There's hope for you if you will get out of that hole.

[mjump7]

First of all, you gotta get out of that deep hole.
You think you are the most miserable person alive on the earth.
You are self-conscious all the time.
You think of your breath and of how people around you react to your breath all the time.
I tell you until you get out of that unescapable hole, there's no hope for you.
But if you make effort to broaden your mind and heart and make conscious effort to be hopeful and joyful, there's hope for you.
It's not your breath that is killing you. It is your mind that is making you miserable.

I promise you that the moment you get out of that miserable hole, you will no longer feel miserable. It is instantaneous. What i'm saying is that other people have the similar problem as you have. They have relationship problems, financial problems and family problems. And some people are diagnosed with cancer and have only a few months to live. There are people out there dying because of hunger and poverty in Africa. People dying in the war! Yes, War is still going on in this fallen world.

I say again, if you want to be healed, you have get out of that small world of yours.
It seems that everything that is happening around you is somewhat centred around your breath smell. And that is not true! You have to break that illusion and barrier.

Now to the point. Here are tips for you. How I started to have a conversation with my friends and they don't pinch their nose. I am first of all optimistic. Be optimistic. Your facial expression tells people everything about you. They know you are somewhat very self-conscious although you would not know that. Just focus on whatever is at hand. If it is work, focus on work, if you're studying, focus on the study. If you happen to have a conversation with somebody, focus on the conversation, not your BAD BREATH!

Next. Diet changes helped me dramatically.
3 things. No soybeans, No meat and No fatty high protein food.
This diet change may not apply to many of you. But try anyways.

I recently found out that I'm allergic to soybeans. I took a skin prick test and the results showed that I'm allergic to house dust mites, grass pollens, molds and soybeans.
I cut out soybeans out of my diet. And things started to change.

Some of the soybean products are: Soybean oil, soy sauce, soy milk, tofu, some noodle soups have soybean in them. Miso soup. Curry may have soybean in them.
That helped me a lot with my eczema.

I also observed that high fat, high protein food worsened my breath. Especially pies, quiche, barbeque, sausages and donuts. I guess the pies, quiche and donuts i ate were made with soybean oil. Soybean oil is extremely commonly used in food processing because they are cheap. Canola oil is also commonly used. And both of them are really bad for your health anyways.

But the thing that helped me most was not a diet change. It was a change of attitude. I talked to my father and my mother about my bad breath problem for four days. They were supportive and I believe I gained a lot of confidence from talking to them.

Talk to your family. Talk to your brother or sister. Be humble! Be generous! Break that self-confidence of yours that you have the potential to become big if it were not for your breath. NO! You are who you are. Whether you have bad breath or not. You are still you. Nothing changes. What you need is just humble yourself before others. And a humble person would not be self-conscious and always care about his/her image before others. Guess what. You are haughty and conceited. The first step to humility is that you realise that "you are not humble." I'm trying to help you. And you need to help yourself. Lower your bar and be open. Talk to someone close to you. I believe this was Oceanside's advice before he left this forum. You know what? Once you are healed, you no longer come back to this forum. Not because you're uncaring person but because you just forget it. You forget it because you forget about your bad breath.

Be hopeful. Be humble. Try the diet changes. But most of all. Get out of that deep hole. The world is not as small and confined as our bad breaths.

[Eric]

You make some pretty good points.
Its like you have to build a shell to the reactions you know are coming anyway and expect them.
I would rather go to a party and be nice and try to talk and joke with everyone, even with bad breath, so as to make a positive impression. In people's individual minds they will remember you as a cool person with an unfortunate problem.
If we got to a social situation and act like miserable, anti-social downers we will be remembered as such.
We have to get over the fact that groups of people will use this as a way to find fleeting entertainment through immature comments.
People that realize that we live with this daily, even if its unspoken, tend to cut us the much needed slack we deserve, at least in my experience. Maybe I'm just lucky.
Remember that if you output positivity its likely you'll receive it back.

[Archimonde]

Good post but i disagree with this

"No fatty high protein food."

I've eaten up to 8 raw eggs a day and it doesn't worsen my breath at all, same with raw fish. Both are high in fat and protein. Try it for yourself, eat a dozen eggs and see how your breath is. On the other hand, one portion of cooked ground beef and i have nuclear breath. WHY?!!!!!!

[thanatos]

"It's not your breath that is killing you. It is your mind that is making you miserable."

STFU

[Bloorain]

You make a really good point mjump. Especially with diet. This week Iand for as long as I could stand it 'm eating only raw vegetables and grilled chicken. I'm not sure how it'll affect me bb wise but I could definitely lose a few pounds especially in the hips.

The one thing I have to say though is at least in my case, this bb is making me miserable. Not my mind or anything else. Just this bb. But its also made me appreciate so much more what I had before I developed this disease.

Thanks for your post!

[Busted]

Although I agree with many things you say. We need to learn not to care about our bb that much.

I still think it's your bb that causes your mind to go crazy and your mind that causes you to go crazy. So it's bb that causes you to go crazy indirectly.

If you never had bb, you probably wouldn't have a mind that causes you to go crazy all the time.

[bpatient]

i think wat mjump5 meant was dat we should stay positive w/ our situation. i once saw an article sayin dat ppl's mental state can affect/worsen ur bb level, so i think mjump5 got a very good point.

[Hal_1t0515]

I agree that we should keep a positive attitude, but that by itself isn't going to solve the problem. It's basically a practical problem, not a mental problem. We have to keep trying to find a practical solution, or at least a way to keep it under control. We have to keep an open mind about possible causes. Keep trying new ideas, but don't be too disappointed if they don't seem to work. Give them a fair shot and then move on to the next idea or treatment. Self pity should be avoided at all costs. That's my take.

[mjump7]

Note: I've been to a dentist and ENT specialist and had a confirmation that my mouth and nose are in good conditions.

Here's an encouragement for you, people.
I've been eating mostly just pastries, white bread, muffins etc that are just made of wheat flour.

For breakfast, noodles
For snacks, custard stick and croissant
For lunch three little muffins
For dinner, chicken & avocado sushi.

And I had a normal day. My BB wasn't bad at all. Hardly any reactions at school. My friends don't seem to know that I have BB, or it seems more likely that they just forget about it. Yes, most of the time, people are not even remotely aware of BB. I had a casual conversation with schoolmates and I had a normal day.

Here is a very interesting observation. In the morning, I sat between two people. I suddenly became worried if they would smell my BB. Although I was aware that I didn't have BB at that moment. But as I became anxious, my heart rate increased, my stomach felt uncomfortable and I started sweat a bit. I felt like I was trapped. And the only thing I could think about was how I would be able to get out of this situation. And I started to have BB and it became worse. The person sitting next to me started to drink water and eat some snacks, and interestingly she also had BB briefly for about 10 mins. It seems like she became anxious and she must have felt uncomfortable sitting next to me who's behaving uncomfortably and smelly.

My solution was to suck a candy. I felt a bit more comfortable and felt secure and my body physiology seemed to become steadier and normal again. I learned a lesson. Anxiety dramatically worsens BB. A person who normally doesn't have BB could also get BB briefly if he becomes acutely uncomfortable and anxious.

Dry mouth, poor digestion and increased CO2 production may combine to produce BB. This is my observation anyway.

The best way to relax yourself is to talk to somebody. so I kept talking to people and that helped me a lot. I don't think I had BB all day except in the morning. I am convinced in my case, my anxiety and worry are worsening my BB. We all need support. Talk to people. Socialise. Be comfortable when sitting next to someone. Have a positive countenance. Forget about your BB and if you can focus on other people's problems. I'm sure everyone has their own problems. However, BB problem is just too acute and detrimental that It wrecks our spirits. Ignore BB. Forget it. Do not come to this forum. The more you read these posts, the more your mind will be filled with BAD BREATH. You will be completely trapped. However the good news is. The moment you are healed. It is not such a big deal after all. Now you are normal again. What now? Live your life. It is easy to be healed. It is not difficult at all to be healed of BB. Do not rely on pharmaceutical products. Live normally like other people. Brush only 3 times a day. If you don't want to, don't brush like other people. Do not use mouthwash products because normal people don't use them that often and still have good breath. Don't exhaust yourself trying to heal yourself by going absolutely nuts about it.

What you need is a conversation with other people. That helps you forget about your own problems and listen to other people's problems. And you gotta have faith. Believe you are going to be healed. Not a year later or 10 years later. But now! Now is the acceptable time to be healed. How long are you going to live with that BB? BB doesn't exist. Your body physiology exists to produce BB therefore your body must also exist to produce a good breath at the same time. And also reduce the time you spend on the internet. EMR(electromagnetic radiation) produced by your computer may interfere with your nervous system and give you BB. Who knows there are so many speculated causes to BB. EMR might be one of them.

What I'm trying to say is that it is deceptively easy to get healed from BB. At least not as difficult as you make it to be. I know this because I also suffered from eczema called atopic dermatitis for 7 years. I tried so many things. diet change, exercise, gluten free diet, dairy free diet, meat free diet. you name it. And after all that trial and error, I wasn't still healed. I suffered a lot from the accursed eczema. Then I was healed about 2 weeks ago. All I had to do was eliminate soybean out of my diet. That was all. My skin condition improved dramatically and I'm normal again. It was so easy. I want you all to be faithful. Never give up. Never lose hope. And do not even think about living with your BB all your life. Be actively hopeful, be actively faithful. My God is kind and faithful. He gave me eczema and bad breath but I never regret that I had these conditions because I learned something eternally precious to me. This life is not all there is. There is a life beyond this life. And God is mightily at work in me. Jesus is good and that is all hope that I need to be healed of BB and to live this wonderful life that God has planned for me before the foundation of the world.

[mjump7]

I apologize that I've been too sarcastic and insensitive towards people who may have suffered from BB longer than I. I realised this after reading my own post.

I may sound radical, and yes I'm trying to be radical because I don't want to rely on chemical products and medicine all my life to reduce the severity of my BB.

something fundamental has to happen in our body and that must involve body, mind and heart. Not just a body, although for some people it may be the only cause. But we are thinking people. Not only we think but we also feel. All the thinking and feeling we do affect our body system. When you become nervous, you get dry mouth. When you watch horror movie, your body becomes extremely sensitive to external stimuli. What happens to a male body when he sees a naked female body? His body immediately reacts to the image he sees. It is so quick. It doesn't take 5 seconds for the body to react. Likewise our bodies are not physical only. We THINK and FEEL. Thinking and feeling affect our body physiology. I wonder what would happen to someone's physiology if he's chronically depressed and obssessed about BB. This is just my hypothesis but it is not illogical either.

This is just something for you to think about. Carefully observe what you think and how you feel during the day. I also recommend that you ask your family member to comment about your mood. They would know that you are not feeling right.

[elliott]

Small point. It's not the BB that's the major problem, it's the reactions. If no one ever reacted, we wouldn't be stressed.

[Busted]

Damn, I hate it when someone makes a joke and everyone is laughing. And then you laugh, and those who smell your bb back off and are quiet all of a sudden.

Keeping your mouth shut tight is pretty hard to do.

[Bloorain]

Mjump your like the 20th person I've read across several sites that have dermatitis and this problem. Including myself. I keep thinking there must be some connection???

[Hal_1t0515]

I got some dermatitis on both left and right index and middle fingers about 4 months after the bb started. it's almost symmetrical. Neither problem has gone away since then.

I don't think the skin condition I have is eczema, since it doesn't itch. It's just these dry patches of tight skin that keep splitting open and peeling. I went to the doctor about it and was told it could be an allergy. Maybe I should get tested for a food allergy.