Phantom Odors

[Sportster]

. . .

 

[Judge]

Elevated olfactory senses? I have them as well. I find them annoying, much like my OCD. Manageable as a kid, but at puberty and beyond it became quite problematic. Funny to think for decades I just assumed I had an allergy for this and that. The kind people and family scoffed at for a long time.

"It's all in your head!" Yes, but then most neurological issues usually are.

I'm guessing they are what seems to be a relative common trait of ASD.

 

[Nitro]

I was never sensitive to smells,but when I was in my accident,I lost my olfactory function. Every once in a while,I think I can smell again,but I am never sure if it is real or a ghost smell

 

[Odd Duck 1357]

I get the same thing about odors and hear music from ordinary sounds. It's probably the Aspie brain's way of making patterns out of random things, and this isn't just about visual data but affects other senses too

 

[Destination Unknown]

I had the problem with smelling cigarette smoke that wasn't there. Mine wasn't an Aspie increased sensitivity thing.
Apparently brain tumors are supposed to cause that sort of thing, so when I told the doctor about she sent me to get a brain scan. Result was that everything was normal.
It went away on its own, but it did come back again. I don't think I've had a recurrence for 3 or 4 years.

 

[StephF]

Yes, sometimes I can smell cigar smoke. Nobody in my building smokes at all so its weird. Doesn't happen very often though.

 

[Suzanne]

Yes, and can be so frustrating. But for me, I lost my sense of taste and smell completely and that was about 2 year''s ago now. They have returned but distorted. So, even strong odors can swing either way with me.

I opened an egg and it was rotten, so it went into the bin. I did not heave, because I did not smell it. Then yesterday, discovered a broken egg that had gone off, but nothing as near the other one; just watery. However, I smelt something that to be honest was not putrid, but it made me heave.

Yesterday, again, where with another couple and their old dog had been sick and my husband mentioned the awful smell. I was asked if I could smell it, as all 3 were showing distaste on their faces and I felt rather shamed faced, to admit I couldn't smell it.

Yet, I can smell cooking smells that make me feel sick. I can smell stale cigarettes from our neighbours, which is repulsive.

And I smell what is not there. I smelt cat wee on everything, one morning and realised it was my sanitiser and yet, it does not smell of cat wee lol

I can also hear things that others cannot.

 

[On the Inside]

I have a very sensitive sense of smell, which was difficult when I was a kid, because my dad was a heavy smoker of cigs and cigars. Car trips with him were hell on wheels. Most perfumes and colognes are torture. Dryer sheets are the worst. Once I was visiting my sister on my way home after a 10 day kayak trip, she washed my clothes and used dryer sheets. I had to wash them two or three times afterwards to rid them of that smell.

But then, I love natural scents, everything from soils, plants, I even find things that are rotting to be interesting. I like to try to pick out the various smells in the compost.

 

[wyverary]

I can't say this is something I experience in my waking moments, but sometimes I have vivid dreams where I DO have a very strong olfactory sense...one that comes up repeatedly is the smell of methamphetamine. Or at least that's my guess. Maybe I've smelled methamphetamine in my past, or maybe my brain is lying to me and completely making the whole thing up.

There are "phantom" phenomena for plenty of things, so it wouldn't surprise me that there could be an olfactory component to them as well.

 

[Bellatrix]

Maybe your house is haunted.

 

[midlife aspie]

I can't smell much of anything beyond my own BO.....(joke)
My wife OTOH seems to make up smells! And thinks I'm the root of them more often than not.

 

[Maelstrom]

This will no doubt sound unusual, but I'm curious if this is an Aspie thing or if my brain is playing tricks on me. As long as I can remember, I have always smelled things that are not there. It's usually something like heavy cigarette smoke, perfume, or some type of paint. I live alone in a house and don't smoke, nor do I use perfume. If I had painted something I would expect to smell that, but I've not painted anything around the house in a couple years.

There is one possibility; it makes me wonder if I'm smelling cigarette smoke from my neighbors. The same would go for the perfume, paint, etc. Many Aspies are known to have very sensitive hearing, feeling, etc., so could this also apply to smell where we could detect certain odors even though they're emanating from a source that could be several hundred feet away?

So, does anyone experience this or has my caboose gone around the bend?

One of my friends had a homeless person move in and no one new it...things moved food disapeared, she finally changed the locks after her bed got slept in.
Who ever it was knew her schedule and never got caught.

Things get too weird leave a hidden video camera running when you are out.

 

[midlife aspie]

Actaully, I did discover there was a homeless guy living under the house in the crawlspace when I was moving in. He showed up on my porch rather upset, because I had put a hasp and heavy-duty padlock on the access. I sympathize with the plight of the homeless, but living in my crawlspace is not an option; that's why we have a nice shelter here in town.

You should have asked him if he saw any termites.

 

[Astroganga]

I have bad issues with this, glad it isn't just me. I live round the corner from a big square and it has fountains set into the ground, that are currently switched off.I was sat near that bit today and I could smell a really strong smell like blocked drains, probably miniscule amounts of stagnant water in the fountain pump or something. Nobody else noticed it,but I did and even when I went home the awful smell was still bugging me for ages. I also have had times where I can smell regular house dust, very strongly.

 

[Maelstrom]

Actaully, I did discover there was a homeless guy living under the house in the crawlspace when I was moving in. He showed up on my porch rather upset, because I had put a hasp and heavy-duty padlock on the access. I sympathize with the plight of the homeless, but living in my crawlspace is not an option; that's why we have a nice shelter here in town.

maybe he found a way in.... to his house

 

[Maelstrom]

rat chewed a hole in the floor and is now making a sandwhich from the fridge........

 

[Brony714]

I can't explain what they were, but I have experienced phantom odors on occasion...

 

[Cosmophylla]

As long as I can remember, I have always smelled things that are not there. It's usually something like heavy cigarette smoke, perfume, or some type of paint. I live alone in a house and don't smoke, nor do I use perfume.

I have the same sensations as well. Cigarette smoke I get most. Sometimes the smell is stationary, it other days I will notice it is with me for a couple of hours and on those occasions it's always a familiar (but not unpleasant) smell that reminds me of something that is just beyond my recall. So I'm thinking that memories are being triggered by something.

I'm also a synaesthete. Smelling things that aren't there could be synaesthesia. Have you noticed any correlations between particular smells and where you are, what you are doing, hearing, holding, looking at, etc.?

 

[Maelstrom]

I have the same sensations as well. Cigarette smoke I get most. Sometimes the smell is stationary, it other days I will notice it is with me for a couple of hours and on those occasions it's always a familiar (but not unpleasant) smell that reminds me of something that is just beyond my recall. So I'm thinking that memories are being triggered by something.

I'm also a synaesthete. Smelling things that aren't there could be synaesthesia. Have you noticed any correlations between particular smells and where you are, what you are doing, hearing, holding, looking at, etc.?

I have wondered if I am a very mild synaesthesia person....I seem to access hidden memories + information and link them at a very high level. In some ways it is more powerful than my pattern thing. I can not tell on smells my allergies are so strong to smells I can not tell if it is a real trace smell hitting me. My future logic pattern modeling does seem to produce too much emotion over seen future harm to the world maybe than it should. Meaning my models are too real usually fairly correct too unfortunately....I wouldn't mind being wrong a little more on bad things.
Anyways Mael goes the long way to his point as usual, I suspect a small amount of bleed back maybe from my modeling logic minds eye into my emotional center, because I am not very emotionally driven or sentimental about normal life things like NTs.

For lack of a better term I'm calling it a low level reverse empath?, by a very small amount of synaesthesia?
Any thoughts from you Cosmophylla ? I have no idea how to sort something like this.

On the autism stuff I'm fairly close to Temple Grand's thing I guess?

This stuff is confusing, so many different things mixed together.

 

[Cosmophylla]

I For lack of a better term I'm calling it a low level reverse empath?, by a very small amount of synaesthesia?
Any thoughts from you Cosmophylla ? I have no idea how to sort something like this.

On the autism stuff I'm fairly close to Temple Grand's thing I guess?

This stuff is confusing, so many different things mixed together.

Ha! Yes, I have many crossed wires in my head, too. My senses are really quite blended.

That said, though, it sounds like you're describing fluid intelligence. Meta cognition. Are you talking about instinct? A kind of premonition or knowing things without being told or even understanding why? Feeling or sensing things from others, for example?

As far as I know, and I certainly don't know enough to claim an expert opinion, synaesthesia is generally acknowledged to be linked to superior long term memory. So for those of us who are synaesthetes and who get these random phantom odours, it could be memories somehow causing it.

However, and back to Sportster's original post, it sounds like this phantom smells thing is actually called phantosmia, aka olfactory hallucinations. See http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/QAA400682/Phantosmia-Smelling-Smoke-All-the-Time.html and also http://www.migraine-aura.com/content/e27891/e27265/e26585/e26871/index_en.html for some info about it. The idea that the brain in compensating for some kind of damage to the olfactory nerve by filling in the gaps with other smells reminds me of tinnitus... Which I also have.

Phantosmia can also indicate serious illness so for anyone else out there who smells phantom cigarette smoke and other unpleasant odours it is worth reading more about it and possibly having it checked out by a doctor.