Perfume and Depression?

The U.K. Telegraph tells us that "scientists" have said that women who use too much perfume could be depressed and that the sense of smell is impaired in people with this disorder.



Well, I think scientists have too much time on their hands, too much money to waste and have little olfactory experience with Major Depression.



I, on the other hand, have plenty of experience in this area and I have never noticed the severely depressed to be heavily perfumed. Quite the contrary. Many persons come into the mental health setting with hygiene that is often quite lax and sometimes altogether absent. Self care requires adequate self esteem, energy and motivation. Often individuals suffering from depression are too paralyzed, too exhausted and too miserable to pay attention to "looking their best" or smelling their best. Few smell of Chanel, Hermes or Serge Lutens, many don't comb their hair or brush their teeth. In short, they are prone to neglect themselves.



Naturally, there may be exceptions to this and some depressed people adopt (or are told by professionals to adopt) a "fake it 'til you make it" approach to self care. I have rarely seen these individuals go wild with the atomizer.



Now, what has this to do with my maximalist theme? Enough. "Too much" perfume sounds pretty subjective and rather judgemental of women. "Too much" perfume is "sick". I also noted that the learned scientists did not mention males who over spray the Old Spice. Fathom that.



I wonder how much was spent to arrive at this important conclusion?