Chemical/Smell sensitivity

I'm one of those crazy people that becomes physically ill (breathless, dizzy, blocked up, nauseous etc.) around perfumes and other chemical smells I've pretty much had this problem for about 4 years now, a symptom of chronic fatigue syndrome, but its only been really bad since I've been on a restricted diet.

I've gotten really used to it and I just see it as a fact of life. I don't whine about it, I rarely tell people, and if it ever affects me in the workplace I just try to get on with what I am doing despite how sick I might feel. If it gets really bad I'll change jobs, or try to get out of doing any tasks where I might be exposed to a chemical. Its mostly annoying at home because I spend way too much of my time trying to get bad smells out of new clothes, curtains, mattresses, furniture etc. and it also makes dating really hard because most women wear a lot of perfume when they go out. Otherwise, its just a thing, a thing that I just work around where I can.

What I want to know is, what do you think of it? What do you think of people like me, or more so, the militant ones that try to make everyone else change their own lives around for them? Do you believe that this sort of thing is possible? Could someone like me just "switch it off"?

I'm just curious as to how the public perceive this problem.

Personally, nobody is yet to give me a solid answer as to why it occurs but I know for sure that even if it is psychological, you can't just switch it off, its wired deep into the brain's circuitry.

 

To be honest most people believe your illness is psychosomatic and automatically
dismiss you as the neurotic attention seeking hypochondriac that you are

Unless it's real


Hotwater

 

Most deodorants and perfumes mix with my natural smell, and smell like cat piss.

So, I don't think you're a freak.

 

What hotwater is saying, if I may paraphrase, is stop being a pussy and grow a pair.

 

What I suspect in the case of people that can't keep it together and find some sort of normality in their lives, they become attention seeking neurotic hypochondriacs, worsening their condition, even if the problem is initially real, which ruins the reputations of the rest of us.

I'm pretty sure its real. I get real symptoms which are always the same in relation to how much I am exposed to, regardless of my emotional state. I could be calm as a buddhist monk and still have inflamed sinuses and a headache in a perfume store.

 

I want to banish perfumes, colognes and hairspray from Earth (and everyone who wears the said things).

 

A clinical double-blind test would be in order to check whether it’s real
or is it memorex

Hotwater

 

People who wear too much deo irritate me.

 

flowers ...perfumes..and strong deodorants give me instant headaches....cigarette smoke too

 

Thats pretty much impossible to do. You would need to be able to switch off the subject's sense of smell, and even if they don't react where they can't smell, they still could be having a neurological or deeply ingrained psychosomatic reaction to the smell itself, which would be a veritable mountain to treat as far is psychiatry is concerned.

I think that is where people don't quite seem to grasp the legitimacy of the problem. If it is all in the mind, it isn't just an easily controllable behaviour and its completely independent of emotional factors. Its more physiological than psychological, or so my doctor says. Its funny, because people take depression and anxiety so seriously and I'm still yet to see an example where a change in attitude and behaviour wasn't the best medicine. I wonder if people's attitudes aren't really due to the fact that if people like me actually wanted to be facilitated and cared for, then others would actually have to take responsibility and make genuine changes to their habits....ie. he or she is crazy because he tells me that wearing perfume is bad!!! GOSH, THE NERVE.

 

i completely believe you and understand what you're going through. the same thing has been plaguing me all my life.. perfumes, colognes, deodorants, make-up, hairsprays, laundry soaps, cleaning products, cooking meats, alcohol, and some plants.. give me and instant raging migraine. i can probably hold my breath as good as a daily swimmer...

 

Lets hug.

 

:grouphug: you smell nice.

 

hahahahahaha. i can't stand the smell of alfredo. weird shit man!


....where's my hug?

 

:grouphug: you smell like old cheese.

 

i did eat some swiss.....

 

when i eat food from switzerland... i smell of chocolate..

 

riiiiiiiiiight.:icon_bs:

 

i am right... smell face eater.. he smells like eucalyptus leaves.

 

k.



ANYWAYS I AM COMPLETELY FLACID>