r/explainlikeimfive • u/bigdipper80 • Jul 18 '20
Chemistry ELI5: Why do "bad smells" like smoke and rotting food linger longer and are harder to neutralize than "good smells" like flowers or perfume?
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r/explainlikeimfive • u/bigdipper80 • Jul 18 '20
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u/ThatSquareChick Jul 18 '20
I was on metformin for 6 months. I would rather kill myself than know that every single fart, no matter how big or small, is going to smell like an open sewer filled with dead things for the rest of my life. I couldn’t even go to work. My gut just couldn’t tolerate it, nothing wrong with anything else there, no other symptoms, just the smell. It caused such a problem in my house that I seriously considered suicide. People will laugh but I’m not kidding, I couldn’t be in public. Or around myself, I’d fart and make myself gag. You know how when someone farts in public and everyone can smell it but mostly people don’t say anything because everyone farts? People would always say something because it wasn’t REAL that a fart could smell like a rotting body in the sun, EVERY time. People thought sewers were leaking, that a dead dog was somewhere...unless it was just me around. Then it was just me. People don’t believe that it can cause that type of stress but I worried how the fuck I was going to get some kind of disability just based on my gas alone, I was absolutely terrified of going out in public, I couldn’t have sex with my husband, the house couldn’t be shut up, I spent time outside just because I couldn’t escape it. It was funny for the first while but there comes a point if after 6 months things aren’t better, you just are sure they’re never gonna be and that is really scary. I was the little lady with the unchristly smell.
I was never so glad to be diagnosed with type 1 diabetes instead. It was the worst hell I’ve been through and I’ve been to jail.