snugly under my chin and that makes it more stable and less likely to ride up into my eyes. I don't find it uncomfortable. Sure it's not as easy to breathe but if it helps us get back to normal sooner then I'm all for it. It does feel a lot safer going out and about with everyone wearing masks, I go out shopping and to restaurants and have normal interactions with people and it's nice. I'd never challenge anyone not wearing a mask but I would give them a wider berth which I'm sure they would be happy with as well. I find it interesting that masks don't seem to stop my five month old daughter reading people's facial expressions. She can still tell when someone is talking to her and laughing/smiling.

I haven't worn one this time, with corona. Haven't needed to, only been food shopping a few times.

But in the past I've hated wearing one, can't breathe, hot, so uncomfortable!

Not looking forward to it.

Besides, where am I even going to get one from?

Oblomov20 Amazon? Local pharmacy? Facebook marketplace? Masks are for sale all over the place at the moment.

My experience has been that pracitising at home was worse than wearing it outside on the bus and in the shop .

For me ,I was v conscious of it at home ,outside I was distracted and got on with it .

At home I thought there was no way I'd cope but outside I did .

but I can’t see how anyone can realistically wear one for a full day at work.

Yet people do, all the time. In the medical, dentistry and veterinary professions. Yes they're uncomfortable but needs must.

I think a lot of you would benefit from the domed medical ones but they're not available for general sale at the moment. I wear surgical masks at work but I find it hard to breathe in the cotton ones.

Maybe a scarf tied loosely like the photo would suit some better. Not as effective but falls within the guidelines.

Have you looked at Seasalt Handybands? Like buffs. May be an option.

I can't wear one without panicking and struggling to get my breath too. I hate anything over my face.
I know I'll constantly be fiddling with it and therefore touching my face - which I don't do now - so that sort of defeats the object really!
I half jokingly said to DH I'd buy a bridal veil to wear. He suggested a motorbike helmet

I was just saying this in another post my OH ears get pulled by his really badly maybe he just has big ears

pussycatinboots touching the mask doesn't defeat the point. The British public have been so badly misinformed about this it's shocking.

If the point was to have a mask to prevent you getting infected then, yes, touching it would be bad. But that's not the point. The point of wearing a mask is so that you don't infect those around you. When you sneeze, cough, talk, maybe even just breath you release small particles of spit into the air. The idea is that your mask traps these and lessens the risk of infecting those around you if you do happen to have covid. If everyone wears a mask we are all better protected. I wear a mask to protect you, you wear a mask to protect me.

The British public have been so badly misinformed about this it's shocking

I sometimes think if you listened to the UK Government advice and then tried to do the opposite, you’re probably on the right lines. We’ve been told for months that masks are pointless and offer no protection. Though I believe the phrase used was “little or no protection” (in retrospect probably as a get out clause).

It’s as bad as the initial nonsense about “you can only catch coronavirus from an infected person recently back from China/Italy, if you know they’ve recently returned from these places”. All the people that were told they didn’t have covid because to their knowledge they hadn’t talked to anyone that had recently returned from these countries - and now the likelihood is that the virus has been here since December anyway!

@jackandflo

I was just saying this in another post my OH ears get pulled by his really badly maybe he just has big ears

You can get masks that tie around the back of the head to avoid this issue.

I find I feel really hot in them, doesn't help I'm at the age of hot flushes. I will keep wearing though as some of my colleagues have been really ill, a lady down the roadvis still struggling right weeks later and also I know someone who lost their life to it. Anything I can do to keep myself safe and not spread it, I'll do.

Work have got some vizors in for us. My voice echoes, but it is more comfortable and cooler

I've been experimenting this morning and feel like I've found one that causes me fewer issues. It doesn't threaten to ride up over my eyes in the same way and feels a bit easier to breathe in than the pleated version. I've altered it so I'm using 24" of elastic, which goes around the head. I'm wondering about cutting it even deeper around the eye area but I'll see how it goes.

It doesn't seem to work for dh - his glasses are steaming up. It also doesn't have a filter pocket, but at the moment, I'm just going for what I might be able to tolerate without having a panic attack.