Posted by alexandra_k on January 20, 2005, at 16:11:49
In reply to Re: Body Odor » alexandra_k, posted by TF on January 20, 2005, at 9:43:49
Hey there. Thanks for thinking about this.
> If someone that's completely unbiased actually admits that I smell, clearly and without the use of double-talk, I can start looking for the cause in earnest.
Ok. Yes, I hear you. There could be conditions or whatever that a doctor could help you with.
On the other hand, I worry a bit that the only people you may be willing to consider 'completely unbiased' may be those who confirm that you do smell.
I mean what would it take for you to consider them unbiased? A random survey? What if you asked several people off the street? People with no reason to lie, would they be unbiased - or only if they confirmed that you do smell?
> One thing I'm sure of, is that I don't want to make people uncomfortable or angry, which is their usual reaction to me. This odor seems to border on driving people to violence, and if it really exists, it'd probably be in my best interests just to stay out of their way if and until it gets fixed.
Ok, so you feel like people respond to you with discomfort and anger. Lately, since stopping taking the resperidal you think people may be inclined to act in a violent manner towards you? It must be really hard to believe that people are responding to you in that way. I wouldn't like it at all. I would feel like the world was a really unsafe place :-(
I wonder though, whether you are trying to work out why it is that you perceive people to be responding to you with discomfort and anger. That the hypothesis that you smell is something that would explain the way you really do take them to be reacting to you. Maybe when you perceive them to be reacting to you in this way then this is the sort of evidence that you take to confirm your belief that you smell.
Just a thought...
I wonder whether there may be something else going on (other than your odour) that may explain why it is that you take people to be responding to you in that way.
I have been on respiridal before. I have this kind of rapid cycling mood problem. As part of that sometimes I find that I think that everyone thinks I am just wonderful (as do I), whereas at other times I really believe that people must loathe and despise me. The Respiridal helped me with my mood which meant that I didn't interpret people as responding to me in that way any longer.
You do say that you have been feeling that peoples reactions to you have been worse since coming off that medication. I wonder whether your feeling that others are responding to you with anger may have gotten worse. It is so absolutely amazing to me that taking little pills can have such an effect on peoples mood, and on the beliefs that people come to in order to explain how they are feeling. Nobody knows how they work in terribly much detail. I am not sure that they 'numb' the mind - though I agree that it can feel like that at times! What I wonder is whether they may mute or tone down emotional responses a bit. Maybe you don't have such strong feelings that others are responding to you in a negative way when you are on the meds. Maybe they just seem to 'mute' emotions in comparison to how our emotions are before taking the meds. Maybe we are more 'normal' in our responses afterwards (maybe that is just what it is like to be healthy!)
Why did you stop taking the medication? Were the side effects pretty bad or something?
I would say that instead of looking for 'unbiased' people you may be better to take the medication for a bit. You may find that after a period of taking it you don't think people are responding to you with repulsion and anger. Or maybe the feeling will lessen. If that happens, then it would seem to me that that would count as evidence that you don't smell.
No unbiased observer required :-)I would be interested to know what you think of this...
poster:alexandra_k
thread:442588
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20050117/msgs/444776.html