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Sense of smell

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Either I have really good sense of smell or my gfs is really bad. I can smell garlic from the kitchen quite strongly whereas my gf can't, and I'm the one with the cold and majorly blocked nose :lol: Anyone else smell things really well?

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I can't really say but a while back I had an operation on my nose and I was warned my smell would improve and my taste and it was so true. even now years later it sometimes happens that my smell seems to be hightened.

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My son does - he will smell everything before he eats it and if it doesn't smell right he wont eat it. He also gets quite distressed at certain smells if they are too strong.

 

Lynne x

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My lad was the total opposite. He never recognised his sense of smell at all until fairly recently. It's only in the last couple of years that he seems to have 'developed' a sense of smell, or else that he has only just learnt to recognise the signals, one or the other. He still has to sniff exageratedly in order to get anything, but at least he's getting something now!

 

~ Mel ~

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Youngest dd has a heightened sense of smell.....public toilets (she goes in and sniffs them before deciding if she will use them), my cooking (especially if I'm using garlic) causes her to become irritable, she will even sniff someone when she gives them a cuddle, perfumes, smoke, farmyard smells, bad breath, she notices it all far more than any of us.....she will comment on how something/someone smells before anything else.

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Anyone else smell things really well?

Oh yes, definitely. But not in a good way - smells really bother me. You know when you get a department store with a perfume section in a shopping mall - I have to go up the stairs at the opposite end, along and down again to get past it. It's not just a dislike. Some smells make me physically sick - perfumes, aftershaves, cigarette smoke, fast food etc. They also bizarrely affect my hearing and vision :wacko:

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Oh yes, definitely. But not in a good way - smells really bother me. You know when you get a department store with a perfume section in a shopping mall - I have to go up the stairs at the opposite end, along and down again to get past it. It's not just a dislike. Some smells make me physically sick - perfumes, aftershaves, cigarette smoke, fast food etc. They also bizarrely affect my hearing and vision :wacko:

 

I hate going through department stores with perfume sections, sometimes it is unavoidable. Our local boots there is just the one entrance and the perfume counter is right in front of it. They really smell and give me headaches as soon as I walk through the door. It affects my hearing and vision as well.

 

I was just really surprised that I can still smell better than my gf even when I have a stinking cold! :lol:

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Have you ever seen that episode of Mr Bean where he goes to the department store? :lol:

 

Yes, I smell great :P

 

I used to think I must hallucinate smells because I could always smell things no one else could. When I learned about the sensory issues in autism, it made a lot more sense, since I don't have any other types of hallucination, and I do experience smells that other people can smell more intensely that others seem to. (Read that slowly, it does make sense, honest!)

 

For example, no one likes the smell when the field by work has been muck-spreaded, but I am the only one who is nearly sick as a result of it.

 

If I am trying new foods, I always sniff it before eating it.

 

When one of my cats treads on me in the night, I can tell them apart by their scent.

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JP has an acute sense of smell. We can only have fish & chips when he's not home because the smell makes him gag.

 

Strange thing - when I'd had a really bad shock a few years back, my senses were heightened for a few days. I wonder if its survival mode? A friend came to see me, & her heavy perfume knocked me sick. A few days later I was back to "normal", well "my" normal. It gave me a weeny insight into AS sensory issues.

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Heightened senses can indeed be the result of a shock. It is the body being on edge and alert to threats, which would have been a really helpful response back when we lived in caves (you probably remember those days Pearl :lol: ).

 

Doctors sometimes dismiss these symptoms as the result of trauma, rather than realising they can be connected with AS.

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back when we lived in caves (you probably remember those days Pearl :lol: ).

 

But of course. Now can you recommend a nice recipe for mammoth steaks? :P

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This post explains to me when my son was given food when he was younger he would always smell it first. He also had a phonbia about bananas but I'm not sure if its connected to the smell but just touching one would send him into a meltdown.

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I wonder if its survival mode?

That's really interesting. Don't they say that AS is about being hyper aware and constantly looking for danger - almost being at that fight/flight response constantly? :unsure:

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That's really interesting. Don't they say that AS is about being hyper aware and constantly looking for danger - almost being at that fight/flight response constantly? :unsure:

 

Yes, I really think there could be something in that. I felt incredibly different those few days - colours seemed brighter, I felt kind of "fizzy", couldnt concentrate (which would help survival, if you were absorbed in the latest Joanna Trollope you wouldnt notice the sabre tooth tiger stalking you). It was terribly tiring.

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Yes, I really think there could be something in that. I felt incredibly different those few days - colours seemed brighter, I felt kind of "fizzy", couldnt concentrate (which would help survival, if you were absorbed in the latest Joanna Trollope you wouldnt notice the sabre tooth tiger stalking you). It was terribly tiring.

 

Thats what I feel like the majority of the time :rolleyes:

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I have a very strong sense of smell. It is a problem for me. I think I have a smell sensation left over from the cavemen. :D I shall try and explain. I cannot eat fish. I can't STAND the smell of it. As soon as anyone smells something that is off, quite often they will say "ewwww that's off, it smells fishy" So why on earth would anyone want to eat fish?? :blink: I can't walk past a fish counter without gagging and I even tried fish oil capsules once and when I burped they were fishy :sick: It gets annoying because I see these chefs cooking up fish on tv and it all looks so lovely, but I can't get past the smell. :sick: Same with seafood. People say ahhhhhh it's lovely, a real taste of the sea. Have you ever swallowed sea water? Why on earth?? :lol: All my children are sooo like me. All four of us when we got out will all say "erghhhh what's that smell" one after the other :lol: It's not good in public toilets I can tell you.

 

On the other side, smells remind me of places I have been. I can smell something and think, ahh that reminds me of.... I like to sniff things like new books and fabric softners. It can be a problem because when I go shopping I have to sniff things down the cleaning section and the toiletries. Trouble is if I don't like the smell I sniff it out hard and people stare at me :lol:

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Thats what I feel like the majority of the time :rolleyes:

 

Wow. Then I'm glad I experienced it (& probs will again when theres another major life crisis) as it helps me understand a bit better, I think I'd collapse if I felt like that all the time.

:notworthy:

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On the other side, smells remind me of places I have been. I can smell something and think, ahh that reminds me of.... I like to sniff things like new books and fabric softners. It can be a problem because when I go shopping I have to sniff things down the cleaning section and the toiletries. Trouble is if I don't like the smell I sniff it out hard and people stare at me :lol:

 

I like the smell of books in general. I love libraries (was a librarian for 5 years). I also sniff things down the cleaning section and the toiletries. I'll open bottles of fabric softeners or bubble bath and sniff it.

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I like the smell of books in general.

I love the smell of books :) Really like old book shops.

 

I'll open bottles of fabric softeners or bubble bath and sniff it.

I thought everyone did that? :unsure:

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I love the smell of books :) Really like old book shops.

 

 

I thought everyone did that? :unsure:

 

From what I've seen of walking around the supermarket where we shop, most people just pick up any old bottle. Very rarely someone actually smells it. Gf just normally goes for the familiar name and if the scent name sounds nice. She looks at me funny when I pick up the bottles and have to smell it, that concentrate fabric softener is very strong! Also accompanied by appropriate noise depending on wether I like the scent or not (wretching noise or a hum).

Edited by ScienceGeek

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I like the smell of books in general. I love libraries (was a librarian for 5 years). I also sniff things down the cleaning section and the toiletries. I'll open bottles of fabric softeners or bubble bath and sniff it.

 

Woohoo! :thumbs:

*does secret librarian sign to SG* ;)

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My son didn't have any sense of smell at all until he was five.

 

Now at 7 his sense of smell is totally the opposite, he can smell things no one else can ....... it is far more heightened than your average person. Some smells really bother him.

 

This is great until someone smelly gets in a lift ... and he starts saying rather loudly "ewwww what's that smell, is it that man - he stinks!" or at Play Centres where he has to go and identify which child it is that needs a fresh nappy and loudly tells the parents "this baby needs it's butt changing!"

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The weird thing is that I have both extremes.

 

Most of the time my sense of smell is very weak, and I will smell only strong odors. Rarely though, is seems like I can smell everything... ...that can be very confusing.

 

For some reason (normally) my sense of smell is always 'better than average' for certain scents, but useless for everything else. I am always extremely sensitive to the 'old fish' smell. I will eat sushi and extremely fresh fish, but anything else makes me gag.

 

Walking through the perfume section of a store is also horrible, even with a blocked nose, those smells are extremely strong.

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I have a good sense of smell. I like the smell of new pencils and wax crayons and play doh. Amongst other things, I can't stand the smell of food cooking (to the point of feeling sick) and butchers shops or the meat counter in supermarket. The place where I work is moving the kitchens near my office so they are looking for somewhere else for me to go.

 

Don't like fragrances, such as perfume, fabric conditioner. I have an allergy to a natural substance used as a base component of many perfumed products.

 

Continuing on the sensory theme, I don't like tags in clothes, the feel of some materials on my skin either.

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When I try on my new glasses that I got from Ian Jordan my already heightened sense of smell is more intense. :rolleyes: I didn't think it was possible :lol:

Edited by ScienceGeek

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Hi,

 

My daughter has a pretty heightened sense of smell and struggles with lots of smells and then subsequent feelings - but then again so do I - perfumes, hairspray, even certain washing powders/conditioners etc can give me an instant headache where the smell seems so intense - even a hot room has a certain smell to me!!

 

Take care,

Jb

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even a hot room has a certain smell to me!!

Yep, definitely. :) Can you also 'smell' when it's about to rain? I do, and it freaks people out, so I find it funny. :lol: There's a advert on the TV at the moment, no idea what it's for but it talks about "if you knew what was just about to happen, you would be prepared" with someone putting up a brolly just before it pours with rain - I can do that through my sense of smell!! :wacko:

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