# Are people that are hypersensitive to perfumes also bothered by bad smells more? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 12, 2014, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-people-that-are-hypersensitive-to-perfumes-also-bothered-by-bad-smells-more/688286 "2014-05-12T16:26:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2014, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-people-that-are-hypersensitive-to-perfumes-also-bothered-by-bad-smells-more/688286/21 "2014-05-13T20:25:32Z")
> [@Green\_Bean](#): > > 😕 I think you have me mixed up with somebody else. Can you provide an example of where I’ve said anything like this? He was talking to me. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2014, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-people-that-are-hypersensitive-to-perfumes-also-bothered-by-bad-smells-more/688286/22 "2014-05-13T23:37:48Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > Can I ask you a question? You don’t have to answer it if you don’t want, but I feel compelled to ask this. > > Do you have a single opinion or thought about ANYTHING that is independent of what your wife thinks? I swear it seems like you don’t. It really makes you come across as brainless and–dare I say–like you lack a lot of self-awareness. I’m sure your wife is a great person, but why should we care so much about what she thinks? She can’t be THAT much smarter than you are. > > I disagree with her dismissal of people’s experiences. I’m a fairly insensitive person when it comes to taste and smell, so I can easily “chalk” these up when I have to. But when it comes to certain sounds and visual stimuli (bright lights), I have low tolerance. So with this reasoning alone, I can completely understand why someone may react “inconsistently” within the same sensory apparratus. One’s sensorium doesn’t operate on logic or reason. Feelings are neither right or wrong. > > I know someone who has no problem with the smell of shit and will clean it up without blinking an eye. But vomit? She just can’t do it without yacking herself. If this is a neurotic hang-up, it’s the weirdest one I’ve ever heard of. > [@Incubus](#): > > I ask my wife for her opinion just like I ask the SDMB. And given that I’ve been posting here for over 3 times longer than I’ve been with my wife, I have plenty of opinions of my own. > > But I can understand if others project their own insecurities by attacking an individual, just like you Mostro have believed your female co workers do to you. > [@monstro](#): > > Yeah, I’m REALLY attacking you, dude.:rolleyes: I’m just trying to help YOU out. Just like how you try to help your geeky friends with the body odor or exposed butt cracks. If you weren’t always going on about people lacking self-awareness, I wouldn’t have even pointed it out. You aren’t too neurotic and insecure to receive a little feedback, are you? > > You can tell your wife about all of this. I’m betting she’ll know exactly what to say to boost your self-esteem another eleventy-billion degrees. Both of you need to stop the sniping at each other and take any beef you may have to the Pit. Don’t snipe at each other this way outside of there again. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2014, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-people-that-are-hypersensitive-to-perfumes-also-bothered-by-bad-smells-more/688286/23 "2014-05-13T23:53:04Z")
> [@wolfman](#): > > Completely tangent, but they are doing some work on the elevators in my building. I’m not sure what the specific work is, but it has the oddest strong-ass smell of airplane glue and blue cheese. It’s an obnoxious combo. There are some adhesives that smell much like that - could be for carpeting, could be for paneling. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2014, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-people-that-are-hypersensitive-to-perfumes-also-bothered-by-bad-smells-more/688286/24 "2014-05-14T00:35:29Z")
There have been stores that I barely got in the door. Some of these places are so heavily scented I get a headache in short order from it, but the people I am with often say “really? I didn’t notice”. I tend to adapt to natural unpleasant smells more easily than manufactured fragrances. I had to sit next to a co-worker for half an hour who had laid it on so heavy, I could taste it on my tongue (it had a talcy/metalicy texture) and I ended up getting a cold because of it. On the other hand, another co-worker wears a lot of something with a sort of sour base to it, but I have been able to adapt to it because I am quite fond of her. Not sure how that works. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2014, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-people-that-are-hypersensitive-to-perfumes-also-bothered-by-bad-smells-more/688286/25 "2014-05-14T12:41:35Z")
My reaction to perfume-type scents is eye-watering, nose irritating, throat clenching allergy-like stuff.\* Most everyday bad smells don’t cause that type of reaction. Just “Ugh, phewee!”, etc. - Which makes the heavily perfumed workers at the allergist’s office my favorite people of all time. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2014, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-people-that-are-hypersensitive-to-perfumes-also-bothered-by-bad-smells-more/688286/26 "2014-05-14T12:53:25Z")
[QUOTE=Bill Door] “…suggesting that the mechanism of action is not specific to the chemical itself and might be related to expectations and prior beliefs.” [/QUOTE] Yup. My take is that a lot of this relates to how you were raised as a child. If you’re taught that strong odors/fragrances are something suspect or outright bad, you’ll carry that belief into adulthood. I feel sorry for people that can’t enjoy fragrances, especially if they’re gardeners. ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2014, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-people-that-are-hypersensitive-to-perfumes-also-bothered-by-bad-smells-more/688286/27 "2014-05-14T13:43:45Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Yup. > > My take is that a lot of this relates to how you were raised as a child. If you’re taught that strong odors/fragrances are something suspect or outright bad, you’ll carry that belief into adulthood. That might be true in some cases, but how do you account for instances of getting a strong aversive reaction when you have no idea that you’re being exposed to the substance? For example, when I lived in my old house, I would get a reaction, and start looking around to find that my next-door neighbor was cleaning her patio furniture with straight Mr. Clean. The houses were close together and her table was on the side closest to my house so it wasn’t surprising that I could smell it. It dissipated quickly enough so I didn’t ever say anything about it to her. I was definitely not raised with any thoughts of strong odors being bad. I wouldn’t have gotten away with claiming a sensitivity I did not actually have. I only became sensitive after an exposure incident when I was 21, anyway. As I said Aren’t you a doctor, Jackmanii? You may be falling into the trap of assuming that a condition isn’t “real” if we don’t understand exactly why it happens. It wasn’t that long ago that we thought infections spread by bad humours in the air… ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2014, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-people-that-are-hypersensitive-to-perfumes-also-bothered-by-bad-smells-more/688286/28 "2014-05-14T14:03:50Z")
Most of the people sensitive to perfume/cologne that I’ve known (I am not one myself) dislike it not because it’s aesthetically unpleasant, but because it’s actively burny/prickly/sneezy to their nasal passages. They think of it as a completely separate experience from smelling BO or dog shit. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2014, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-people-that-are-hypersensitive-to-perfumes-also-bothered-by-bad-smells-more/688286/29 "2014-05-14T14:29:00Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Yup. > > My take is that a lot of this relates to how you were raised as a child. If you’re taught that strong odors/fragrances are something suspect or outright bad, you’ll carry that belief into adulthood. > > I feel sorry for people that can’t enjoy fragrances, especially if they’re gardeners. Do you honestly not understand that smelling a floral fragance in its natural, low-dose concentration is a very different experience than having it crammed into your nostrils in a sustained fashion at super high concentrations? I love fragrances. I like the smell of perfume. I even like some “chemical” smells that would drive other people bonkers. But once I had the worst headache after doing some field work next to a fragance factory off the NJ Turnpike. It was just way too many aldehydes and alkenes all at once. What awful child-rearing do you think I had to cause this to happen? There’s an annoying stink of, “I’m better than people who are different from me!” coming from this thread. If I didn’t know better, I’d think that certain folks on this board have problems with basic empathy. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2014, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-people-that-are-hypersensitive-to-perfumes-also-bothered-by-bad-smells-more/688286/30 "2014-05-14T14:36:46Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > Do you honestly not understand that smelling a floral fragance in its natural, low-dose concentration is a very different experience than having it crammed into your nostrils in a sustained fashion at super high concentrations? Or that what you’re smelling when you smell an actual apple isn’t the same chemical mixture as when someone gives you a wooden gizmo drenched in what you instantly identify as diethyl adipate (it’s the product used as “apple scent” and also one I had to ID in one of my chemistry labs, back in 1991; the so-called car air-freshener went directly to the trash). Different apples don’t even smell the same. I spent a week “visiting” my hospital’s lab at its mistress’s behest; the sub-tech I shadowed and I found it hilarious that we were bothered by different smells and worried about accidentally touching different things (she was bothered by acetic acid, HCl and sulphuric acid; I was bothered by feces and urine). There evidently was a training factor at work, but not in which things we’d been trained to be bothered by, but in which ones we’d been trained _not_ to be bothered by. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2014, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-people-that-are-hypersensitive-to-perfumes-also-bothered-by-bad-smells-more/688286/31 "2014-05-14T14:54:58Z")
> [@Green\_Bean](#): > > Aren’t you a doctor, Jackmanii? You may be falling into the trap of assuming that a condition isn’t “real” if we don’t understand exactly why it happens. It wasn’t that long ago that we thought infections spread by bad humours in the air… IANAD. I just wanted to point out that “psychosomatic” != “not real” - it is not a synonym for “hypochondria”. It just means the origin of the issue is mental as opposed to physical. IOW, the effects are real and can have physical manifestations, but are not derived from the physical interaction of the airborne chemicals with the body. A physically based allergen reacts with the body to produce a physical (and possibly mental) response - whether the person is awake or alseep, concious or unconcious. A psychosomatic allergen reacts with the brain to produce a mental (and possibly physical) response. I can’t find any studies online but I would bet that a psychosomatic allergy, while it may produce an identical physical reponse while the patient is concious, probably would not produce symptoms if the person is deeply asleep or unconcious. ---
**Author:** ![Echo\_Charlie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b5e925/32.png) [@Echo\_Charlie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Echo_Charlie)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2014, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-people-that-are-hypersensitive-to-perfumes-also-bothered-by-bad-smells-more/688286/32 "2014-05-14T15:01:33Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > There have been stores that I barely got in the door. Some of these places are so heavily scented I get a headache in short order from it, but the people I am with often say “really? I didn’t notice”. I tend to adapt to natural unpleasant smells more easily than manufactured fragrances. I had to sit next to a co-worker for half an hour who had laid it on so heavy, I could taste it on my tongue (it had a talcy/metalicy texture) and I ended up getting a cold because of it. The common cold is a viral infection. Your cold was unlikely to be caused by smelling perfume. ---
**Author:** ![Krouget](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b38774/32.png) [@Krouget](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Krouget)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2014, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-people-that-are-hypersensitive-to-perfumes-also-bothered-by-bad-smells-more/688286/33 "2014-05-14T15:08:13Z")
> [@Incubus](#): > > See I assumed if you’re hypersensitive to some perfume smell, you will be sensitive to other things of similar intensity. So in theory, an open bottle of whisky, rubbing alcohol on someone’s arm, or heavily seasoned foods would be as overpowering as some perfume on an co workers wrist. But it seems like people are conveniently selective in what they can and cannot stand. “Similar intensity” doesn’t account for the entire experience. Hypersensitivity varies by person, and in the case of fragrances, it more likely has to do with the chemicals used. I’m not sure how _convenience_ can even be attributed to this, other than not wanting to be around something you don’t like…which to me seems reasonable. > [@](#): > > I wonder if much more of this stuff is mental. My wife believes many hang ups like this are a kind of leaned helplessness- something smells/tastes gross to you, and you learn to chalk it up to “allergies” or some other factor beyond your control to avoid having to put the effort into learning to tolerate it. It’s less work to try to get others to conform to our neuroses vs dealing with them ourselves. Many experiences are mental, that’s certainly true. On the flip-side, many are legitimate and lesser understood physical hyper reactions. As I said before, you can actually _like_ a particular scent and still have a reaction to it-- it’s not exclusive to disliking anything, though its understandable how a person would draw a connection. As to it being less work, that doesn’t really make sense. If a stimuli doesn’t make you feel good, you withdraw from it. There’s little to nothing gained from trying to force mind over matter, for the sake of inhaling non-desirable scents and fragrances, especially if they don’t provide some otherwise significant benefit. ---
**Author:** ![Incubus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c68b51/32.png) [@Incubus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Incubus)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2014, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-people-that-are-hypersensitive-to-perfumes-also-bothered-by-bad-smells-more/688286/34 "2014-05-14T15:54:28Z")
> [@Krouget](#): > > “Similar intensity” doesn’t account for the entire experience. Hypersensitivity varies by person, and in the case of fragrances, it more likely has to do with the chemicals used. I’m not sure how _convenience_ can even be attributed to this, other than not wanting to be around something you don’t like…which to me seems reasonable. > Many experiences are mental, that’s certainly true. On the flip-side, many are legitimate and lesser understood physical hyper reactions. As I said before, you can actually _like_ a particular scent and still have a reaction to it-- it’s not exclusive to disliking anything, though its understandable how a person would draw a connection. > > As to it being less work, that doesn’t really make sense. If a stimuli doesn’t make you feel good, you withdraw from it. There’s little to nothing gained from trying to force mind over matter, for the sake of inhaling non-desirable scents and fragrances, especially if they don’t provide some otherwise significant benefit. I’m saying some people are hypersensitive in that stuff will bother them, but rather than learn to cope or adapt they’ll simply conclude they cannot tolerate the stimuli whatsoever and chalk it up to some involuntary reaction. That way at, say, a luncheon, they can commit microagressions toward other guests “You’re perfume is too strong, can you sit somewhere else?” There was a thread on the SDMB about it some time ago. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2014, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-people-that-are-hypersensitive-to-perfumes-also-bothered-by-bad-smells-more/688286/35 "2014-05-14T16:24:18Z")
> [@Echo\_Charlie](#): > > The common cold is a viral infection. Your cold was unlikely to be caused by smelling perfume. It is, indeed, but it seems to be pretty pervasive. Most of the time, I seem to be pretty resistant to it, but the intensity of the perfume and the extended period that I was _breathing_ (not merely _smelling_) it led to a weakening of my resistance – I was also pretty tired at the time. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2014, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-people-that-are-hypersensitive-to-perfumes-also-bothered-by-bad-smells-more/688286/36 "2014-05-14T16:38:01Z")
> [@Incubus](#): > > I’m saying some people are hypersensitive in that stuff will bother them, but rather than learn to cope or adapt they’ll simply conclude they cannot tolerate the stimuli whatsoever and chalk it up to some involuntary reaction. That way at, say, a luncheon, they can commit microagressions toward other guests “You’re perfume is too strong, can you sit somewhere else?” There was a thread on the SDMB about it some time ago. I remember that thread. The woman was a rude asshole. But a person who endures a headache or watery eyes without saying a word is a different type of person than someone acts like a rude asshole. There are way more people who are like the former than the latter. Are these people also the result of poor parenting? If I were wearing strong perfume and someone tapped me on the shoulder and politely asked if I could move downwind, I would have no problem accomodating them. In fact, I’d feel guilty and a bit embarrassed that my smell had offended them. It would be no different than if I had bad BO and someone asked if I could move my funk elsewhere. Do you think stinky people should be able to spread their funk without dealing with any negative fall-out? ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2014, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-people-that-are-hypersensitive-to-perfumes-also-bothered-by-bad-smells-more/688286/37 "2014-05-14T16:44:56Z")
My baby sister was hypersensitive to perfumes and such, but she didn’t seem unusually bothered by, say, baby poop; she’d just right in there to change her nieces and nephews. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2014, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-people-that-are-hypersensitive-to-perfumes-also-bothered-by-bad-smells-more/688286/38 "2014-05-14T16:50:20Z")
> [@Incubus](#): > > I’m saying some people are hypersensitive in that stuff will bother them, but rather than learn to cope or adapt they’ll simply conclude they cannot tolerate the stimuli whatsoever and chalk it up to some involuntary reaction. That way at, say, a luncheon, they can commit microagressions toward other guests “You’re perfume is too strong, can you sit somewhere else?” There was a thread on the SDMB about it some time ago. I would appreciate your explaining the “coping/adapting” mechanism you keep spewing; If you’re suggesting I go into a room full of Pall Mall fumes and “tough it out” or “man up,” like that’s going to “cure my sinus infection problems,” well, that’s just thoughtless and irresponsible. Further, where do you get off implying that some person has more of a right to infect the local environment with massive amounts of perfume–say, affecting five other people at a table–than the person that has a legitimate health concern has a right to breath in decent air? My not being able to tolerate most perfumes doesn’t affect the health of someone told to not wear the stench (churches are taking that position more and more), but someone’s cloud of chemicals can seriously mess up my head and that seems just as “microaggressive” (if not more) than my saying take your miasma somewhere else. Sorry (not really), but my health trumps your affectation. ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2014, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-people-that-are-hypersensitive-to-perfumes-also-bothered-by-bad-smells-more/688286/39 "2014-05-14T17:03:37Z")
> [@Incubus](#): > > I’m saying some people are hypersensitive in that stuff will bother them, but rather than learn to cope or adapt they’ll simply conclude they cannot tolerate the stimuli whatsoever and chalk it up to some involuntary reaction. That way at, say, a luncheon, they can commit microagressions toward other guests “You’re perfume is too strong, can you sit somewhere else?” There was a thread on the SDMB about it some time ago. Some people are looking to get into interpersonal drama. If it weren’t perfume, it would have been something else. She was just a rude jerk. Why on earth would any sane person LOOK for opportunities to commit microagressions? I assure you that for every person who you hear say something, there are plenty of others who are finding ways to cope. See my anecdote about my next-door neighbor above. I could have asked her to use another cleaning product but I didn’t because I could cope with that one. If I did have to ask her, I would have, and she would have gladly changed cleaners because she’s a nice person who wouldn’t want to make me feel ill over something so easily avoidable. [Here’s another example from years back when I was more sensitive to things](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=195183) and was trying to find a way to cope with a minimum of fuss. We all know that there are some people who will claim they have certain afflictions for the attention, and there are some people who like causing interpersonal problems. They are often the same people. But what does that have to do with all the people who have genuine sensitivities to one degree or another and who are just trying to go about their business and only say something when they have to? Maybe you could just admit that you’re wrong? ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2014, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-people-that-are-hypersensitive-to-perfumes-also-bothered-by-bad-smells-more/688286/40 "2014-05-14T19:48:30Z")
The scent of perfumes and that of flowers like roses and daphne are two entirely different things. Some flowers do reek (to me), however. E.g., **FtGKid1** got **MrsFtG** a bouquet of lilies. I can barely stand to be in the same room with them. But that is more of a “something’s starting to rot” smell and not snot inducing. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-people-that-are-hypersensitive-to-perfumes-also-bothered-by-bad-smells-more/688286.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-people-that-are-hypersensitive-to-perfumes-also-bothered-by-bad-smells-more/688286.md?page=3)