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Aniexty and body odor
Help,
With my aniexty I get severe body odor. I can live with the aniexty and panic, but for 9 years I also suffer with body odor which seem to come with the aniexty. It is totally ruining my life. I don't sweat with the disorder but the stronger the aniexty the stronger the odor. Does anyone else suffer from this.
With my aniexty I get severe body odor. I can live with the aniexty and panic, but for 9 years I also suffer with body odor which seem to come with the aniexty. It is totally ruining my life. I don't sweat with the disorder but the stronger the aniexty the stronger the odor. Does anyone else suffer from this.
My sister found this forum for me, becuase I have a son who has this problem. He smells of fectual matter when he's in an environment he's not used to. He's 10 and this has been going on since he was 5. He's getting to an age that kids are being pretty cruel. I thought about putting him on anti anxeity matter, to see if that helps. I like the comment about changing the diet from I wantmyownlife. It that truly helped than I'm willing to try it. It's a sweet kid, I just hate that he'll be remembered as the stinky kid in school. Does anyone else have any suggestions for my son???
I've done considerable lay research on this topic, so here's what I can offer.
First, you may have inherited naturally overactive apocrine sweat glands in your underarms. Apocrine secretions are odorless, but when naturally-present microbes feed off these secretions, they release a malodorous metabolic byproduct. What compounds the problem is your anxiety, which creates a feedback loop resulting in increased perspiration, higher localized skin temperature, greater smell, and on and on. The end result is the perfect storm for odor, as microbes love warm, humid areas, and you have conditioned yourself to be hypersensitive to peoples' negative evaluations.
First, consider getting a prescription antiperspirant. These are about 4 to 5 times stronger than the off-the-shelf type.
Second, start doing guided imagery/meditation/yoga *twice* daily, which will slowly retrain your sympathetic nervous system not to overreact to stressors. Doing this twice daily (20 minutes each) is important.
Third, you need in-vivo exposure therapy--basically, a therapist or friend who can help you face stressful environments without you freaking out. You have to work your way up a pyramid of fear-inducing settings, from minor to major. For a good read, check out Jerilyn Ross' book, "Triumph Over Fear."
Fourth, it's a good idea to avoid spicy, pungent foods, to exercise frequently, and to practice good hygiene.
My best guess as to why people sneeze and such around you, is that when you're highly anxious, your increased respiration essentially aerosolizes and intensifies the scents in your antiperspirant (even if "unscented"), thus basically surrounding you with an invisible cloud of allergens. The technical people at the Monell Center in Philadelphia about 10 years ago released a study indicating that we all have an invisible cloud, if you will, surrounding us, composed of microscopic skin particles, dust, fragrances, etc. Yours probably is stronger, and people react with the symptoms you describe. A respected, U of Penn. dermatologist told me about 10 years ago that some people's body chemistry sometimes reacts with antiperspirants such that it creates a very dilute hydrochloric acid--itself an allergic.
A last observation: When you mention your symptoms, people will read their own symptoms into it. You did not mention fecal odors. Other posters did. I have no information on the latter. But the key to your issue is to learn how to relax your hypervigilant mind and hyperaroused body, and perhaps find a cognitive-behavioral therapist who can work on your social discomfort.
First, you may have inherited naturally overactive apocrine sweat glands in your underarms. Apocrine secretions are odorless, but when naturally-present microbes feed off these secretions, they release a malodorous metabolic byproduct. What compounds the problem is your anxiety, which creates a feedback loop resulting in increased perspiration, higher localized skin temperature, greater smell, and on and on. The end result is the perfect storm for odor, as microbes love warm, humid areas, and you have conditioned yourself to be hypersensitive to peoples' negative evaluations.
First, consider getting a prescription antiperspirant. These are about 4 to 5 times stronger than the off-the-shelf type.
Second, start doing guided imagery/meditation/yoga *twice* daily, which will slowly retrain your sympathetic nervous system not to overreact to stressors. Doing this twice daily (20 minutes each) is important.
Third, you need in-vivo exposure therapy--basically, a therapist or friend who can help you face stressful environments without you freaking out. You have to work your way up a pyramid of fear-inducing settings, from minor to major. For a good read, check out Jerilyn Ross' book, "Triumph Over Fear."
Fourth, it's a good idea to avoid spicy, pungent foods, to exercise frequently, and to practice good hygiene.
My best guess as to why people sneeze and such around you, is that when you're highly anxious, your increased respiration essentially aerosolizes and intensifies the scents in your antiperspirant (even if "unscented"), thus basically surrounding you with an invisible cloud of allergens. The technical people at the Monell Center in Philadelphia about 10 years ago released a study indicating that we all have an invisible cloud, if you will, surrounding us, composed of microscopic skin particles, dust, fragrances, etc. Yours probably is stronger, and people react with the symptoms you describe. A respected, U of Penn. dermatologist told me about 10 years ago that some people's body chemistry sometimes reacts with antiperspirants such that it creates a very dilute hydrochloric acid--itself an allergic.
A last observation: When you mention your symptoms, people will read their own symptoms into it. You did not mention fecal odors. Other posters did. I have no information on the latter. But the key to your issue is to learn how to relax your hypervigilant mind and hyperaroused body, and perhaps find a cognitive-behavioral therapist who can work on your social discomfort.
I too get the underarm odor with panic attacks. I brought this up to my doctor, and he assured me that I am only smelling the adrenaline. It's like when you work out and get your adrenaline pumping and sweat flowing you'll experience underarm odor, but when you sweat on hot days, with low activity, you barely have an odor. It made so much sense to me, and I stopped worrying about it. Hope this helps!
Cori
Cori
As you can see, you are not alone. This falls into the category of "you'll have that," but the advice from Want to Regain seems good to me. Perhaps more than any other area of anxiety, the fragrance factor is one which is often solved with home and folk remedies. My favorite is parsley. Believe it or not, parsley is a key ingredient of some breath fresheners, so munch a bunch and see (or smell) what it does for you.
By the way, why not JOIN this group (instructions follow) and continue to report to us what you discover. Bad enough that we should have panic -worse that we should clear the room when we walk in. I think your experience will be very valuable to others.
Here's how to join: just click the Join Link -enter some profile information about yourself -even a picture if you care to- and anything you think would help us get to know you faster and better, and you can change this material whenever you like. You will also be accessible to receive private messages when other members click the name you've given yourself -sort of a "push to talk" feature. After you've done that, spend some time just using various features of the forum. For example, to see all the posts or responses that someone has made, just click their handle, go to their profile, click Posts, and read to your heart's content. You may also enter search terms -including member names- in the search box at the upper right of your screen and the system will retrun everything matching the term(s) you entered. This INCLUDES a drug database that will give you both user posts about drugs as well as the medical information about the drug. A great way to get quick answers about therapeutic effect, side effects, interactions, etc.
One of the profile categories is your mood, which you may change anytime you like.
Along the right side of your screen is a section of Recent Activity, which not only alerts you to new posts, but new ANYTHING, including journal entries and mood. This is a way to telegraph the community at large without actually creating a separate post. Thus, if you see a friend's mood has changed while you are working on a response or post, it can alert you to send them a private message to learn more or simply let them know you're thinking of them. Likewise, if you are going to be "out," you could enter something like "off line for the night" as your mood, and people would know you're away from the forum for awhile.
"My Medhelp" is where you'll find all the features you can deploy: messaging, lists of friends, photos, etc.
If you do this kind of exploring and experimenting right away, you'll be up-to-speed quickly. If you see the message you are reading now as part of a direct response I (or anyone) has made to one of your posts, it was probably copied and pasted from this journal. I hate form letters and auto-responses as much as anyone -but I also hate forgetting to tell people what they need to know, so this is my safety-net. Consider it as part of your "Welcome" kit. So -please join and try things out.
You might also want to read my entries for the "Right Click Trick" and "When in Haste, Use Copy 'n Paste" for some other convenient time-savers.
We're glad you are here!
By the way, why not JOIN this group (instructions follow) and continue to report to us what you discover. Bad enough that we should have panic -worse that we should clear the room when we walk in. I think your experience will be very valuable to others.
Here's how to join: just click the Join Link -enter some profile information about yourself -even a picture if you care to- and anything you think would help us get to know you faster and better, and you can change this material whenever you like. You will also be accessible to receive private messages when other members click the name you've given yourself -sort of a "push to talk" feature. After you've done that, spend some time just using various features of the forum. For example, to see all the posts or responses that someone has made, just click their handle, go to their profile, click Posts, and read to your heart's content. You may also enter search terms -including member names- in the search box at the upper right of your screen and the system will retrun everything matching the term(s) you entered. This INCLUDES a drug database that will give you both user posts about drugs as well as the medical information about the drug. A great way to get quick answers about therapeutic effect, side effects, interactions, etc.
One of the profile categories is your mood, which you may change anytime you like.
Along the right side of your screen is a section of Recent Activity, which not only alerts you to new posts, but new ANYTHING, including journal entries and mood. This is a way to telegraph the community at large without actually creating a separate post. Thus, if you see a friend's mood has changed while you are working on a response or post, it can alert you to send them a private message to learn more or simply let them know you're thinking of them. Likewise, if you are going to be "out," you could enter something like "off line for the night" as your mood, and people would know you're away from the forum for awhile.
"My Medhelp" is where you'll find all the features you can deploy: messaging, lists of friends, photos, etc.
If you do this kind of exploring and experimenting right away, you'll be up-to-speed quickly. If you see the message you are reading now as part of a direct response I (or anyone) has made to one of your posts, it was probably copied and pasted from this journal. I hate form letters and auto-responses as much as anyone -but I also hate forgetting to tell people what they need to know, so this is my safety-net. Consider it as part of your "Welcome" kit. So -please join and try things out.
You might also want to read my entries for the "Right Click Trick" and "When in Haste, Use Copy 'n Paste" for some other convenient time-savers.
We're glad you are here!
Anxiety totally ruined my life! When i hit my puberty, i could smell this offensive odor coming from my armpit... i tried many kinds of deodorants to cover it. Since i was constantly worried about whether other people could smell me and what would they think of me, i developed moderate anxiety disorder. However, all the family physicians and dermotologists that i went to told me that i don't have b.o. problem that they can't sense anything from me... which is driving me nuts! Though none of my friends have said anything to me, i could tell that ppl around me are suffering from my b.o. (they sniff and rub their noses and look disgusted). i dont know why the doctors can't detect anything... maybe they simply don't care cuz it's obviously not a life-threatening illness and doesn't deserve to be treated seriously?
After second year of unversity, the offensive odour from my armpit disappeared; however, the anxiety disorder persisted... i get nervous very easily and when i'm nervous my body produces some sort of fecal smell from my upper chest and back, this has never happened before... i have no idea what the cause is for that and how to cure it.
so b.o. caused anxiety, and after b.o. was gone, anxiety causes b.o. seems like i'm going to live with these two problems for the rest of my life... how depressing...
After second year of unversity, the offensive odour from my armpit disappeared; however, the anxiety disorder persisted... i get nervous very easily and when i'm nervous my body produces some sort of fecal smell from my upper chest and back, this has never happened before... i have no idea what the cause is for that and how to cure it.
so b.o. caused anxiety, and after b.o. was gone, anxiety causes b.o. seems like i'm going to live with these two problems for the rest of my life... how depressing...
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