Smells in Malls

[Daffodil]

hi all. so for many many years, i have noticed that after being in a mall for an hour or so, i start to get really sad....depressed...melancholy...kind of sicker in a way. it is an awful feeling. i always thought that somehow, malls triggered memories or thoughts or something? or i had some kind of existential crises in malls? lol but today i was in a mall and it happened again.....and i remembered @Sushi telling me that malls have a formaldehyde? smell and that i should not go in them. i realize now that maybe it is the chemical smells that are doing it....causing inflammation in my CNS...because inflammation in my CFS makes everything so much worse, including the depression, and ruminations. its the smells! so for me, it isnt the same kind of chemical sensitivity that others have but an insidious subtle one ....it causes this histamine thing.....? some sort of inflammatory response. does anyone else have this?

 

[Rufous McKinney]

some sort of inflammatory response. does anyone else have this

I have to avoid touching things in stores, as the chemicals make my skin crawl.

I'm imaging the phenomenal amount of outgassing plastics and cleaning solutions and everything else.

I avoid malls, mostly, and know how to get in and out of one corner without entering the giant scene.

 

[Wolfcub]

I'm not really very chemical-sensitive (thankfully) Though there are some perfumes that I can't abide....that sort of "throw me backwards" . They are usually about where there are people. I always think their effect on me is because I have a strong sense of smell and always had.

But it's more the atmosphere of places like that which can get me down. I would rather be in the woods, smelling the cedar trees and leaf-litter.

I think anywhere there are too many people crowded together -the ambience of the place can get a little jagged. Too many conflicting energies all crowded in one place. And too much noise, too many voices all at once.
I think it's different in an open-air place. But anywhere with walls...? Nope. Not for me, except when REALLY necessary !

And that would have to be on a day when my own energy was able to deal with it. If I went to a place like that when I wasn't feeling good to start with, I think I would last five minutes before I had to leave !

 

[Daffodil]

@Wolfcub that is how i am. and living in a city, being almost homebound, i dont have a lot of access to actual "nature". I am very sensitive psychologically to my surroundings ..... but now i wonder how much of it is just smells causing CNS inflammation!

 

[PatJ]

I'm imaging the phenomenal amount of outgassing plastics and cleaning solutions and everything else.

I've never thought of that! Visiting a typical store would be bad enough with all the outgassing but people working there are living in clouds of gasses and chemicals all day long. It would be even worse for anyone working in a large warehouse such as an Amazon delivery center.

that i should not go in them

Something like this air filter mask might help you to tolerate any odors and chemicals in the air.

The effects you experience might also be related to lighting. Fluorescents and LEDs are problems for some people with ME/CFS.

 

[Daffodil]

I've never thought of that! Visiting a typical store would be bad enough with all the outgassing but people working there are living in clouds of gasses and chemicals all day long. It would be even worse for anyone working in a large warehouse such as an Amazon delivery center.



Something like this air filter mask might help you to tolerate any odors and chemicals in the air.

The effects you experience might also be related to lighting. Fluorescents and LEDs are problems for some people with ME/CFS.

hehehe can you imagine walking around with the mall with a gas mask hehehehehehe i would be laughed out of the mall lol its bad enough i have to take a cart with me cuz i cannot carry things anymore ...i am like an old lady at 48. i cant even have my iphone in my purse anymore cuz of the weight. lol

 

[Wishful]

Mall? I vaguely recall such a thing. Are they still around? I think it's been over a decade since I last visited one. Awful places indeed.

There are all sorts of sensory cues found in malls. It might be hard to figure out which is causing you problems. Can you simply add it to your list of things to avoid?

 

[southwestforests]

I'm not really very chemical-sensitive (thankfully)

And stay that way, if you are offered any choice in the matter.
I wasn't.
Yep, malls.
I was in and out of retail for a bit over 20 years, often in malls.
Cleaners, floor waxes, product and packaging outgassing, perfumes, air fresheners, scented candles, potpourri.
Insecticides.
And then there are the people and what they bring in with them.
And then there is what may or may not be living inside the climate control system.

And at the some time ago torn down Blue Ridge Mall in Kansas City, Missouri, there was the delivery tunnel underneath the mall, where the diesel trucks idled while unloading.
Including the semis we unloaded 700 plus cases from every week at F. W. Woolworth.

 

[Wolfcub]

And stay that way, if you are offered any choice in the matter.

I can only hope that I will......but anything could happen ! But I have noticed there are certain smells that offend me more easily than they used to. Including humans' "nice" deodorants and perfumes. I have got very picky with smells I like.
I can't abide air fresheners.
The ones I like best are the more natural ones. Like the smell of the woods, etc. And I like natural essences and oils, (sometimes, so long as they are very lightly scented.)
Chemical sensitivity must be very tough to cope with in this world as it is now.

 

[southwestforests]

Chemical sensitivity must be very tough to cope with in this world as it is now.

Yes, it can be.
The laundry detergent and fabric softener aisle at stores does me no good.
Same for the candle aisle.

In early 1980s chemical sensitivity made my hobbies a bit of a hassle when all of a sudden I had to stop using enamel base model paints.
In a bit of good fortune there was a quality line of acrylic model paints available from a US manufacturer and a high quality line from a well known Japanese plastic model manufacturer had just begin to be imported.
Now there are multiple companies making water base paints for models.
And, oddly enough, in early 2000s I began to be able to tolerate those enamels again.

I still airbrush only with acrylics but will use the bottle enamels with the "hairy stick" for detail painting and for figure painting.

Lacquers are one I still have no business using but will from time to time go outside to seal cardstock or cardboard with lacquer to harden and stabilize it for modeling projects.

And for housing I need to have all electric, no gas, no propane, no oil furnace.