Calling all people with a strong sense of smell...

[SomethingLessBoringInstead]

I live in an average sized semi. If I'm in my reasonably sized garden, I can smell my neighbours' shower gel when they showering their bathroom window is open.

I can smell the flavour of crisps being eaten by someone 3 rows in front of me at the cinema/theatre.

I can smell the personal scent of the person behind the bar (don't mean BO).

I can smell when a woman is on her period. Probably not always because I'd have no way of knowing! But sometimes I know.

Anyone else? I know I've got a strong sense of smell because I can often smell things other people around me can't but just wondered how common it is. And whether or not these are examples of it! Or whether they're things everyone can smell...

My sense of smell and hearing is ridiculous. It is linked to being on high alert as I suffer from diagnosed anxiety due to a very abusive childhood. We all scan for threat on a subconscious level, this is next level.

I've just remembered about a close friend of mine who kept complaining to her GP that her toddler son had something wrong with his ear. She could smell something wasn't right for months but there wasn't ever any discharge or pain.

Turns out, some months later, he was diagnosed with a rare rumour that wraps itself around the inner ear and can grow and put pressure on the brain. It was removed by the time he was 5 (big operation, scar was visible for years). All is well now but her sense of smell detected this before any doctor.

Quite incredible really.

DP's Dad smells of Parkinson's. And then he smelled of a stroke (I visited a colleague in hospital once who had a huge one whilst I was there). I nagged him about both in the 'You need to see a doctor' way, not in the 'you smell of these conditions'.

He ignored me (as he tends to do with everybody). Four weeks later, he collapsed, spent two months in a specialist stroke unit and finally admitted he had been diagnosed with Parkinson's ten years previously.

I've also replaced various electrical items because I've been able to smell there's something wrong. Originally, DP didn't believe me, but after the number of things where I've said 'I think we need to replace...' and they've gone pfft shortly afterwards - including me asking repeatedly about whether the slow cooker was alright a month before the crock cracked visibly - he now accepts it.

But if I could do one thing, it would be to stop him buying aerosols. I hate his deodorant, his using fly spray and, most of all, the bloody air fresher he's bought. He sprayed it this morning when I was upstairs and I was straight down saying 'WTF is that?'.

And sodding washing up liquid and fabric softener. Ugh. The old Ecover ones were nice, but they stopped doing the old scents and replaced them with horrible stinking ones - the standard stuff he buys from the supermarket now is abominable.

DP's Dad smells of Parkinson's. And then he smelled of a stroke how do you know? From your sample of one? And the control group...?

@Sheenais

DP's Dad smells of Parkinson's. And then he smelled of a stroke how do you know? From your sample of one? And the control group...?

No, not a sample of one.

I've known significantly more than one person with it. Most were very old, but he was only in his fifties at the time. Successful lawyers in their fifties don't tend to start smelling like 84 year olds with Parkinson's for no apparent reason.

The stroke thing came about from the smell that appeared when visiting the colleague. Again, she was younger, only 44. The smell got stronger during the visit until she actually showed symptoms and I hit the emergency buzzer. As it is was, the poor woman died the following afternoon. I'd not experienced that smell before, but it's very different to the PD one. And on visiting FIL in the unit after his major one, it's shared by the other stroke patients.

My 5 year old has the strongest smell. Driving before the corner to the butchers he says ugh I smell chicken. He smelt tar being put on road half mile away we didn’t smell it to we were near the traffic lights at it. He is obsessed with hand washing and bathing. He get offended by dsd smell when she comes from her house (cigarettes and damp in home) he won’t hug her to she gets changed, tbf she must know as she gets a shower when she comes of her own choice. He has been sensitive to smells from a baby.

Yes I have a really strong sense of smell. DH is always saying ‘I can’t smell anything...’ when I can

Yes I'm like this. I can smell when a woman is on their period, they smell more metallic to me. I can also smell when my kids are getting sick about a day before they do.

Zombie thread! Some of these examples are extraordinary! There must be a way of making money out of an ability like this!

Are you still having this issue? I'm going crazy with my strong sense of smell.

My sense of smell is the same as it’s always been - the faintest smell of gas, damp, different weathers, the start of seasons changing, vague smells of something savoury clinging to a washed spoon, which perfumes passers-by are wearing, homes that haven’t been aired, bed linen that has been on for a few days. Which friends/family have been in the house earlier. I find slightly unpleasant smells (slight BO, unfresh beds, hospital wards etc, distressing to be in and try to hold my breath as much as possible. I could never be a medic not because I’m squeamish with the sight of blood and other bodily fluids but the smells would make me throw up. I hate air fresheners, plug ins, febreeze, floor wipes etc, as they just smell of various strong chemicals and once I’m aware of them I’m unable to put it to one side and ignore it.

With age, my hearing has got worse and I wear hearing aids, my eyesight is more or less the same as it was in my 30s, but my smell is still super strong.

Have you ever gotten it check? Mine comes and goes and I'm hoping it gets better soon.

I’ve never thought to get it checked. If I was smelling things that weren’t there such as cigarette smoke in my own flat where there’s no smoke, then I might suspect a neurological problem, but because it’s just being very aware of the actual smells around me, I don’t see it as a problem. What about yours is driving you crazy?

So does mine 😄

Just realised this is a rather old thread .

Yes, but my reply is recent.

It's got to a point that it's affecting my daily life. I don't like being around crowds because of all the perfumes. I'm hoping it will get better with in time.

I don’t know what a doctor would check for 🤔. I think it’s probably that we all just have very powerful sense of smells. And there are far more synthetic strong smells around than every before so we are bombarded with a whole symphony of strong and often not very nice (to us) pongs.

There is a condition called hyperosmia. I just hope and pray I get better! It's really causing me lots of anxiety. I just can't handle anything with fragrance.

Yep. Since pregnancy too.

Not as strong as your sense of smell but I notice some people especially in the hot weather smell 'Hammy' . I have never smelt another woman's period (perhaps because we have better 'protection' now. Though I did share a room with a work colleague who had a heavy period and I could certainly smell it.

I was laughing at the weekend with a friend about her (lack of) sense of smell and how she could not tell a basic wine from a good one. No point taking about notes of this and that with her!!

Wow.....I've never smell someone period....I just wish I can do something about this now

I have a very acute sense of smell- sometimes it works in my favour.
When my children had playmates around if someone left an article of clothing behind I could tell who it belonged to by giving it a sniff.
I can tell if food is starting to catch or burn long before it is a problem- I never burn toast bcause I can smell the subtle change as it browns.
I remember as a child not wanting to sit on my mother's lap at times because - I now know I was smelling menstrual blood.

I avoid perfume departments i stores- the smell of synthetic fragrances is very unpleasant, I couldn't sit in a restaurant if near a man's toilet.

Mostly it is a useful thing to have, when I leave the house in the morning I take a deep breath to smell the mood of the day. I can smell manure spreading or ploughing fields several miles away.
And I know it sounds a bit woo, but I could smell Covid coming.

Please give me tips on how I can just ignore it. I find it hard to have under control.