Can you stop smelling on command + throw up on command…?

[CalIie]

A bit of a gross one!

Potential trigger warning for anyone with an eating disorder

Sooo…. I recently discovered that not everyone can turn on and off their sense of smell. I thought everyone could do this, so I would always get confused as to why people made a big deal about bad smells.

I only discovered yesterday when visiting a fishmongers with a friend, that perhaps this is an unusual “skill”. She was complaining that the smell made her want to be sick, so I asked her why doesn’t she turn off her sense of smell. She looked at me all confused… I’ve asked a few of my friends and family and they also thought I was weird. However, it turns out my father can do it too and always assumed everyone else could (he is 71!).

Another thing our conversation revealed, that apparently makes me abnormal, is that I can vomit on command. Again, I’ve always been able to do it and it has never been part of an eating disorder or anything. As a kid would use it to great effect to get out of classes I didn’t like or exams I hadn’t revised for

My mind had been blown that other people I have spoken to can’t readily do these things.

Not exactly great talents but oh well!

Poll:

My POV: YANBU - these are common “skills”.
My friends POV: YABU - wtf this is so weird.

I can puke at will and no smell, no matter how bad, is ever going to make me throw up or feel sick but I can't turn my sense of smell off no

If you have to breathe through your mouth because your nose flaps are closed, a) why close them and b) how do you know they're closed?

I can do the former - but I had to learn it. I learned it on my Masters in Voice; anatomically, you’re using your soft palate to close up the back of your nose so smells can’t be breathed in. The soft palate can close at the back of the mouth and the back of the nose.

It’s ENORMOUSLY helpful for nappy changing…

FLAPS?!

@EarringsandLipstick

Just when you think you've read all the crazy stuff on MN ...

Lols

The velum (soft palate) can go up as well as down.

I can stop my sense of smell.

I can’t vomit on command.

I can give myself goosebumps.

Everyone can do this, it's just mouth breathing. You are using your nasopharynx, everyone has one.

Isn’t it just holding your nose? My mother would say ‘hold your noses’ when there was a nasty odour. We didn’t physically hold them. We just stopped breathing through the nose and closed it.

@Cissyandflora when someone says to me “hold your nose” I think of literally pinching it shut using thumb and forefinger.

I can’t vomit on command but turns out I can turn my smell off - I’ve just tested it didn’t realise it was a thing until this thread prompted me to try. God, my Saturdays aren’t half boring these days!

@ofwarren you’re not using your nasopharynx. You’re using your velum to stopper it shut.

Its the same way you hold your nose to swim without actually pinching it.

Can only vomit on command by sticking fingers down my throat. Not nice but sometimes better than feeling ill for ages.

[quote Piglet89]@Cissyandflora when someone says to me “hold your nose” I think of literally pinching it shut using thumb and forefinger.[/quote]
Oh no my mother was quite clear. Hold your nose children! Was an oft used command. It’s when you hold your nose in a way that no one can notice. Although if you speak you can hear that you are holding your nose. Doesn’t everyone do this?

We can all do this. Seriously, it's just been over complicated.

If you were to pretend you had a blocked nose and talked to make yourself sound as though you had a blocked nose, that's doing the same thing.

Or quite simply, just breath through your mouth. If zero air gets drawn into your nose when you take a deep breath then you have probably closed your nose without having ever thought of it before.

Surely you can still smell when breathing through your mouth? At the fishmongers I can smell/taste it unless I hold my breath

I can stop hiccups on demand. I tighten the back of my throat near the to somewhere and they stop.

Its the same way you hold your nose to swim without actually pinching it.

You mean, just not breathe?

@Chichimcgee

Surely you can still smell when breathing through your mouth? At the fishmongers I can smell/taste it unless I hold my breath

No.

You're not doing it right.

Maybe not all of us have figured it out? Even my son could as a toddler because he was showing us a humming stop-start thing he could do through his nose.

I thought we all did it without realising

I can close my nose off and breathe through my mouth. Everyone can. I can still "smell" the smell though, via my tastebuds.
Can't vom on command though. Would need to stick fingers towards back of throat.

[quote Piglet89]@ofwarren you’re not using your nasopharynx. You’re using your velum to stopper it shut.[/quote]
Either way, everyone can do it unless you have a deformity of some sort.
Blocking off the back of your nose isn't a special skill.

@OhYouBadBadKitten

I can stop hiccups on demand. I tighten the back of my throat near the to somewhere and they stop.

That's called holding your breath

😂 Incredible that so many of you can turn off ‘smelling’.

I definitely can’t. Smells really bother me sometimes - and can also please me to an untold degree.

By vomit on command, what exactly do you mean? I can retch a few times until it comes up but I can’t just retch the once and have any come out…

Yeah I can do both. I've never bothered to question how but I did work in nursing homes for 10ish years so it helped a lot with that

I breathe through my mouth all the time, if that's what you mean. And no, I don't 'taste the smell'. Maybe I'm actually able to turn off my taste...