What is the longest you ever remember going without a bath or shower?

I went without one for about 6 days during my high school senior class trip. We were white-water-rafting, so the occasional fall in the water kept us from getting completely skanky, but we didn't have showers. The shower at the end of that trip was the best one I ever took.

A five day camping trip in May of 1994. I did go swimming in the river every day to cool off, however.

The longest I've gone was on a 23 day canoe trip, north of the Arctic Circle in the Northwest Territories Canada. I did rinse off in the river once but as we got further north it was just too cold.

About a week at a particularly stressful time.

I've never had a shower before. I took an oath when i was born to never let anybody bathe me.

Probably 2-3 days while camping. I still did a sponge bath with a washcloth and towel, but not a proper bath or shower. I went swimming too, so that helped remove some of the stank.

five days and boy did i hate it, i went to a camp called Life Adventure camp, you just get the minumum stay out in the woods for a week, etc, we went to the lake nearly every day but we never got a real bath while there, on average though i never like to go more than one day without a shower unless im real ill or something

30 days at a clip when I was in Afghanistan. That's why soldiers love baby wipes. Of course, you have to burn baby wipes when you ar done to keep away pests.

almost 2 weeks. My ex-husband the abuser would not allow me to shower sometimes. It was another form of abuse, like torture. Sometimes when he was on one of those streaks of meanness and he happened to work, I would take the phone into the bathroom and take a shower but not wash my hair so he wouldn't know that I had. My hair was still dirty but I was clean. If I did take a shower and he found out I would get beat real bad. This was just one of his torture techniques and would last for a few months and then he would get normal and allow the baths regular again.

Another favorite of his was sleep deprivation. And if he caught me sleeping I would actually get kicked to wake me. That was the same--weeks on end and then he'd change his method of torture or none. You never knew what the hell else was going to happen. You lived on the edge. that is why I drank so much, to help cope. If that makes sense.

Hard to say. When I was a kid, we would go camping and although I would swim in the lake every day and have a sponge bath, I didn't see a bathtub for weeks at a time.

Other than that, probably about a week, but still, we're talking close to 25 years ago I'm sure. These days it would be pretty unusual for me to go an entire day without a bath.

I seldom even skip a day. I think when I was a little kid I bathed less frequently, but that was a long time ago.

It makes perfect sense to me. I can't even imagine what that must have been like for you. Do you mind my asking what he was like when you were first dating? Were there any signs that he was abusive, or did that start after you were living together?

This isn't something I keep track of.

How can you take an oath when you were born? You were a baby and wouldn't have even understood the concept of an oath, let alone forming one. You were probably bathed on a regular basis as a child by a parent.

3-5 days, but I did clean up in the river many times. I was on a canoe/camping trip.

I normally shower once, sometimes twice a day depending on what's going on.

When I've had seriously bad flu for about 5 days and couldnt get out of bed,

3-5 days i think, while i was camping.

It was horrible Sue, just horrible. When we first started dating I was 14 and he was 13. The abuse started about 2 years later. He would hit me, usually just slapping, and then the honeymoon period would begin and he would be wonderful for about 2 weeks and then it started again. I was so naive. I thought because of this he loved me so much or he wouldn't act like this. I know today how sick it was, but I was so young and so in love. Once we were married, things just escalated. I stayed because of the threats, "you leave and I'll kill you, your family and especially your grandmother"(she was my heart). Then I stayed because of the children. I have had 4 children by this jerk. One died at 12 hours (my first--at age 17). I finally realized that if I did not leave my children would be the same, the girls would find abusers for husbands/boyfriends and my son would become one. It took many years to get me to that point, even with all this kinds of abuse. I never thought I would get out alive. As a matter of fact, about 5 months before he tried to kill me with the bat, I told everyone even his family it (the marriage) was coming to an end and one of us would be dead in the end. Everyone thought I had lost it, but I knew the violence and the degree of domestic violence was at that point. There were no more honeymoon periods and it was constant abuse of one form or another. One month before the baseball bat incident, he tried to strangle me. When the cops got there I had hand prints on my neck. The paramedics came to check me out. I never lost consciousness but came close. I was basically being held by my neck up and choked against the wall. There was a window next to me, so I put my arm through it so someone would hear. That is when he dropped the strangle hold and took off. The cops didn't find him that day, but arrested him the next day. The judge gave him 30 days for that and when the 30 days were up is when he came back with the bat to finish the job. sorry about the rant--Sue, but it's kind of hard for anyone to understand unless they know all of the story, even if it's a sick one at that.

that's why you don't marry so young

We were on vacation far north - the situation didn't lend itself to any kind of washing except the lake and it rained for days.

NO !! Wow you have such a grasp on reality. Thanks a bunch---NOT!! Besides young one, I was talking to Sue not YOU!!!

More than two weeks...

I do not count the occasional spongebath in the hospital..

If we are counting spongebaths, then I would say about a week while camping.

That is intense. What a horrible experience for you. Isn't it unbelievable what we'll put up with just because we want to be loved? I think it's amazing that you're still such a sweet person after going through all that. You are so strong!! Do you have trouble with relationships now because of all that? The woman I've been dating for the past couple months has PTSD and is going through a rough patch. I'm trying to understand more about it.

that depends...in my adult life (since i started bathing myself) probably no more than 2 days, and at those times it was most likely a result of being really sick. when i was little my mom bathed me like every 3 days or so, which is what i do with my kids unless they've been outside all day and are extra dirty and sweaty.

I did have problems with this marriage in the beginning because of the PTSD. It took years Sue, and that meant therapy. If I hadn't gone through therapy I would have probably taken myself out. Thank you for your kind words. Be patient and if need be, read up on this stuff--PTSD. It is very interesting. When I was diagnosed in 1994, the psychiatrist who did it said that I was the worst case he had ever seen in a woman. He said the other comparable cases were those of vietnam vets. Can you believe it? He also asked why I had never tried to commit suicide (seems I was a candidate) I said because then my ex would get the kids (by law). He also told me to write a book, that it could be one of those movies of the week or a lifetime one. Dang talk about an eye opener. I am back to normal again, no more therapy

1 day...... when its my day off and I am staying in the house

I can believe that your case was comparable to that of a Vietnam vet -- it sounds as though you were treated like a prisoner of war. You're obviously very strong, and you must have a stubborn streak! I'm glad you're back to normal again.

That is what they said. I was basically the same as a prisoner of war. The same characteristics were found. Scanning parking lots and other places, panic attacks, nightmares, all kinds of other stupid stuff. What saved me was knowing the law and that the jerk would have the kids if I committed suicide. It kept me alive. I had basically been dead for years. No thoughts of my own, no sense of reality. I am very stubborn and figured that I had to save myself because I was a wreck. My children at the time I was diagnosed and entered therapy were 8,5 and 3. Today they are 20,17 and 15. So it's been a long time of recovery and it's still ongoing. I do have flashbacks at times, just not as frequent and I can deal with them because of tools for coping. They are really infrequent now and actually I have not had one for about 2 months. There were other aspects of abuse that I really can't put into words. They are horrific and I would not like to subject anyone to that kind of violence, even if by post. That is how bad they were.

i'd say about 2 days or less not 2 weeks or more are you mad!!!

Working for the Forest Service planting trees... we lived in tents high in the mountains... No water for baths...we stayed for a month at a time unless there was an emergency...

My room mate's husband used to beat her regularly....she got a gun from a friend and after she shot him, he never touched her again...he learned real quick that paybacks are heck. I knew another woman who's husband used to beat her. He went to sleep...she took a cast iron frying pan and cooked bacon and then took the hot grease and dumped in on him and beat the crap out of him with the pan... he never beat her again...hard to his someone when you are blind.... It is sad there are people out there like your husband... Hang in there...I imagine you have one heck of a case of PTSD...have you tried therapy...there are PTSD groups that help some... I go to a group at the local Veterans Admin clinic

Only 2 days and that is it, if I had to go any longer without a bath it could get stinky and smelly and no man would want to be around me?

I was in therapy for many years. I am no longer in therapy and I went to college and got a degree so I no longer receive SSI for the PTSD and severe depression. This is my ex-husband. I have been remarried for 11 years to a wonderful man who basically helped nurse me back to health and SANITY after all this. I did fight back once in a while, and then got beat worse for it.

I was clean, however. Yeah, I was a little kid, but I swam a lot.

2 days or less, i love to shower!!

i take 3 a day on average

3-5days..mm stinkeh

I don't recall.

A week out on the road and I'm glad everyone smelled just as rank. Covered me up!

About 2-3 days. I took such a long shower that the hot water ran out.

About 5 days while on a family camping trip. I went swimming everyday, so I wasn't too stinky.