Re: Asymmetry Is Beauty

Hey 61901,

Since my odor gets bad during flight when I eat onboard, I get very self-conscious of my breath and tend to brush my teeth at least twice in the lavatory using the bottle water the flight attendants give out.  I always carry a toothbrush and paste with me in my purse.  I avoid talking to people as a result in the plane, so normally, I don't get strong reactions.

However, when our older son, who has the strong odor condition used to travel with us on family vacations as a teenager, he just usually would not speak much either.  I think he just acquired an 'I don't give a sh__" attitude, and ignored people around him, and he would go ahead travel anyway as opposed to giving up going on the trip. 

In fact, now that you mentioned it, he always said that he felt a great deal of anxiety about flying, but he said the anxiety stemmed from being above ground.  He wouldn't let that hold him back, as he always tried to face his fears head on.  I wonder, now that we are discussing this, if his fear and anxiety was odor related at some level, and he just thought it was fear of being off the ground.  Now that his odor is under control, he is not afraid of flying, and he went to Amsterdam by himself to meet some friends, and was planning on going to California from Miami as well.  Perhaps there was some subconscious underlying odor-related anxiety there, who knows.

All I can suggest to you is to acquire the 'I don't give a sh__' attitude when the odor and the situation is out of your hands, and go and enjoy seeing the world. 

Have you been trying any odor-management protocol to help you control your odor? 

María