Got a cold.. breath 20 times worse.. Why?

[mike987]

So I woke up feeling pretty lousy a several days ago. First it was a sore throat. Then it was sneezing. Next day sniffling, day after that, hacking up dark yellow/brown mucus and never being able to get it all out.

Funny thing, I could have sworn yesterday my breath.. or perhaps I imagined it, was somehow fine. I know my sense of smell must have been poor, but I detected nothing at all from wrist lick, but always has the vinegary smell. Though I went out, I didn't speak much to others.

Today however, woke up with lungs full of nasty mucus. I was smelling my breath with no back draft aid other than the air through the streets. I could have sworn it was some nasty farty garbage lying around.. but soon I realized it was me.. All day today, I could smell it, without speaking, simply breathing through my nose. I swear even was getting backdraft from a little plant I attached to the hat of my halloween costume at the event we had today..

Walking home, alone, I still smelled it. Terrible, horrible farty breath. Strong and unpleasant. I'm sure it's THIS bad because I'm sick, but what is actually causing it? All the mucus? The mucus itself seems to carry no scent.

What I don't like is that It isn't just a nasty fart breath smell, it's an extreme version of what I often catch in backdrafts normally.. My own fart breath.

Does this mean my normal BB is related to mucus? Is it bacteria IN my lungs feeding off the mucus and there's more now than there normally is, so my breath was that much worse? Brushing, flossing, gargling, eating, had absolutely no effect whatsoever. There was nothing I could do to weaken it, and it's been consistent all day. This isn't oral, and because it's just like my normal breath, I don't think that's at all oral either.

Anyway, terrible day. I wish, I wished so bad I could be any one of these other shmucks and live a fun, social life without having to act anti-social in a job that requires social behavior.

[Archimonde]

How's the teaching going lately? Are students ever mean to you?

[time4change]

I've just got a cold too and my breath is got ten times worse. Even though my sense of smell is almost gone, the taste in my mouth is disgusting.

I remember my friend once had a cold, and when she coughed it smelled like how I think my breath smells. It smelled like tonsil stones. But she's never had bb before that, and it was gone after a few days.

[mike987]

Ugh. I feel so terrible.

Some students came to my door. They asked if there were any memorable moments from summer. They were goign around collecting such data. What a nice thing.. I felt so.. rude.

But I spoke away from him. I said.. 'Hmm...' And I stood there thinking.. And I couldn't think of anything. I finally just said, 'sorry, I didn't really do anything.. all I do is watch movies... play video games... I didn't really do anything during summer.' And I continued to try to think for a moment. But it wasn't fun. My life isn't fun.


I'm so sorry I could barely speak with them. My breath was horrendous yesterday and I can not bring myself to speak face to face right now.


Bad breath is a physical affliction, but it destroys the mind. I even feel like it's destroyed my sexuality. I no longer even think about women in lust. I think 'oh she's good looking', without getting any real excitement, because I don't actually risk attraction.


Ughh.. djklafhsjkdfhsj. Do I just go to a hospital? Do I just say 'I have bad breath.. really bad.. Smells like it comes from your ass. And it always smells like this. Help me' I want to do this.. but I don't know if I can bear returning to work and society, having outed myself to the hospital staff, and walking away knowing nothing can be done.

I feel so terrible about blowing off those boys like that. They had pure, happy intentions.. and I had nothing to contribute. They just say thank you and went away. I would have definitely tried to speak more in Japanese, but knowing my breath smells the way it does, I can't fumble around with words. I speak minimally, to protect myself and others. dkfhaklfjaskljkldjf

asdfjijklasd I just don't have words now. I'm tired folks... You know how it is though..

[halitosisux]

I went on a team-building course once.
It would involve lots of outdoor activity so I wasn't anxious about the BB side of it.

But one of the first things we had to do was all sit in a large room, all huddled together. Most of us already knew each other. We each had to find a partner and then had 1 hour to tell that person about the things we'd done in our lives and our experiences.

I had no clue what to say. I couldn't lie because people who knew me would know. When it came to my partner talking about me, it was the most painful reminder of how this problem had eaten into me and how "pathetic" I'd become in front of "normal" people. I was only 20 but that experience brought it all home to me.

I TOTALLY feel your pain there Mike.

[mike987]

Thanks halitosisux,

That sounds like an incredibly difficult situation. One hour speaking to a stranger who is probably going to want to flee in disgust the moment you open your mouth. I don't think I could have done it..


Are you still cured? You mentioned in another topic that if you don't clean some area regularly odors come back (?)

[halitosisux]

Mike, the odour on my tongue is about 5% of what it used to be before I had my wisdom tooth out. At the moment, with my current hygiene regimen, that figure is at 0%. I base everything to do with my breath by the odour on my tongue.

Even so, it's still hard to let go of the fears, even though I'm able to have my breath confirmed by my brother. It's very hard for the brain to be rational about something so uncertain and difficult to self-ascertain. BB is like a sensory latch. Once we're aware of having BB, it's VERY difficult to learn to become unaware of it. The mind plays tricks. I have very low self-esteem and low self-worth and I think these are a factor in not only what allowed BB to become such a debilitation, but also what makes it, and other obsessions, maintain their hold. Sometimes I read about sufferers who are unable to smell their own BB and who cannot smell any odour on their tongue, and I almost envy them. Because I think I would find it a lot easier to let go of BB if I didn't have ways to sense it and constantly obsess over it. But I fully understand that not being able to smell it and only be able to rely on awful reactions is a whole different nightmare.

BB has been a nightmare for me since my earliest memories. I'm obsessive about what people are thinking of me, not just about breath, but every aspect of myself. It's like a habit I've formed and can't stop. It's all a result of the childhood environment I grew up in. That's never going to completely go from me as long as I'm not alone in this world.

So I still fight it, even though I know I don't have to. It's also the fear of it ever getting worse, and wanting to be as armed as I possibly can be in case that ever happens. I need to know I've done my utmost.

Sorry for going on so much.

[halitosisux]

BTW, I forgot to mention, in that team-building exercise, the partner had to stand up and talk about their partner for 5 or 10 minutes, and he literally had nothing to say. He and the audience were all sniggering.

[mike987]

It's okay, I'm interested in your story, thank you for telling me.

BB has been a nightmare for me since my earliest memories. I'm obsessive about what people are thinking of me, not just about breath, but every aspect of myself. It's like a habit I've formed and can't stop. It's all a result of the childhood environment I grew up in. That's never going to completely go from me as long as I'm not alone in this world.

Actually I was always very obsessive about that as well. One reason why I was so socially anxious. Not that this is unusual for a kid, but I was always dreadfully upset over zits.. I would pick at my face for hours. Guh.. Everytime I looked in a mirror.
I was always afraid of people seeing me blow my nose, but as a kid, because of allergies or whatever, I ALWAYS had a stuffed, running nose. Those days were miserable. I HATED mowing the lawn, and being short on breath.. i can't believe my parents never realized how horrible that made me feel.

Well so on.. But, funny thing, after getting BB, I almost feel I've gotten over a lot of my old anxieties.. I feel as though I wasted so much of my young life being worried about dumb shit, when now, I can't even social even if I wanted to.. and I do.. I do so bad.

Sometimes on good days, or I'm just feeling in a decent mood, I'll be more social.. I'll have more of an intimate outgoing personality.. Now eventually I'm scared back into submission by reactions or comments, but this seems to be evidence that it might be easier to get over than I thought.

If I could speak into someone's face and learn that they not only smell nothing offensive, but enjoy me speaking to them, I feel I would quickly be able to put BB behind me..

Though, what you say about fearing it may come back.. That would probably be difficult. But as long as I would remain BB free, I imagine I would continue being as social as possible. I'd probably chew gum constantly and continue doing extreme oral care, but only because I would never, ever want to see a breath reaction ever again. Haha.. yeah, I suppose that would be terrifying.

Ouch, it is a mind killer.


I'm sorry to hear about that team building exercise. That's very upsetting... But now you can look back and know that you've overcome that. You've won, and because of your humbling experiences, have greater potential than anyone as a desirable team member.

[halitosisux]

Mike, I'm also a really anxious person. I don't know if I was born like this or whether it developed from my environment. Probably a bit of both.

I've been through very much the same things with regards to my tendency to develop specific obsessions/fears.

An example for me was snoring. I wasn't able to breathe through my nose until I was about 15 years old. And all I can remember is being reminded every day by my siblings of what a dick I was for snoring and having bad breath. That developed into the most intense fear of going on school trips or on holidays or ever having to go into hospital etc.

But looking back today it seems crazy to have become so fearful of this. I could go through so many similar fixations. And I'm sure my intense bad breath fixation relates to the negative way I see myself stemming to the way I was made to feel about myself in childhood.

And maybe one day I'll look back and think the same about bad breath.

Nothing has affected me more than BB though, and yes it's certainly helped me to bring other fears into perspective.

On that team-building course, one really hard thing for me was not being able to explain WHY my life was so empty and just having to accept being seen as nothing but a weirdo. I remember thinking at the time, if only you knew what I had inside me, how much passion I have for life etc. But I had to keep it all locked away.

[DanielPine]

I also have severe anxiety, I also have OCD, which makes the whole situation worse. My parents have no idea how much of a chore just...living, is for me. The worst thing is that I cant commit s*****e because I know my parents would be destroyed and also I cant because of my anxiety. There is this voice in the back of my head constantly saying "what if you go to hell", "what if you go to hell". I walk around really sad and mopey all the time, my parents ask me whats up, I always say "im just tired", because I know if i tell them the truth they will get angry at me and say im trying to get attention. If there was a button that just popped out of the ground that I could press to never exist, i totally would. That would be better for everyone. School is the absolute worst man. I hate sitting in class, next to anyone. The other day this really cute girl tried to sit next to me, she is always taking to me on skype and facebook and wants to chat in real life, I moved seats and made up some crappy excuse. I would love to get to know her, but I cant. People dont realise how terrible this problem is. I am trying to take as many days off school and have fake nose bleeds before role call, because I hate roll call. I sit next to these two guys, one actually cups his hands over his nose, the other rests his nose under his knuckles. Man, this sucks. I have anxiety, bad breath and people lying to me about the bad breath, my whole existence is like trying to mix oil with water.

However, I do have one thing going for me. My friend group at school, they really like me. Despite the fact that they cover their noses and everything. I wasnt at school for 2 days and they were messaging me on facebook, texting me, telling me to come to school. Ive told two of them my problem, one was very supportive and tries to help me, he is a christian. The other laughed at me and then when I asked him again he lied and said I didnt have bad breath even though he covers his nose. And one of my friends..i think this is the only thing that keeps me sane, one of my friends doesnt have a sense of smell. Even though hes a bit of a dick, i try to hang out with him as much as I can. He likes me a lot, so we plan to move in together when we leave school. Even though my family has failed me, medicine has, researching has, I still have a few things going for me which keep me alive