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I've Been "Cured"; No BS

Tell us your story with bad breath
ImFree2
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I've Been "Cured"; No BS

Post by ImFree2 »

I placed a TL;DR under this story so if you don't want to read all of it, just go to that. I do advise that you read the whole thing so you can understand the whole situation.


Hello everyone,

I made an account on this forum and posted "my story" in March of 2013. The link to the post for background information : viewtopic.php?f=3&t=5267
Please read that post before continuing this one because the first half of my story is described there. The reason why I made a new account today is because I forgot the password to the original account I created years ago.

I've been suffering from BB since sometime in 2010 to about November of 2016. I started college in August and because of that, to some extent, I finally found the courage to face my fears. My family isn't affluent and I never had a job before July 2016 so there was really nothing I could do about my BB situation because I couldn't really buy anything to try and see what would work. In August, I decided that I'm tired of being depressed and not being able to express myself so I made it a mission to get as much help as I could. I realized that the university that I attend offers free counseling for students so I set up an appointment.

I go to the appointment and very slowly, with a lot of breaths taken due to nervousness, explain to the counselor what my situation had been until that point in time. I forgot exactly how she responded or how the conversation we had went but what I got out of the conversation was that she didn't smell anything and that I should make an appointment with my dentist and ask lots of questions. So I listened and set up an appointment with my dentist and they basically said that there was nothing wrong with my teeth but because I insisted that there was a problem, they recommended me for a deep cleaning appointment that would happen about 2 weeks later. I agreed instantly. The only problem with the deep cleaning was that my insurance wasn't going to cover the full cost and I would have to pay about $250 out-of-pocket for the cleaning.

I really had no problem paying because I didn't care how much it was, as long as my BB went away. Although I had no problem paying, I thought heavily and wondered, "A lot of people have said that there's absolutely nothing wrong with my breath, but I am 100% sure that there is something wrong. What if I end up paying $250 for something that's not even an issue?" As stated before, I'm a pretty poor kid so letting go of that much money for no reason really worried me. I finally muster up the courage to ask my best friend to take a walk with me around the neighborhood because I wanted to tell him something. This best friend is the same one I talked about in my first post so we're pretty close. As we're walking I beat around the bush for like half an hour then finally asked the big question, "Does my breath stink?" He said no. I keep on asking about it and he says that he only remembers one time where my breath actually stunk. I breathe in his face and, like my parents did in my first post, he says that he didn't smell anything at all.

After going through that I felt like I was mentally disabled or something. Six years of me being depressed and crying and shutting people out and listening to sad music and hating my life over ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! To test it out, I go to work and casually ask one of my coworkers did my breath stink. He says no and I breathe in his face and he says that he smells nothing. I casually said, "Oh, alright thanks. Just checking." But in my mind I was ECSTATIC! I talked to everyone I knew normally and NO REACTIONS! It was all in my head the whole time and I just couldn't believe it. Ever since then I've been very confident and actually like talking to people now. Basically, I apparently never had BB even though I could have sworn that multiple people said I stunk or had bad breath.

IF YOU BELIEVE YOU HAVE BB PLEASE READ THIS!!!!!!
I remember seeing many posts on this forum that stated that after having an "IRL meet up" with people who also suffer from BB, they would breathe into each other's face and not smell a damn thing. They'd later describe it as a fluke or the person didn't want to be mean and confirm their suspicions that they had BB. If you can relate to my situation in the SLIGHTEST, ask someone, ANYONE, if your breath stinks. I don't care who it is. It can be a stranger in a store, a coworker, anyone! Casually ask them if your breath stinks and if they say it does, go brush your teeth and ask someone else. If both people say yeah it stinks then it probably does. If one or none of them say it stinks, IT DOESN'T! Can't believe it was all in my ****ing head the whole time. Don't be like me and suffer for years; just get the courage to ask two people and you'll save yourself a lot of time by not dealing with depression and sadness.

TL;DR:
My BB was a psychological thing and I never actually had BB. Read the paragraph right above this sentence and actually listen to what it says.


Quick note: As I was reading the latest posts on this forum just now, I started to "smell" fart as I breathed normally. It's definitely a mental thing, at least in my situation.


Attraction
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Re: I've Been "Cured"; No BS

Post by Attraction »

Not saying you are lying!

In many cases, it is 100% evident we have bb.

People blatantly tell us, or we have tonsil stones, or other causes.
ImFree2
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Re: I've Been "Cured"; No BS

Post by ImFree2 »

Attraction wrote:Not saying you are lying!

In many cases, it is 100% evident we have bb.

People blatantly tell us, or we have tonsil stones, or other causes.
Yeah I understand. Before I found out I didn't have bb, I would have sworn on my life that I had it and if someone told me otherwise, they were lying. I 100% thought that me having bb was an absolute fact. I could smell my bb, people would say I smell or asked if I farted etc. I just want people to know for certain if they have bb by asking someone and breathing into someone's face so they know for sure if they have it or not. I know that some may actually have bb but chances are that some are also like me.

Thanks for your feedback.
winter
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Re: I've Been "Cured"; No BS

Post by winter »

People are too polite to tell you. Even the doctors won't admit it.
sj7
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Re: I've Been "Cured"; No BS

Post by sj7 »

ImFree2 wrote:
Attraction wrote:Not saying you are lying!

In many cases, it is 100% evident we have bb.

People blatantly tell us, or we have tonsil stones, or other causes.
Yeah I understand. Before I found out I didn't have bb, I would have sworn on my life that I had it and if someone told me otherwise, they were lying. I 100% thought that me having bb was an absolute fact. I could smell my bb, people would say I smell or asked if I farted etc. I just want people to know for certain if they have bb by asking someone and breathing into someone's face so they know for sure if they have it or not. I know that some may actually have bb but chances are that some are also like me.

Thanks for your feedback.
This is my first post here relating to bb.

Hi everyone, i'm a 25 year old post-grad student.

The story of my bb all started in the end of 2011 (was 20 at that time) when I've noticed a pungent smell coming from my nose. I was in college at that time for my engineering degree, it was very rough and confusing at the very beginning. I was telling my family about my problem but I was told that I was exaggerating things and was yelled and scold by my own mother when I tell my mom about it (Asian family). At that specific moment I was so confused and things got worse (I've developed a bb related OCD, not knowing at this moment in time). I've tried to seek a solution from my uni medical center, they've checked for H-pylori and it turned out negative. I was still insisting that the bb problem is still present and telling my bb stories to several doctors up to the point where I went to an ENT and had my tonsillectomy where I've noticed that the bb is still there to my surprise post 3 months surgery. Fast forward to mid 2012, my bb was totally gone (never thought about it once) when I was very close with my colleagues in an automotive program, I've never felt good and confident since all this problem started. During this period, I had several cases of notable bb throughout the 10-12 months but none of them are serious.

During my last examination paper of my third year (Jan. 2013), it all started again (the state of constant worrying about my bb and uneasiness) when I didn't have enough sleep and constant chugging of caffeine the night before, I was totally blanked out (maybe due to lack of sleep & mental fatigue) on one of the last two or three questions when the panic attack together with the anxious bb thoughts came back due to my extremely dry throat, I knew that at that time my friend could notice my bb (super dried up throat because of the 7 packs of instant coffee). This has triggered the bb OCD to come back and causing constant stomach and throat tightness, shortness of breath and dry mouth.

Once again my bb were gone (majority of the time) throughout March 2013- June 2014, but I have mild but manageable bb anxiety at times (things were relatively OK). In mid 2015, I went to an ENT again to lay this problem once and for all.. ** I will continue my story in another post in the future **

The interesting thing is, my bb is not present at all during my sleep even when I was sleeping with my mouth open according to my sisters. But soon after I wake up the constant worrying comes again, thus my bb is present. That is why some doctors that i have personally met, prescribed their patients with some antidepressant/anticonvulsant meds and it worked. This has a lot to do with how your body reacts and works under constant worrying to the respective muscles affected by the OCD cycle of thought.

What I've learned and experienced first hand throughout these 6 years is that, bb has a lot to do with how and where you put thoughts and thinking at, most of the time even you are diagnosed with sinus infection or even with dental problems, the smell won't be as bad as you might think, sure, people might react to it at times but you shouldn't let it be a relevant factor in your life, just embrace it and let it be. This bb thing comes and goes. Our body system have built in cleansing and defense mechanism to sort out by cleaning or mask the bb source whatever the source may be, (infected sinuses, your teeth, your stomach) naturally.

But when you are constantly worrying about your bb, the Ideomotor effect will take place, either causing cramp like sensation in your stomach (causing the foul smell to come out of your gastrointestinal tract), opening of the naturally funky smelling sinuses in majority of people (opening of the sinus cavity that is usually closed), drying up of your mouth and throat (which is common when you are in a fight or flight mode) and even tightness of the Occipital muscle and its surrounding where the nerves are interconnected to the sinuses and other cavity in your head (causing unusual burning/blood/sh*t like smell usually from the sinuses).

I've done a lot of research and medical treatment because of bb. I've experienced many types of bb myself (stomach, sinuses, throat, when my neck and head had stabbing sensation) you name it, I've experienced it. I've even had a bb that is detectable like 10-15 ft away (dead serious). I hope that you guys might find this useful and helpful.

Most of the times, people that has bb are worrying about it too much and causing Ideomotor effect I have mentioned earlier. Enjoy your bb and don't worry about it, might it be mild or super pungent (people are not even sure that it was you most of the time or just blame it on others :-" ), but in my experience, when you focus on things that are more meaningful and important, your bb will automatically reduced (eventually disappear) and you won't even remember that you have bb. I thought that I should share my experience since it is relate-able to OP's cure to an extent.

*Sorry for my bad English.
crazy4it
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Re: I've Been "Cured"; No BS

Post by crazy4it »

Being cured means you had a problem and you did something about it and you and have the problem anymore but according to you you never had a problem so you're not really cured of anything
ImFree2
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Re: I've Been "Cured"; No BS

Post by ImFree2 »

winter wrote:People are too polite to tell you. Even the doctors won't admit it.
This is the exact same mindset that I had. You just have to be openminded enough to believe that you may not be 100% right. When you have that mindset, you're going to be willing to talk to several people to test the theory.
sj7 wrote:This is my first post here relating to bb......
Thank you for your testimony. I feel like we suffered through the same thing. We believed that we had bb so ANY sign that we could attribute to us having bb reinforced the thought that we had bb. For example, sometimes when I talked I would notice that people would cough right after I spoke. I took this as a sign that I had bb. However, sometimes when I talk to people now, they cough but I don't worry about it. It's a normal thing that everyone does. I feel like the human mind does everything in its power to make us believe our thoughts are right even though they may not be.
crazy4it wrote:Being cured means you had a problem and you did something about it and you and have the problem anymore but according to you you never had a problem so you're not really cured of anything
That's why I put quotations around cured in the title of this thread. Although it wasn't necessary for me to do that, I still did. It wasn't necessary because I was actually cured. The problem was in my mind, not actual bb. I believed with absolute certainty that I had bb even though it wasn't true. I talked to a counselor about it and asked strangers and coworkers about it so I could actually prove to myself that it was a nonissue.
Johnv713
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Re: I've Been "Cured"; No BS

Post by Johnv713 »

winter wrote:People are too polite to tell you. Even the doctors won't admit it.
X10000000000. On the other hand, people that fail to realize this simple fact should keep an open mind that this maybe the case. No one wants to say it to your face your breath slays Godzilla.

To definitely test for bb go to a dentist that employs a Halimeter. How hard cam that be folks? Jesus!
sj7
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Re: I've Been "Cured"; No BS

Post by sj7 »

Thank you for your testimony. I feel like we suffered through the same thing. We believed that we had bb so ANY sign that we could attribute to us having bb reinforced the thought that we had bb.
Cheers. It's very hard to find someone with a positive attitude in this forum. At times, you may have halitosis (due to dry throat, irritated sinuses), but you shouldn't be paranoid and analyze every reaction and movement of the surrounding people, it will only make things worse.
For example, sometimes when I talked I would notice that people would cough right after I spoke. I took this as a sign that I had bb. However, sometimes when I talk to people now, they cough but I don't worry about it. It's a normal thing that everyone does. I feel like the human mind does everything in its power to make us believe our thoughts are right even though they may not be.
Amen, brother.

Almost all of the people that roamed this earth have episodes of halitosis in their lifetime whether they realized it nor not. It might not be as bad as you might think. So be it and don't worry too much about it, other dude/girl will surely have worse episodes of bb than you have ever had (your are not number 1 on the global bb ranking :cry: ). It's only a problem if you treat it as a serious problem. It's only weird if you make it weird. Be positive, calm your ta-tas and you say goodbye to your bb.
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Re: I've Been "Cured"; No BS

Post by pariah »

Bad breath obviously exists, you may not have bad breath as seriously as others on here, so it may not be as noticeable. I was in a psych ward at a state hospital in 2005 and there was a poor, younger fellow who was totally demented. He would sit for half an hour with a plastic spoon from the cafeteria scraping tile grout out of window sills in the rec room and then snorting it. He would then wander the ward repeating only 3 words. He kept saying "rock n roll" "rock n roll". for whatever reason he was constantly going into the bathroom and drinking from the sink for like a minute straight. Once, I went in to use the restroom after he had been in there furiously gulping down water and the whole bathroom stunk like rotting flesh or cabbage or something just awful. I could not even stand to be in the bathroom, but for a few seconds because the smell was so bad and he wasn't even in the bathroom anymore!!!!! I have had similar breath at times, but not quite as severely. Once after having a calculus test done on my teeth in a dentist's office the dentist started waving his hand in front of his nose and swearing at me. He got angry that my breath was so bad and told the assistant to get me some mouthwash.
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