Comments on: Do You Smell, Or Is It All In Your Head?

By: whiskers831

whiskers831 — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 15:55:23 +0000

My partner is currently suffering from an illness that sounds exacly like this. He has been diagnoised as a paranoid schizophrenic and with phychosis. For the pas t 3 years it has been hell for him and also for me his full time carer and also family members as he genuinly believes that he has this foul smell coming from him in which i can assure you he hasn’t. He has been for every test going to do with the stomache and every other part of his body. He has had 9 teeth in total taken out he is only 27. Nothing anyone tells him or can do for him will make him believe that he doesn’t smell. Yeah my partner does have some mental health issues and quite serious ones at that but the phyciatrist are putting this smell thing down to being a dilusion or a halucination. He thinks we are all evil

By: Ordination

Ordination — Sun, 30 May 2010 01:39:14 +0000

I think my house stinks. has something to do with our two 14 year old dogs and their many accidents.

By: Peter too

Peter too — Sat, 29 May 2010 18:21:01 +0000

Well, it is all in your head, whether you do have a syndrom or not. The receptors in your nose will not do much if it did not get linked up to your brain. Although the patients the article refers to most likely do not suffer from the next .. I do think, I’m sure that people actually do smell stuff at times that isn’t there .. but not due to an obsessive disorder but due to the fact that the smelling-device (so from nose to brain) is not functioning all normal at times. It can actually get stuck in a smell you smelled in the morning .. and you can not get rid of that smell all day .. Or you all of a sudden smell something lemon .. or the gutter (probably the rotten smell coming from your stomach or such .. not always unlikely ..). Same with taste .. your taste wont be always the same ..

By: roz

roz — Sat, 29 May 2010 17:12:56 +0000

as dr. samuel johnson once said, “madame, you smell…i stink!”

By: Jourdemayne

Jourdemayne — Sat, 29 May 2010 16:25:12 +0000

This is a really odd one – thanks for picking it up.

Since it’s so specific (one sensory channel) and starts at puberty, I wonder if it’s neurological. Viruses have been implicated in some OCDs, so there’s a bit of evidence for neurolgical issues manifesting as psychiatric ones.

While there’s no sharp line between neurology and psychiatry, this does seem to lean over to one side …

By: Sasha

Sasha — Sat, 29 May 2010 14:49:20 +0000

I know many people who compulsively use purfume after bout 10 mins of spraying themselfs with perfume, often it’s a differnet purfume as well. This seems like that might be of some relevance..what I don’t understand is why do these people have to be the ones who sit next to me on the bus. :/

By: Peter Ellis

Peter Ellis — Sat, 29 May 2010 14:35:23 +0000

I wonder how they showed that it’s a psychological condition? It seems equally plausible that these people are genuinely physiologically hypersensitive to some particular component of their own natural odour – in the same way that some people can taste bitter compounds in green vegetables and others can’t. What happens if you introduce two sufferers to each other – do they detect each other as smelling foul?

By: Jess xxx

Jess xxx — Sat, 29 May 2010 14:28:13 +0000

The thing about being self-concious is that you just won’t believe what people say once you’ve got that negative idea in your head…
“Oh God, look at this huge zit I’ve got.”
“Come on, it’s barely noticeable…”
“IT’S A VOLCANOE!”

P.s. Nice pic of Coops’ pit there

By: sol

sol — Sat, 29 May 2010 14:24:08 +0000

I know exactly what you mean Selina, i work with someone who has the opposite syndrome – smells really bad and seems to have no idea. It’s a shame because he’s a nice chap otherwise, but there is clearly something dramatically wrong with his diet, or an associated health issue, because his breath stinks, he has b.o and an almost constant – well, we’ll say expellation of gas, shall we

By: Dean

Dean — Sat, 29 May 2010 14:15:25 +0000

this makes me feel slighty comforted, and relieved :p .. x