My partner has a powerful smell, It is not awful, per se, but it can be so musty, sharp or, at times, sweet-ish that it can feel hard to breathe around him. It's most pungent from his scalp so he keeps his hair trimmed very short and also keeps all his body hair trimmed for this reason too. His clothes have to be washed separately because the whole load would come out with the scent. I recently found that an enzyme detergent can get the smell out. Before it would get so bad we'd have to toss the shirts regularly.

I tried to find info on this and learned about persimmon which cuts the 2-Nonenal that can lead to becoming pretty funky smelling as we age so thought we'd give it a try and it seems to work. I can breathe around his hair and not suffocate by his pillow case. When I was looking into body odor I came across information about it's possible links with mental illness and also read posts from people who have family members diagnosed with mental illness who have an unusual smell in keeping with how I would describe his as.

I don't know much about it and wonder how common this is. I read a claim from 1962 that schizophrenics have a unique smell due to TMHA but then it was discounted before coming full circle with renewed attention to the connection and that they also have reduced ability to smell it.

Is schizophrenia the only mental illness that can present with this?