

Dear HN, save my life too  - lychrel_number

I'm not sure it's the best place to explain my problem, but I've seen similar posts on HN, and these posts got a lot of interesting replies, so I give it a shot.<p>Here's my problem : I smell.
Ho maybe you think it's funny, smelling sometimes happens, you know, you do some sport, you sweat, then you smell. And that's perfectly fine. Unless it happens even when you don't do sport.<p>That's my problem, I smell and I don't need to run 30 miles for that.
The strange part is, it only happens when I'm not comfortable in social situations, for example at work, but I don't smell if I'm at a bar with friends or alone at my house.<p>And because of that, my social life is quite terrible. 
Imagine for a moment that you smell, and you have to go to work, and all you can think during you work-time is how bad you must smell, and how eager you are that the day finally end so you won't hear your coworkers sniff all the time around you.<p>You can't concentrate, you can't study anything, the only thing in your mind is how bad you smell, and the more you think of it, the more you smell because you're more stressed.<p>How can you go to a classroom, a conference, a movie, or simply enjoy life when you are so ashamed of ruining people's comfort ?<p>Picture yourself trying to learn some maths in a maths course, and the only thing you could think of is how to hide your own odour. When the course end, you don't have learned anything.<p>Actually I can't pinpoint the source of the smell on my body, but I noticed that at the end of the day, if I press my nose or try to smell the mucus (yeah that's not very sexy), it smells bad.
I did a sinus scan, a dentist check, went to the ENT and everything seems ok.<p>I think the problem is psychological, although the smell is real (some studies show that some people believe that they smell when they don't but that's not my case, I know that I do).<p>Do pheromones actually exist in humans ?
Is it possible that I smell when I'm stressed because it's a kind of defense mechanics ?<p>I don't think people realize how bad it actually is.
When you're ugly, or disabled, you could still have a social life (I'm not saying that I would rather be disabled, you need a lot of courage to have a "normal" life while disabled), but I least you could get support.
Who support you if you smell ? Nobody. People assume you don't bath (my hygiene is probably better than most people's), and you're just "the smelly one". People don't have compassion for you. You don't bond with other people and everybody knows that in the end, the only thing that counts is social relationships.<p>Please HN, please, help me.<p>I couldn't find help on the internet, I wrote that thread like a message in a bottle (and I'm so ashamed that I used a throw away account and Tor, just in case), and I hope that maybe someone here could give me useful informations or advices, because I know that comments here often give new perspectives.<p>And if you don't have any advices, you could still discuss about the fact that people with a strong body odour are discriminated.<p>Dear fellow hackers, please help me.
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michael_dorfman
If you think you have a physiological problem, see a physician. (I know, you
went to an ENT-- go to your GP, explain the problem, and get a referral to
whatever specialist he recommends.)

If you think you have a psychological problem, see a psychologist.

In neither case, is asking random strangers on the internet a good plan.

There are lots of physical disorders (some serious, some not) which can result
in body odor, and the right diagnostician should be able to help you out.

~~~
lychrel_number
I agree that asking random strangers doesn't seem really wise, but it's hard
to talk face to face about this problem.

I did see my PG, and he told me to make several tests like blood test,
microbial and fungial tests, but all were negatives and he didn't know what to
do about it.

I will try another PG, but I think I could get some interesting replies on
here.

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ecaron
What's your weekly diet? Please be thorough.

~~~
lychrel_number
I eat a lot of fruits and vegetables, most of my diet is healthy food,
although I also eat processed foods. I tried a Candida diet for 2 weeks and
didn't noticed any difference, but maybe 2 weeks is too short. I eat
everything, meat, fish, mushrooms, salads, fruits, pasta, vegetables. And I
sometimes drink alcohol, but don't smoke. I haven't found yet any correlation
between something I ate and worsening of my condition.

~~~
stonemetal
Do you eat anything that smells strongly? Garlic and Curry are well known
smelly spices that when eaten have a tendency to be excreted when you sweat,
so if you eat a lot of those spices you will tend to smell when you sweat.

