Bad breath? What's it like on the other side?

Art · Post by **Art** » Tue Aug 13, 2013 2:45 am

We have fun, she and I. She makes it that way! She is energetic, vibrant , full of life with an electric smile and twinkling eyes! Everybody feels good when she walks into the room. Life is wonderful, and then I watch it happen as her smile fades, her eyes drop as she brings her hands up to cover her face and she gently sobs. What happened? She saw someone or sometimes several people she was talking with or who were just passing by in a store or theater that rubbed their nose. The nose rubbing makes her feel that she has offended by halitosis so severe that it can affect people up to 50 feet away, even through closed car windows. My heart aches for her as she is in emotional pain and it is wrecking her life. I am not an expert on this, I am not a Doctor or a Scientist, I am just an amateur. An amateur with intimate knowledge and personal contact. She absolutely does not have nor has she ever had in the 7 years we have been friends any bad breath at all outside of a couple cases of "morning breath"! If she did actually have a physical problem I could deal with it. I can't deal with this imagined problem of bad breath. She constantly asks me about it, do I see others rubbing their noses, why can't I tell her the truth if I love her! It can be very exasperating, watching her suffer with an imaginary breath problem while denying the legitimacy and truthfulness of those family and friends who constantly tell her the truth that she has always had good breath. I understand that it is a somatoform illness of the mind, an illness that compels those that suffer with it to search for every piece of evidence that they can find that will support their belief that they have halitosis and to discount all evidence provided by professionals in the medical field and attestations of their family, friends and lovers. It is truly said to watch her do this to herself. I agonize over not being able to get through to her to help her. It is so sad!

nightmare · Post by **nightmare** » Tue Aug 13, 2013 3:36 am

You have described "paranoid personality disorder". Nose rubs are not a sign of bad breath. If she had bad breath, people would slowly take 2 or 3 steps backwards (to distance themself) or offer her gum or breath mints. At least thats what I have experienced.

StillHoping · Post by **StillHoping** » Tue Aug 13, 2013 5:19 am

No offense but I kind of find this extremely annoying to read. I dont want to hear about people suffering from thinking they have bb while we are here REALLY SUFFERING from the real thing.

If she has this paranoia; she needs to see a shrink and get help. Atleast there is a solution for her problem. There is nothing for us!

Archimonde · Post by **Archimonde** » Tue Aug 13, 2013 8:29 am

Art wrote:The nose rubbing makes her feel that she has offended by halitosis so severe that it can affect people up to 50 feet away

She absolutely does not have nor has she ever had in the 7 years we have been friends

GREAT GREAT POST.

I've been telling some people on this forum the exact same thing.

I've thoroughly explained several times the difference between 'bad breath reactions' and 'allergic reactions', i've never been able to convince anyone of them.

Your friend will never believe you, i've had privates conversations with 'fake bb sufferers' like your friend, to no avail. Some of them have been on this forum for years with 500+ posts, torturing themselves for a disease they don't have ! ! !

Anyway, direct your friend to this forum:

http://www.medhelp.org/posts/People-All ... /show/4415

That's what she suffers from.

Archimonde · Post by **Archimonde** » Tue Aug 13, 2013 8:41 am

nightmare wrote:You have described "paranoid personality disorder". Nose rubs are not a sign of bad breath. If she had bad breath, people would slowly take 2 or 3 steps backwards (to distance themself) or offer her gum or breath mints. At least thats what I have experienced.

The 2nd part of your post is spot on, the backward step is one of the better indicator that you have real bb.

The 1st part about being paranoid is wrong though, the nose rubs are real but they are not caused by a bad odor, they are caused by an odorless allergen that some people produce for reasons that are unknown. These people wrongly interpret why these reactions happen.

It is possible to suffer from both conditions.

deebo · Post by **deebo** » Tue Aug 13, 2013 9:37 am

archi , the fact that you havent convinced anyone here... does that tell you something ? familiarize yourself with the term 'confirmation bias' please .

from what Art posted alone ,you jump to conclude PATM for sure. How about periodic bb or halitophobia ? Are those not plausible ? Check your "logic" please

.

Stankie · Post by **Stankie** » Tue Aug 13, 2013 1:33 pm

Archimonde · Post by **Archimonde** » Wed Aug 14, 2013 6:09 am

Archimonde · Post by **Archimonde** » Wed Aug 14, 2013 6:49 am

you jump to conclude PATM for sure. How about periodic bb or halitophobia ?

I rule out periodic BB because the only reactions she mentioned are nose rubs from people 50 feet away from her. That has nothing to do with BB, periodic or not.

As for 'halitophobia', in my uneducated opinion, some halitophobia cases are actually 'misinterpretation of bb reactions', like we have here. I wouldn't call these people halitophobic because they do have a medical condition causing these nose rubs. The reactions are real but their brain tricked themselves into thinking the reactions are caused by an odor.

Stankie · Post by **Stankie** » Wed Aug 14, 2013 3:18 pm

nightmare · Post by **nightmare** » Thu Aug 15, 2013 12:18 am

My IP is from a Green West Coast State. California

StillHoping · Post by **StillHoping** » Thu Aug 15, 2013 1:25 am

lol I live in Canada! Moderators can you please post our IP addresses to stop some people's paranoia?

Like seriously, people aren't allowed to have different opinions from each other? wow

Stankie · Post by **Stankie** » Thu Aug 15, 2013 3:56 am

Archimonde · Post by **Archimonde** » Thu Aug 15, 2013 8:52 am

halitosisux · Post by **halitosisux** » Thu Aug 15, 2013 8:52 pm

No need to check anything.
Can we just accept that nothing is certain in this madness?

A person could have PATM (whatever the cause is) - it could be something really simple like allergens which get onto the person from their home (pets etc). It may be real, it may just be a form of paranoia. They could have this with or without BB, and to speculate on whether they exist separately or together is completely pointless because it's impossible to know for sure whether a person has PATM or BB, let alone have both of them or neither. There's no reason to suggest they are related in any way, except for the paranoia they cause - but they might be.

In this madness there's no knowing for sure if we're right or wrong about anything. We must try to respect each other's opinions whatever they may be and be open to every possibility and feel free to reply and scrutinize each other in a respectful manner.

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