Bad Breath Halitosis Forum

okay, suppose you're sitting close to someone on the bus/train .. does the person next to you occasionally inhale deeply? its happened to me too many times to be a coincidence. but then i wonder.. why would someone want to inhale more of what stinks?

jane wrote:okay, suppose you're sitting close to someone on the bus/train .. does the person next to you occasionally inhale deeply? its happened to me too many times to be a coincidence. but then i wonder.. why would someone want to inhale more of what stinks?

I have had that happen to me too with my bad breath and some people back when it used to be killer. Heck, even I used to do it uncontrollably as a reaction to my own bad breath for the first two years or so of it when I'd have to get close to people. It is something psychological that is difficult to control consciously, but it's definitely not a coincidence. This will happen to you when you get too close, too fast to people to talk to them and where it's impractical and/or rude for them to back away from you.

I understand your logic about wanting to inhale more of what stinks, but it's counterintuitive. The person has to inhale what stinks regardless, but with normal breathing, they have to inhale more often than with normal breathing. So with deeper breaths they can afford to inhale less often and hence be offended less often. It's the brain's mechanism for minimizing as much as possible what strikes it as foul.

Don't you mean exhale, cause this is what I actually see others do, like they want to get the smell out of their nose.

LOL, they inhale deeply so they can hold their breath!

I wonder how long they can hold their breath. Eventually they'll be screaming for mercy and leave.