Why Indoor Air Sensitivity Can Increase Over Time
When tolerance quietly erodes instead of snapping.
I kept asking myself why things felt worse than they used to.
The house hadn’t changed. The symptoms hadn’t exploded.
And yet my body reacted faster and recovered slower.
That gradual shift made me doubt whether what I was noticing was even real.
Increasing sensitivity didn’t mean my body was becoming fragile.
Why sensitivity often increases gradually
There wasn’t a single breaking point.
Just less buffer than before.
What I once absorbed quietly began to register.
This helped me understand why reactions felt stronger without a dramatic new exposure.
Sensitivity grows when capacity shrinks.
How cumulative strain reduces tolerance
Long-term exposure asks the body to compensate repeatedly.
Over time, that effort adds up.
I wasn’t reacting more — I was compensating less.
This aligned with what I learned about long-term low-level exposure, which I explored in how long-term low-level exposure affects the body differently than acute exposure.
Tolerance declines quietly under sustained load.
Why increased sensitivity often follows stress or illness
Looking back, my sensitivity didn’t rise in isolation.
It followed seasons where my system was already taxed.
My margin was thinner than I realized.
This explained why symptoms intensified during stressful periods, which I described in why indoor air problems can feel worse during life stress.
Sensitivity often increases after capacity is spent elsewhere.
Why increasing sensitivity is often misunderstood
Because it wasn’t always there, it’s easy to dismiss.
I heard versions of “you’re just more aware now.”
As if awareness alone could change how my body responded.
This dismissal mirrored the way other indoor air experiences were internalized or minimized.
Change over time doesn’t invalidate cause.