Phantom smells of petrol or fish which nobody else can smell

[NeededANameChangeAnyway]

It's like I get a smell 'up my nose' and then just smell it for ages. This smell is like petrol and it's catching at the back of my throat. Noone else can smell it.

No petrol spills anywhere, private yard where we park the cars, no petrol tank leaks, I've not been to the petrol station today. Aaargh!

Why can I smell things which aren't there???

The other thing I smell off and on is fish. The dog has a bottom problem and occasionally leaves little fishy bloops on the carpet. Often I smell the smell but no bloops and noone can smell it then either.

Am I a super smeller or mad.....?

I think I'm just sensitive! If I've cooked something strong smelling like a curry I can't sleep unless I've washed my hair....

Me too. Maybe that's part of it? But my other senses are pretty shit so I think smell is just trying to make up for my other deficits 😄

Today the smell is sort of metallic petrol. Well, a change is as good as a rest they say.......

The last few days I've noticed a smell of a new or freshly valeted car when out walking. Twice in the same place but others too. My other half thinks I'm imagining it.

I've smelled it all day at work and can still smell it at home so it's clearly me who is insane rather than a smell being everywhere.

Driving me mad!

Wish the cold or whatever is causing it comes and is finished quickly

I had foul odours in my nose when I had a really bad sinus infection. It could be that?

It's not a sinus infection, no evidence of that. It's my brain I think.....

I had a time when I was sensitive to smell and a light fitting was smelling like to me.

Only had one phantom smell post COVID. Did a lot of sniffing of black pepper and the like to recalibrate.

Check out the charity Fifth Sense (now calling itself Smell Taste) for lots of information about phantosmia, and other smell disorders.

Interesting, I guess smelling a strong but present smell 'resets' your nose?

@Jilllybean I'll have a look. Sometimes reading this sort of thing freaks me right out though and I become convinced I have some other catastrophic problem.....stand by for a further thread....😂

@NeededANameChangeAnyway
I had a smell up my nose that was the most gross thing in the world. I neti potted it out .. well the water loosened it and a good hard blow ejected it
It was seriously the worst smelling thing in the world when it was our of my nose.

I'd walked round for a week looking for dead mice in the house.

I get this as a pre - migraine symptom. often burning smell

If you smell fish then your house is about to go up in flames.

I could smell everything when I was was in my first trimester

I have periodically smelt burning ever since COVID in 2020 .

panic stations!!

I have a history of sinus issues and poor smell but Covid was the nail in the coffin. After not smelling anything at all for a year or so, one day i was using a toilet cleaner. A pine fresh green one. I got the smell so intensely it shocked me, it got 'stuck' in my nose for weeks and weeks. Now I get this occasionally. I've smelled smoke a few times and even gotten up at night in a panic once, I was so adamant. It's very frustrating

Hi op. I got this just before I got HRT prescribed.

It was horrible. A never ending smell of cigarette smoke. I was convinced someone was standing outside the window smoking.

HRT and it disappeared.

Literally just going to post the same question.. I reckon it's from COVID..
Lying in bed about 4am (insomnia can do one) window wide open, dawn chorus.. and I can smell roast dinner! Sometimes full English.. I'm glad it's a pleasant smell.. My DBro who had bad COVID at the very beginning before lockdown has a horrible smell in his nostrils all the time..

It's probably a mix of all the above (not the pregnancy or house fire ones though!). I'm at the age for peri, have had COVID and feel like I am constantly on the verge of the cold. The smells have gone for now, who knows why....!

Yes! This too.. but I'm about 2 decades too old for pregnancy.. we had an upstairs loo and if it wasn't flushed I could smell it from downstairs!

could you be pregnant?

Nope