My smell changes?

[jen]

I'm freaking out a bit here.

This morning I travelled with somebody. This person doesn't have chronic bb, but has complained about severe constipation before. Her smell this morning travelled miles and it was horrible. When I walked behind her, it felt as though the smell was lingering behind her and I was stepping into it. When I got to work, alone, I kept smelling whiffs of it in my office. Later on, someone backed away from me and I started feeling that smell in my throat as though it's coming from my intestines.

Now paranoia is setting in. Was it actually me who was smelling so bad this morning and not the other woman? Or did her smell somehow cling to me and pervade my pores? Or does my breath take on other smells!?

I was always under the impression that I had a "normal" bad breath smell. Only when I discovered this forum did I realize that it could be fecal. Not long after that I started getting whiffs of dirty baby diapers. I still get it now and then, but normally it is that typical bad breath smell (I don't know how to describe it).

Either I am very suggestible, or I am going crazy, which is of course a possibility (!). Maybe somebody experiences the same thing?

[mike987]

I've felt that way about smells before... like I'll smell a sweaty person, and later, I feel like I've taken on that scent myself when I sweat

Could be some false effect though, maybe something to do with scent receptor memory or something...


I have found that if I smell something bad or unusual, it seems to get stuck in my sinuses and I end up sensing it for the next hour or more in fleeting whiffs.



However, I have experienced times where I thought it was someone else who smelled pretty bad... only for me to realize it was actually ME. Happened last month at a meeting. I smelled a normal type of bad breath from the guy next to me.. noticed it when he spoke.. Then I noticed it again when he wasn't even close by, but it was another person and me who were talking.. Could have swore it was someone else, since that type of smell is unusual for me... I guess I was packing another type of BB on top of my normal fart breath that day.


But you know, it does seem strange and almost impossible, but I do sometimes feel that I can acquire someone else's scent.
If that wasn't your usual smell, I'd say that perhaps her smell got stuck in your sinuses (which do have a lot of stuff going on in there) and you ended up catching traces of what was still caught up in your nose.

It might also be possible that with the help of one, similar type of smell, another scent can be influenced so that you sense it slightly differently from usual as long as it's present.

[jen]

Mike, thanks so much for your sensible reply. It makes me feel better that someone else also experienced this strange phenomenon and that I'm not certifiable yet. This thing is really playing cruel games with us. I must say, damn, I really hate it.