Why Indoor Air Sensitivity Can Develop Later in Life
When tolerance fades without a single breaking moment.
I kept asking myself why this hadn’t happened sooner.
I’d lived in plenty of houses. Worked in different buildings. Handled stress before.
So why now?
The delayed onset made me doubt the connection entirely.
Late sensitivity didn’t mean I imagined it — it meant something had shifted.
Why tolerance isn’t fixed for life
I used to think tolerance was permanent.
Either you were sensitive or you weren’t.
I didn’t realize tolerance could quietly erode.
Over time, cumulative strain changed how much margin my system had.
Tolerance reflects capacity, not toughness.
How cumulative exposure reshapes response
No single exposure stood out.
It was the long stretch of background load.
Nothing dramatic happened — until everything felt harder.
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.
The body adapts until it can’t anymore.
Why stress and life changes often precede sensitivity
Looking back, sensitivity didn’t appear in isolation.
It followed periods of stress, illness, or sustained pressure.
My margin was already thinner than I realized.
This explained why symptoms intensified during harder seasons, which I wrote about in why indoor air problems can feel worse during life stress.
New sensitivity often emerges when capacity drops.
Why delayed sensitivity is often dismissed
Because it didn’t exist before, it’s assumed not to be real now.
I heard variations of “you would’ve always had this.”
As if bodies never change.
This dismissal mirrored how other indoor air reactions are reframed or minimized, which I explored in why indoor air problems are often dismissed as “psychosomatic”.
Change over time doesn’t invalidate cause.