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

I am autistic and my kids are autistic. They don’t like washing or didn’t when young. Washing is non negotiable, even for the PDAer.

To the people complaining about how it’s not really the smelly people’s fault and they’re probably disabled, well so am I! And a smell that I hate can sometimes stay in my nose for hours. It’s part of my sensory difficulties.

Why do their disabled needs and feelings trump mine?

Lots of my generation didn’t have bathrooms. Once a week in a tin bath filled from kettles was all some had, or a weekly visit to the public baths. I suppose some didn’t get shown at home, but once in secondary school, we were taught about personal hygiene. I was lucky to grow up in a house with a bathroom, bathed probably twice a week. Our first flat when we got married in the 1960s didn’t have one, strip washes at the kitchen sink were the norm, and the washing went to the laundrette. We managed to smell clean enough then, and it’s so much easier now, very few don’t have access to soap and water, and there’s lots of advertising about shampoo, deodorant etc.

I think part of my point was that all this seemed completely normal - Seeing you use the word ‘neglect’ now is jarring though I know now that that is what it was.

Maybe if I was not now a fifty something professional married to someone who had to teach me basic self care in my twenties (How many women can say their DH taught them to bathe every day, tie their shoelaces properly and organised their first dentist appointment?) I dread to think what my life would be like now.

Perhaps like one of my neighbours, living in one room in an otherwise derelict house with only an outside water supply and a camping stove. To some that is completely normal, and I think a lot of the people we are talking about in this thread live such lives.

It is a scary thought! Although I think I’m more likely to be guilty of over-spraying perfume 😂

This is so true.
I once had a job that required me to visit nursing homes to provide a service.
Some were fine but some smelled so bad that the smell of stale urine made your eyes water.
I learned to put a smear of TCP under my nose when I visited. After a while it wasn't so bad and the staff didn't seem to be bothered by it.
I can only say that after a while, maybe they became "nose blind" and didn't smell it any more.

Yes. many people do need help. That’s the point.

In my case, getting undressed takes a couple minutes because of disabling arthritis, stripper pants might help haha.