The world should be unscented.

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I just have to rant and need advice....

I work in a pharmacy, now that I'm on break from school, and I am having a really hard time getting through a shift. I recently moved to a store closer to my home, in a suburb, and EVERYONE and EVERYTHING is scented! I can't take it. Why do people feel the need to wear perfume, with scented lotion, and with scented hair products? Every time a customer comes to the counter, or another employee walks by me, I start to sneeze and cough and get overstimulated. Then I forget what I'm doing and start giving away free products to customers, because I'm too zoned to ring things out. Oh, and god forbid if I have to pee. The bathroom has a big plug in air freshener, a candle, spray, and soap that practically makes me vomit. I have been home for 4 hours and still feel sick. My college clinic, where I do all my rotations, is a scent free facility. Why can't every work place be like that???? To make matters worse, I'm standing under a ton of florescent lights all day long I don't know how to recoup once I get home. Any ideas on how to get through my day, and/or how to bounce back after work?

Totally get what you mean! I find I hold my breath quite frequently these days and have to cover my mouth so I can breath clean, non smelling air.

Women spray far too much parfume/body spray!

No idea on how to not be around it, esp at work, but have a cloth handy so you can cover your mouth and get some smell free air? Take frequent trips outside to get fresh air too?

When I lived with my ex, he was a trans gender guy and we still lived together while he was changing to female. She would spray SO much body spray on herself before she went out and it made me want to puke every time. I'd have to go sit outside with my dog until the smell drifted off.

I think the best way to recoup and recover when you leave work is to reduce the sensory experience that you have control over at home as much as possible so your stress level is low as possible. This can mean reducing TV viewing, computer usage and the other things in the environment at home that can reduce our capability to recover from sensory over stimulation. This is more in reference to light sensitivity, you probably have already taken care of any strong smells at home. Beyond that meditation, exercise, yoga, relaxing music, whatever helps you relax.

These days its hard to find a place to work without flourscent lights, sunglasses inside work for somepeople, if you can still see well enough to do your job. It sounds like this is a horrible work environment for your sensitivity to smells. The best solution would be to find another work environment; not an easy solution. I assume everybody understands the next solution but my wife didn't and she's forty, so I will offer this short term accomodation to the issue with smell.

We've never had indoor cats but now have some. My wife has a very sensitive sense of smell and she finds it particularly offensive to change the litter. I suggested that she breathe out of her mouth instead of her nose. When a person does this, even if they don't hold their nose, they are not capable of smell. Even though she could not smell the litter box the thought of breathing it in through her mouth was still offensive to her. In case you are sensitive to taste, say a horrible tasting syrup medication you might have to take, if you don't breathe through your nose when you take the medication you won't be able to taste it.

So if you can't find another work environment, you could use this remedy in short term instances when a fellow employee passes by you or at any point that you smell a particularly strong perfume, lotion etc. You could also do this when you visit the restroom. I've also worked in a public environment and found certain customers perfumes overwhelming when dealing with them. This is the remedy I used and it worked for me. Also worked for me in every public restroom.

Thank you both for your suggestions For some reason, I didn’t even think to go outside (I think I will do that), or breath through my mouth. Probably because I can’t think very well in my work environment. I seem to be allergic to everything too, but maybe if I breathe through my mouth more, I won’t sneeze as much :/ It is worth a try.

As for after work, when I was doing my student teaching placement the past few months ( it was just as bad), I would come home and take 20 min showers to calm myself. I was taking too many too often and my skin got really dry. I think maybe I will take 30 min to just sit in a quiet, dark room after work and see if that helps.

I know there are obviously other people that experience the same kinds of sensitivities in the workplace, but I rarely meet anyone else like me at any of my jobs. It makes it worse, because no one understands and no one is considerate of my needs

An unscented world might be OK if we could keep the smell of chocolate and coffee.

Indeed.

And rain.

I have a problem with scents too. Cat food - eugh!
Last time I was in the city I could smell everything. It was horrible.

Another Smell Christmas Trees

Here here.

I use unscented everything. So should the world.

Christmas trees, chocolate, and coffee are natural scents, respectively, and I do love them If only people would just rub trees on their skin, sprinkle cocoa in their hair, and bath in coffee beans, instead of smothering their bodies in scented chemicals….

I know what you mean. I really hate walking through the perfume section of department stores. There are very few perfumes that I like to smell, and those are very subtle.

Would someone please explain to me society's obsession with Febreze? I understand people think it has no odor and drench things they THINK are smelly with it in an attempt to neutralize the offending odors. Well, guess what, people. I can smell Febreze and it makes me gag.

I've been in peoples' "perfect" homes. Everything is in its place and the candles are lit. The coffeecake is on the table and coffee is almost ready. One problem. Everything smells like a barrel of Febreze leaked all over the place. I tell the host that I have to go and why. To hell with manners.

Febreze smells like industrial chemicals, people.

ROFLMOA.

I know exactly what you mean! It's called marketing. Somehow, a significant number of people attach a significant amount of self worth to ensuring that everything is just as TV tells us it should be.

I love scents, certain ones. Others give me horrible headaches that leave me crippled for hours or the whole day.

I often get headaches and even throw up from artficial perfumes - at my waitressing job, I've had to hand a couple tables off to other servers because of the amount of perfume the woman was wearing. Is this a sensory issue - if so, why wouldn't strong natural scents have the same effect?

It is definitely a sensory issue. Are you hypersensitive to scent too or just strong perfume? I swear lately my threshold for scent has gone haywire. I can't seem to handle any kind of smell and am hypersensitive to it. Strong natural scents bother me as well; certain woods, certain flowers. I think though that strong offensive natural scents are not something I'm around as much and are easier to avoid.

Question to all: if someone sneezed every time you walked by, wouldn't you get the hint that they are allergic to your perfume and be courteous enough not to drown yourself in it every day? How about after they candidly tell you that they are allergic to you? Would you care then???