The key to knowing you really have this condition and that it is not in your head - very important post for everyone to read!

 

DISCLAIMER:  I am not a doctor or medical professional of any kind, and nothing here is medical advice. 

UPDATE: I am going to be making a post soon on what a proper hygiene routine looks like. Make sure you check out that post to rule that out as a possible alternative to having TMAU.

I think the vast majority of people here really have TMAU or a related condition. However, I am sure there is a certain percentage of people here who believe they have this condition, but it is really all in their head. These people can be CURED and quickly, which is why identifying them has to be a top priority.

The key to knowing this condition is real and not in your head is to have a history of comments made about it. You MUST have a history of very clear comments about a bad smell made either in your presence, or better yet, right to your face, in order to conclude you really have this. The comments need to be ongoing as well, to rule out a past odor issue that no longer exits. I think most people here really have this condition, because they have this history of comments.

It is perfectly natural to start paying attention to other reactions like nose rubbing, coughing, ect. - but only AFTER comments establish the problem exists. Comments should be the foundation for thinking you have this condition in the first place. If the foundation for thinking you have this condition are things like people rubbing their nose and coughing - then you probably don't really have this!

What happens is that most people are too nice to say anything, but there are ALWAYS a few not-nice people who have no inhibitions about making comments about this either in your presence, or directly to your face. The upside of this bad behavior, is that it confirms you actually have this problem.

By the way, this is why the idea of significantly more public awareness of this condition might be a bad idea. I fear that mentally vulnerable people will get the seed of this idea planted in their head, and notice people coughing, rubbing their nose, ect. and becoming convinced they have this. You could have a situation where these delusional people outnumber the real sufferers by 50-100 to 1. That would obviously be a disaster, and it needs to be prevented.

In my case, it was other people rather forcefully making me aware that I had this problem, which is how I knew there was a problem. It was never based on looking for people coughing and scratching their nose around me. I did not start paying attention to those things at all until I thought I was cured, and was trying to confirm it.

Now, if you are convinced you have this condition but nobody every makes any comments, then you should have no restrictions on your life because of this. Even if it really is the case that you have this condition and nobody says anything, then you should be able to live a perfectly normal life with this. The problems with living a normal life come when people start saying things like 'it smells like shit in here', and you no longer want to be around people unless you have no choice. If nobody ever makes comments, then even if you are really convinced you have this condition, there is no reason for you to have any restrictions on your life at all. You might feel a little bad about imposing some unpleasantness on others, but that is not enough of a reason to have any restrictions on what you do, meaning this situation shouldn't be a big deal.

Being able to smell yourself is unusual, and is a good sign that you are actually having olfactory hallucinations (smelling things that aren't actually there). If people make comments about a bad smell then this is not the case, but otherwise it likely is. This would then lead to someone concluding that every time someone coughs it is because of this.

I cured my condition a long time ago through dietary change, and there is no possibility it was in my head due to the extensive history of comments about it, sometimes made in my presence, and sometimes made directly to my face. Having said that, I would be THRILLED if somehow it turned out it was all in my head (Olfactory Reference Syndrome). I could eat whatever I wanted, and there would be all sorts of other great benefits. It would be the best day ever if that happened. So, anyone who really has this condition will be wishing that it is in their head, for all sorts of reasons. The fact that TMAU and related conditions are usually incurable is the biggest reason, but not the only one. So hoping you don't have ORS is a major sign...of having ORS.

If you have ORS, then you can snap out of this and be truly cured! You won't even have a real past history of this condition that can cause continuing problems. No dietary restrictions, no nothing. I do not think that having ORS would mean that you have serious mental problems. I think it means the idea of having a malodor condition somehow got planted in your head, and the fact that there is a huge psychological barrier to telling someone they smell bad, combined with the fact that you can't smell yourself, led to ORS. You started interpreting every cough and nose scratch as evidence of a body odor disorder, and this foundation got established and built upon.

Another cause of ORS could be there was some kind of bad smell for a period of time that went away, but you don't know this. So there was a foundation of comments, but the comments stopped. There would be no reason to consider that you have any mental issues, if this was what happened.

Having any serious mental illness, like schizophrenia or psychosis, or anything that makes you unable to fully trust your senses is a major red flag for ORS. If you found out about TMAU, and the idea you have this only came about AFTER, that is a huge red flag. People reading about diseases online and deciding they have them could certainly lead to this. If someone posts something and there is a question about their mental state, click their profile to browse their posts for evidence of issues.

I said that I think the vast majority of people here really have TMAU or a related condition, but there is one troubling fact: This is that every single real life meet-up I have heard about involves the people being unable to smell each other. TMAU really refers to malodor conditions in general, and there are lots of different smells, so its not like everyone has the same smell that they are noseblind to. This could point to the issue being intermittent for most people, but there is a chance it means ORS is more common than I thought. There is even a chance it means that the mental barrier to directly telling someone they smell bad is so powerful that it even comes into play with meet-ups. but this is the least likely scenario.

One last thing, imagine how tragic it would be if someone thought they had this condition for decades before snapping out of it and realizing it was ORS. Imagine if they were now too old to make for all the lost time, this would be even worse then if they really did have TMAU.

My biggest concern for people who are imagining all this is for TEENAGERS who are here. I am not saying that most of them don't really have TMAU, but being young has to be the biggest red flag of all for the possibility that a self-diagnosed illness is not actually real. If you look at the people who falsely convinced themselves that they have Tourette Syndrome recently, I think they were mostly teens.

One final red flag is if this condition emerges long after the start of puberty, which would be rare. It is possible that the problem emerges at puberty and is unnoticed for a long period of time though.

Here is a video from someone with ORS I saw the other day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMU6vXn9Nx8

There all sorts of related videos on youtube, and I have read accounts of people with ORS on different forums as well.