Posted by TF on April 7, 2005, at 21:42:08
In reply to Re: Body Odor » TF, posted by Mark H. on January 26, 2005, at 17:52:40
Well, this problem has been bothering me lately, so I figured I'd update. I realise that posting this thread in a psychological forum, and presenting two possibilities, the possibility of delusional disorder and of an actual odor.
I'm as sure as a person can be of anything, that I have an odor. I've been seeing a doctor as well as a therapist in the center I'm visiting, and niether has flat-out denied that I had any sort of smell. The doctor said that it may or may not be true, but technically I'm delusional because all of the evidence I have is circumstantial... As if my mind should be a court of law. What evidence isn't circumstantial by his reasoning? By his understanding of the phrase, if a thousand people had told me that I had an objectionable odor, and I couldn't smell it myself, it'd still be circumstantial. People have told me. People have dropped strong hints that anyone with half a brain and all of their senses intact would pick up on. Yet I can't be more than 99.9% sure that there is an odor. It's starting to go beyond the problem of having a terrible odor, and the social/emotional complications that spring from that, to a total distrust for everyone that tells me otherwise. I'm getting bitter, and starting to hate my family. They must think they're martyrs. Oh call the Vatican, I've found a host of saints in my very own home. Suffering as they try console me with their words... well their bodies tell the truth.
I'm not as selfless as I might make myself out to be at times. I couldn't care less if people are suffering from any sort of odor. I care more what they think of me as a result of it. Even so, I'm beginning to hate them too. Half an hour, an hour, or even two. That's it for them. Then they can deride and forget. Meanwhile I've sentenced myself to isolation just to make these selfish, arrogant mongrels comfortable.
I want to know where I can hear the truth, because it obviously isn't going to come from this therapist. The doctor deemed me technically delusional, although the odor may exist. Is there something wrong with trusting solely in my instincts, even if they happen to be right? A person might as well trust in their gut if they don't have much in the way of intellect.
The good doctor can screw logic in the eye-socket, that's all I have to say.
I guess I'll never know the truth.
poster:TF
thread:442588
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20050329/msgs/481385.html