The smell of fear

September 9, 2008 4:27 PM

I use the same deodorant/antiperspirant every day, approx. the same type of fabrics etc every day. But I find that on days I teach (college level) I come home with a distinctive sharp smell. I'm one of those teachers that has classroom anxiety. Is this the "smell of fear"? Is there such a thing? Is there a way to stop it?
posted by media_itoku to health & fitness (17 comments total)

Oh, man, I had the same thing when I was a professor. Performing that recruits stress hormones and, yeah, it doesn't smell good.

I got a prescription for Drysol, which an Rx-only antiperspirant. There are now "clinical strength" OTC deodorants, but they don't work as well, IMO. Drysol hurts to apply (if you are a woman who shaves) (...or a man who shaves...?) but it works.

Another option that I did not choose was Botox injections into the armpit to prevent sweating. This is used in people with hyperhydrosis.

I know there are underarm pads that are sold - I never tried these myself. Seems like a disaster waiting to happen...one slips out in front of the students, you get PTSD, etc.

Good luck and hope this helps.
posted by Punctual at 4:47 PM on September 9, 2008

Is there another factor that you are not considering? Perhaps you need to walk further to and from the parking lot/bus stop, etc? Is your anxiety creating some sort of unfortunate loop ("I'm anxious, is my antiperspirant working, should I be anxious that my antiperspirant is not working?").
posted by Morrigan at 4:48 PM on September 9, 2008

I'm partial to the theory that you either sweat more under anxiety OR the composition of sweat is different when it's not produced due to overheating, but to stress/anxiety. I don't have science to back me up, but from my holistic point of view I know this has been the case for me and it just makes plain sense.
posted by saxamo at 4:52 PM on September 9, 2008 [1 favorite]

Professor here. Same thing. Sweat a lot while teaching class, regardless of temperature. Smelly, too. And I don't have classroom anxiety, but my sweat glands do.
posted by signal at 5:00 PM on September 9, 2008 [1 favorite]

There are buckets of science on this - even as a type people in labl coats are swabbing the swampy areas of test subjects to diving things about their inner workings.

In your case, it could be the walk, an extra flight of stairs. Either way, Punctual (nothing type-A about that name, surely a low-stress human) has the cure!
posted by Lesser Shrew at 5:02 PM on September 9, 2008

I don't know about the anxiety and body odor, but I always have good luck with using original gold Dial bar soap and Secret. Secret sells unscented if you don't want to smell like a flower. I also hear that getting the recommended amount of zinc prevents foul body odor.

I think it's a good idea shower in the morning and scrub down with Dial, no matter how clean you think you are by taking showers the evening before. Showering in the evenings might be fine for some people, but you'll always be fresher when you shower on the mornings you teach. Natural, breathable fibers can't hurt, either. Good luck.
posted by Fairchild at 5:24 PM on September 9, 2008

Not to say you don't shower the morning of, just a suggestion if you don't.
posted by Fairchild at 5:25 PM on September 9, 2008

Just mentioning that if you change deodorants or use a lot more of it, etc, be careful about the aluminum content - it's not bad for you necessarily (well, it might be, I have no idea), but the aluminum in deodorants/antiperspirants reacting with human sweat is what creates those nasty yellow pit stains in clothing. Depending on what you wear that may not be a concern, or you can get aluminum-free deodorant/antiperspirants from places like Trader Joe's (it works very well for an OTC, but I don't know how it would match up against the ones recommended above, or given your problem), or you might have to live with it and head it off at the pass with undershirts and stain removers, I dunno. Just wanted to warn you!
posted by bettafish at 5:34 PM on September 9, 2008

I recently began teaching and it's definitely giving me hypertension; however, I don't sweat. Why? Because I started using Drysol about 8 years ago. I only had to use it for a year and now I don't sweat under my arms at all. I still wear deodorant, but antiperspirant isn't necessary for me. Drysol is amazing. Get it. You can also get it without a prescription from online Canadian drugstores.
posted by HotPatatta at 5:46 PM on September 9, 2008

Anecdote: my gentleman-friend has very severe panic and anxiety disorders.....when he's doing OK and not suffering, he smells one way. When his anxiety is really high, his body takes on a distinctly different, very sharp odor that is really noticable to me. I've always attributed it to "fear" - or maybe adrenaline? IANAD.
posted by tristeza at 5:55 PM on September 9, 2008

I get it too. But I don't mind it--to me it's the smell of thinking on your feet.
posted by Morpeth at 5:55 PM on September 9, 2008

My wife also teaches and had the sweating problem, partially due to nerves, mostly due to the (as she says) unbearable heat they keep the rooms at. She had really good luck with the CertainDri stuff they sell in stores like CVS and Walgreens. In fact, she rarely sweats at all now and she stopped using the stuff months ago (it got painful one day many months in and she stopped using it then).
posted by JonahBlack at 6:37 PM on September 9, 2008

Huh! I'd been attributing that sharp patchouli-like smell to all the coffee I've been drinking. But maybe it's stress. Theres a correlation in there that's hard to tease out.

Anyway, I'm a huge fan of unscented Mitchum anti-persperant (max strength men's solid in the stick form - no gel, no roll-on). It kept me odorless through my most hormonal and self-conscious teen years. I also loved their old slogan:"So effective you could skip a day!" I think Tussy (antipersperant in a small jar) may have a slogan implying that their goo makes showers almost entirely superfluous, but I've never actually tried the stuff.
posted by abirae at 7:22 PM on September 9, 2008

You can order Drysol here.
posted by HotPatatta at 7:55 PM on September 9, 2008

I think this is the difference between two types of sweat glands. From the Mayo Clinic website:

Your skin has two types of sweat glands: eccrine glands and apocrine glands. Eccrine glands occur over most of your body and open directly onto the surface of your skin. Apocrine glands develop in areas abundant in hair follicles, such as on your scalp, armpits and groin.

You have between 2 million and 5 million eccrine sweat glands. When your body temperature rises, your autonomic nervous system stimulates these glands to secrete fluid onto the surface of your skin, where it cools your body as it evaporates. This fluid (perspiration) is composed mainly of water and salt (sodium chloride) and contains trace amounts of other electrolytes — substances that help regulate the balance of fluids in your body — as well as substances such as urea.

Apocrine glands, on the other hand, secrete a fatty sweat directly into the tubule of the gland. When you're under emotional stress, the wall of the tubule contracts and the sweat is pushed to the surface of your skin where bacteria begin breaking it down. Most often, it's the bacterial breakdown of apocrine sweat that causes an odor.

A number of factors can affect how much you sweat as well as your sweat's smell. Certain foods, drugs or medical conditions can cause excessive sweating, whereas drugs or conditions may interfere with your ability to perspire normally.

When you exercise or get hot, your eccrine sweat glands all over your body -- inlcuding your armpits -- produce sweat. But when you're anxious, the apocrine sweat glands also produce that fatty sweat which has a distinctive odour. And IIRC, deodorants can mask the relatively subtle scent of eccrine sweat, but can't do much for apocrine sweat. If it's really bad, your only solution is to block the production of sweat with some appropriate product, as suggested above.
posted by maudlin at 8:01 PM on September 9, 2008 [2 favorites]

I definitely notice the difference between exertion/heat sweat and stress sweat. The first smells innocuous, even pleasing if I associate it with having accomplished something. The latter is acrid and decidedly unpleasant. Maudlin's explanation makes perfect sense to me.

My triggers are social—even interacting with shop workers can trigger the unpleasant smell for me. Any kind of public performance is absolutely going to produce it, and lucky me, for the whole week before my period every day ends in a funk. I use only deodorant (since antiperspirants give me a rash), but on my special days, I use anti-bacterial wipes and reapplication of deodorant part way through the day to give a reboot to the relevant area.

This helps somewhat, but it does depend on the fabric I am wearing. Polyester jacket linings seem incapable of giving up the stress smell, even after cleaning. I try to stick with a cotton or other easily washable fabric, at least as a base layer, under my dressier clothes.

Of course the odor is probably more noticeable for you than for others, so don't worry too much. I know that I am super sensitive to my own smell, and it bothers me enough that I can't relax after a stressful day until I have cleaned up. My husband doesn't seem to think it is a big deal, and he gets closer to me than any of the people I have been dealing with in my day!

Good luck to you!
posted by rintj at 9:55 PM on September 9, 2008

My deoderizing life changed when I started using baking soda. At the beginning of my shower I put about a quarter teaspoon on my fingers with a little water, smear it under arms and surrounding area. After the shower I usually put some more on in the same way, let it air dry while shaving etc. I've never seen any residue on my clothing.

Baking soda is cheap and safe; the only thing a branded product brings to the table is a more convenient packaging, more waste, and more expense.

Other suggestions I've read but haven't tried are rubbing alcohol and hydrogen peroxide.
posted by maniabug at 8:21 AM on September 10, 2008