Ask the Anosmic

In My Humble Opinion
1

If your question is, what’s an anosmic, that’s a person with no sense of smell.

I think I may have been born with one, because I have a very early scent-memory of my Grandma Kit’s house. Mom says it must have been the smell of booze and cigarettes. :slight_smile:

Anyway, my smeller quit working pretty early on. I don’t know why. I also have chronic migraines, so maybe I have some kind of dain bramage I don’t know about.

I don’t miss it, and as far as I know, food tastes the same to me as it does to everyone else. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not very discriminating about it though. I only ate rotten food one time!

So, anything else you want to know, please ask.

2
  1. Are you actually completely anosmic?
  2. Have you sought medical help for this?
  3. Do you leave the room when someone farts?
3

Do you find yourself worrying about gas leaks in your house?

4

Does it make it easier to work with the dung?

5

Do you have allergies?

I ask because my sister used to be like you. And then she got allergy shots, and then she had a sense of smell again.

6

Do you have a smelling-nose dog?

Seriously,though, I’ve been told that smell is a big part of taste, and it seems to me sometimes that I can “taste” odors. How is your sense of taste? Do you feel you can sense some odors by taste?
Do you get any sensation from deeply penetrating or intense odors, like Essence of Skunk, or Hydrogen Sulfide?

7

Wanna job?

I’m a manager at a rendering plant, for some reason folks don’t like working here.
No sence of smell would be a definate plus!

8

A friend and I are both anosmic. His plan in a post-apocalyptic world is to start raising skunks. Nobody would bother him.

9

I heard she inherited Hitler’s dog, but he was no help at all!

10

Stark Raven Mad
Are you actually completely anosmic?
I think so, although sometimes I get sudden headaches, and when I look around, there’s someone smoking a cigarette. Does that count?

Have you sought medical help for this? No, I don’t seek medical help even when I need it, and I don’t really consider my broken smeller a problem.

Do you leave the room when someone farts? No, to me farts are just funny sounds that make other people complain a lot.

Ethilrist
Do you find yourself worrying about gas leaks in your house? Yes, but there are always family members around that could tell me if they smelled anything.

Ace309
Does it make it easier to work with the dung? Well, probably, but dung sculpting really isn’t as hard as it looks. I could probably teach it to you in no time. :wink:

cowgirl, I don’t have any allergies that I know of.

CalMeacham
No smelling-nose dog, just two smell-producing cats.

How is your sense of taste? Do you feel you can sense some odors by taste? Not at all. Actually, I’m usually glad I can’t smell. It seems to me that it would be like if someone came up and shoved something in your mouth, and you’d have to taste it whether you wanted to or not. Ugh!

Do you get any sensation from deeply penetrating or intense odors, like Essence of Skunk, or Hydrogen Sulfide? I get rapid headaches from fumes like nail polish remover, but it’s got to be really strong. For instance, I don’t notice any sensations from the gasoline when I’m filling up my car. I guess I’d have to put my nose close to a puddle of it.

SeaDog
I’ll pass on the rendering plant. However, I would like to work in a funeral home or something along those lines, and I have to wonder if not being able to smell would be a drawback then. I might send someone’s Aunt Lucy out for the viewing looking pretty as a picture, but stinking like…well, something really bad.

11

You know, that’s pretty much what it is like.

So you can feel taste? Do you enjoy food, wine and other taste sensations that the rest of us obsess over?

How did you become an anosmic?

12

Well, food is good and I like it…but I do have a sizeable amount of control over it. Maybe it’s not just my amazing willpower.

I don’t know why my nose doesn’t work. In fact, it took me a long time to realize there was anything wrong. For instance, I used to wonder why my mom always made fart jokes whenever we drove by the paper mill. She didn’t seem to think they were funny at any other time.

Once I was doing my homework on the school bus when all of a sudden all the other kids jumped up screaming and clawing at the windows. I had no idea what their problem was until someone hollered “stink bomb!” I finished my homework.

13

I read somewhere that something like 80% of anosmics lose their sex drive when they lose their sense of smell. (I can’t remember where, but it was in some reputable magazine, like Psychology Today or Scientific American.)

So…did you?

14

So you’ve never had a sense of smell? I understand that you don’t see a reason to go to the doctor about it, but didn’t your parents want to bring you there when you realized?

15

Jeez, no. I’d hate to think what life would be like if I had more sex drive!

Priceguy, I guess I was in my teens before I figured it out and told them. They still ask me to smell things sometimes, and then say, “Oh! I forgot.” So, no big deal to anyone.

16

So, just to make sure I understand, you’re saying you smell bad?

At least you were never on the receiving end of “She who smelt it dealt it!”

17

Y’know, there are probably more times that I’ve wished I couldn’t smell something than the times when I wished I could’ve smelled something better.

Sure, the smell of bacon cooking over a campfire while enjoying the piney scent of the northwoods is great, but I’d readily forego it in order to not smell the gangrenous feet/unwashed armpits/incontinent pants-loads that regularly appear in the waiting room where I work.

::: shrugs ::::

Where do I go to become anosmic?

18

Hey, don’t go cutting off your nose to spice your fate!

19

The closest I’ve come to spicing my face was when I rubbed my eye after chopping jalapenos.

20

I know : Blind, deaf and ... - Factual Questions - Straight Dope Message Board

I have a pretty weak senser of smell myself. Plenty of times, I’ve been unable to smell things other people can. Sometimes, nice girls have “shown” me their perfume, and I couldn’t smell anything.

so, do you have no sense of smell at all? Do you get no sensation at all when you sniff?