I hate the 'mouth breather' thing on tv

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I hate the mouth breather thing on tv . It's used to talk disparagingly about people . When I was a child my parents were frequently commenting about my mouth being open . When I consciously put my lips together I go into something of a panic mode after a few seconds . It’s hard to breath .

Same here: as a kid I always breathed through my mouth, still do now when I’m concentrating... and dribble on occasion
Don’t watch telly so didn’t know it was still a current pejorative: not very considerate at all.

My mother used to yell, "Don't do that! You look ret*d!"

I didn't have a pleasant childhood.

for your younger self.

I got that from other kids, luckily not from my parents.

It's amazing how many parents can be critical of their child, without realising that their child might actually need some help and support .

Some people have to breathe through their mouths because they're too congested to breathe through their nose.

In fact, I thought at first we were talking about those stupid commercials for NyQuil or whatever, where someone with a cold has become a mouth breather. That's the first time I've heard the phrase, and it sounded like the writers of the ads thought they were being really clever for coming up with it. But they weren't.

I've always hated that because when I try to sleep at night my mouth gets really dry. But anyway... I remember my own mom once wanting to know why I was just standing there with my mouth hanging open when I was a kid.

Firstly I have loving parents though my Dad died over 10 years ago. However, scinarios can happen due to a lack of understanding.

Try having partial and full shutdowns through nearly all your life and not being able to describe them or know what that are. Right up to until the last few months I would get "Ignore it and it will go away" and "He always does this when we have work to do" and coments like that. Why? No one understood so they thouthr that either I was faking it, or I could somehow ignore it. They assumed it was some sort of dizzy moment. Even a past doctor was sayingfoe me to not stand up to quickly and always do things slowly as he assumed I was having a dizzy moment through standing up too quick. (Somehow I was never able to describe how it felt to have a partial shutdown or go into a shutdown. They were assuming it was a dizzy moment and I was prone to fainting etc, and doctors said it was the effects of "Some sort of allergy").
Due to the negative adpects of going through soo many negative comments I learnt to disguise the shutdowns. I would pretend I was out of breath and needed a break if I felt a full shutdown coming along, or if I was in a partial shutdown I would say some negative comment which would get someone to leave me alone for a while (Where in reality I wasn't like that, but I needed to withdraw to recover, and to have people around me trying to engauge me in conversation would send me into a shutdown). I lost count how many times I would be propping myself up against walls or something like that during a shutdown so it would appear as if I wasn't shutting down. The negative side of propping myself up would mean that recovery was delayed, and I was prone to having more shutdowns...

But I was soo good at hiding it that in a work enviroment, I would... Well. I had a deeper partial shutdown while I was on the shop floor where the customers are. I kneeled down and slouched forward (I could not lie down so it was the second best think as my body started to go limp) so it looked like I was sorting out the merchandise on the shelves. In reality I was very close to a full shutdown and I couldn't move from that position until I recovered. Unfortunately I upset a work collegue as I was starting to recover and he told me something and as I was recovering, my ability to comprehend spoken English was effected (Is as if they are speaking another language) and I asked for him to say it again about three times and he said "Do you understand"... And as I really was trying to prevent going into another shutdown/ partial shutdown I said "Yes" just so he could leave me be.
Sadly, the result of this was I had not heard the information, which resulted in me doing something which he had said not to do and unfortunately I got him into trouble. (Fortunately all sorted at a much later date where I went in and explained a month or two after the job had ended).
My "Now" time memory is often effected while recovering from shutdowns but surprizingly my long term memory can recall every detail at a much later date. Hence why a few months after I realized what had happened, and I could recall every word... But until the long term memory of my mind was able to come into play, I didn't know what had happened. I was like "Why is he avoiding me?" It was like I had a rough idea but didn't have the details so I could apologize or explain so I could set things straight.

Anyway. I am talking on tangents again... Your turn!

When I have made videos where I am exploring areas my mouth breathing can be heard.

No one has ever commented on it though. Except me about it in a video I posted to a forum. The only reply I got about it was, "it's okay to breathe Ezra".

Yep, breathing is definitely legal... that just reminds me: when I go into hyperfocus and zone the rest of the world out I stop breathing (or at least my rate of breaths slows down dramatically) freaks my wife out regularly.

I sometimes find that I have stopped breathing when I am really concentrating on something, and then I suddenly realize and in a partial panic suddenly need to take a breath!

I can't give a specific example except to say I know I have done it.

I've never heard the term "mouth breather" as a term of abuse. But I do have trouble breathing through my nose... and I do forget to breathe sometimes.

It’s a pretty old-fashioned one (at least so I’ve always thought).

“Mouth-breathing troglodytes” was one of my dads favourite ways to describe Tory backbenchers back when Major was PM.

I can't get enough air through just my nose. One doctor told me I have a deviated septum -never offered anything to fix it though.

Same here: my right nostril is wider than my left, but my septum tilts the other way!
Did ask my doc if he thought it was a factor re: chronic sinusitis, but he says most people have a septum that deviates to a greater or lesser extent and he hasn’t seen any correlation in over three decades of practice.

Another member of the deviated septum club here!

You may have a deviated septum. The septum is the barrier in your nose between your nostrils. So your nose doesn't function. That turned out to be my problem.

I just now noticed others mentioned that in this thread.

The cure is surgery by a specialist. But its not a big deal. Had the operation.