How do people not know they smell?

[sioermt]

I’m not talking “it’s hot, I’ve been sweating and headed home for a shower” or I’m disabled and can’t shower so have a sink wash or even showering every day

went to the supermarket today and was hit with a wall of body odour from someone in front of me to the point in caught in my throat. Every aisle they went down stunk of it, people were moving away and looking who the smell was from. It was acrid beyond belief. it was a couple who were driving and seemed perfectly normal apart from this smell as if they hadn’t showered in months

It could be anything really.

Nose blindness

Mental health issue

Sensory issues with water

Hoarding at home blocking off bathtub

I think they do often know and don’t care.

How do you know they don't fit either of your categories, or have a physical cause, or a mental health cause, or another cause?

What do you want from your thread - permission to judge and dislike?

They might know and not be able to do anything about it. I had a friend like that. Drop dead gorgeous and drop dead stinky too, poor thing.

There are a lot of them about. Some people just don’t wash, there’s no reason they just don’t.

In this day and age it’s not necessary to smell of BO

Who are all these people you know well enough to know for certain they have no reason?

You must move in very specific circles to know so many people so well who all have this rare problem.

I worked with a man who didn't use any deodorant or anti-perspirant. I suspect it was a cultural thing. He had clean clothes daily but he stank of BO. HR spoke to him after several clients complained.

i don’t but they were both capable of shopping and driving. I have disabilities myself and showering is one of the first things to go if I’m having a bad time but I have honestly never smelled anything like it and wondered what the point was they would be asked to leave. I was at the opposite end of the aisle and would have left if it hadn’t been Lidl which is a pain to get out without buying anything

I have zero sense of smell, never have.

Im terrified of being smelly because I would never know unless someone told me. I probably go too far the other way.

What have shopping and driving got to do with washing?

my ex has episodes of mental illness and when he’s deteriorating self care is the first thing to go. He can still do other stuff.

I’d say a good proportion of people who chronically smell either have mental health issues or disabilities or live in poverty. There are people who don’t give a shit but not many.

No culture bans deodorant. All cultures exhort cleanliness.

It was more just a conversation like anything on here, I was thinking as I was shopping that people with sensory issues around smell must find it horrendous and when does it become an issue that stores wouldn’t let people in because the whole place was affected

I’ve worked as a carer and I genuinely have never come across someone smelling so badly even one of my clients that hadn’t showered in years

Take it you’ve never lived or worked in a Joe Public facing role in a deprived area?

Mumsnet can be so blinkered by political correctness sometimes that they fail to admit that a lot of people can just be scummy for no apparent reason.

There’s a guy who works in the little express supermarket near me and he stinks out the whole shop. It’s awful.
If I understand correctly BO is old stale sweat? So either the body hasn’t been washed or the clothes, or both. I had to walk back out last time it was so bad.

The fact that they were a couple makes it stranger to me. Maybe they are a couple because they both have something in common that makes it possible for them to smell this way and make no effort to do something about it, or they found one another because one of them has no sense of smell and the other doesn't care. Otherwise, it seems odd that you could live with someone and not let them know that they need to do more to fight the BO.

If you're well enough to drive around and shop, there's no reason you can't do something to avoid the level of smell the OP has described. You might not smell fresh as a daisy, but you wouldn't absolutely reek. Would any medical condition even make someone smell that bad if they were still trying to combat it? Mental illness might make you not notice or care, but again, if you're in a couple, most people would probably either be doing the shopping alone or telling their partner that they need to clean themselves. I'd guess that few people in the developed world are so impoverished that they can't avoid extreme BO if they try.

Our local supermarket (tiny rural town) is like this every evening. There are a few people in town who just don’t wash. They just don’t, ever. They never learned to take care of themselves and it seems normal to them.

So you don't know they have no reason, because you don't know them, so you are just making things up about strangers.

I have lived in many places and worked in roles where I meet a wide range of people. I am not blinkered.

How do you know both of them were drivers?

I drove in just behind them and the female got out the drivers seat. I left before them and was in my car on the phone as the male got into the drivers seat
it’s outing but I noticed due to the car being very specific as someone had posted asking about it on social media a day ago (specific graphics on the car)

I used to work in a council rent office and could never quite get my head around how many people didn't brush their teeth before leaving the house in the morning.

So many people are just gross.

I don’t think it’s as simple as being scummy for no reason. A decision not to bathe is a decision to hurt your own well-being. There must be a reason driving it.

I worked with someone who was lovely, very well turned out, clean and ironed outfits but who had this awful clinging lingering smell - not BO but like damp washing and wet dog. It made you catch yourself if you were downwind or not expecting it and hung around in the room after she left. It’s sad because she was very capable but I expect that the smell was the reason she didn’t have her contract renewed.

If that’s the case they’re probably unwell.

I think you’d be surprised at the number of people who were never taught how to properly take care of themselves.

There’s a young lad who works in a local shop who absolutely stinks of putrid BO and that sour damp smell of clothes that have been left in the machine too long. It’s quite literally eye watering. Obviously I don’t know the reason but you’d think his boss would have a quiet word.