# If you had to give up one of your 5 senses for a month, which would you pick? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 24, 2024, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-to-give-up-one-of-your-5-senses-for-a-month-which-would-you-pick/1004743 "2024-07-24T17:38:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2024, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-to-give-up-one-of-your-5-senses-for-a-month-which-would-you-pick/1004743/1 "2024-07-24T17:38:10Z")
Before anyone starts, yes, I recognize that science now identifies more than the traditional 5 senses but I’d like to limit this thread to the 5 “classic” senses of taste, touch, sight, hearing, and smell. So if you had to give up one for a month, which would you pick? Which would be your last choice? I’d pick sense of smell. Although I never lost my sense of smell when I had Covid, it doesn’t sound that bad or dangerous to not have it. A co-worker has no sense of smell and I’ve talked to him extensively about it. There are more times that I can think of where not having the sense would come in handy than losing any other. Losing sense of touch would be last on my list. That just sounds like a horrible accident waiting to happen. ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2024, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-to-give-up-one-of-your-5-senses-for-a-month-which-would-you-pick/1004743/2 "2024-07-24T17:43:48Z")
I did lose my sense of smell when I had covid. It came back after a couple weeks. It sucked. Coffee tasted just bitter. Food all tasted flat and boring. I’d be curious if losing taste rather than smell would be preferable, but don’t know the answer. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2024, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-to-give-up-one-of-your-5-senses-for-a-month-which-would-you-pick/1004743/3 "2024-07-24T17:45:05Z")
Sight. I’m already blind in one eye. I’ve had surgery on my good eye and was literally blind for awhile. I was surprised how well I got around. A month would be my limit, tho’. Wouldn’t want to have to learn Braille. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2024, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-to-give-up-one-of-your-5-senses-for-a-month-which-would-you-pick/1004743/4 "2024-07-24T17:47:24Z")
I don’t have a sense of smell. Mostly I feel pretty lucky! But if I had to choose another I’d say taste. I’d probably lose a couple pounds. ---
**Author:** ![Briny\_Deep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/briny_deep/32/17188_2.png) [@Briny\_Deep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Briny_Deep)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2024, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-to-give-up-one-of-your-5-senses-for-a-month-which-would-you-pick/1004743/5 "2024-07-24T17:47:27Z")
Easy one – taste for sure. In fact, I might sign up for such a one-month program if it was offered to me, maybe drop a quick 10 pounds. ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2024, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-to-give-up-one-of-your-5-senses-for-a-month-which-would-you-pick/1004743/6 "2024-07-24T17:48:22Z")
smell or taste to lose. Last choice, by far, is sight ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2024, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-to-give-up-one-of-your-5-senses-for-a-month-which-would-you-pick/1004743/7 "2024-07-24T17:48:58Z")
My sense of style. Because according to my kids it’s pretty nonexistent anyway. More seriously, are you counting taste as only what your tongue senses? In that case I’d pick taste, since much of the eating experience is actually from your olfactory nerves. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2024, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-to-give-up-one-of-your-5-senses-for-a-month-which-would-you-pick/1004743/8 "2024-07-24T17:50:57Z")
Well, it’s a good thing Dung!! 🫢 I’ll send you some Lumē , just in case. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2024, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-to-give-up-one-of-your-5-senses-for-a-month-which-would-you-pick/1004743/9 "2024-07-24T17:54:52Z")
I’ll take a month of complete silence. But only a month. ---
**Author:** ![Folly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folly/32/3219_2.png) [@Folly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folly)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2024, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-to-give-up-one-of-your-5-senses-for-a-month-which-would-you-pick/1004743/10 "2024-07-24T17:55:49Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > In that case I’d pick taste, since much of the eating experience is actually from your olfactory nerves. That’s what I’m thinking. If you don’t have smell, you lose most of taste as well. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2024, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-to-give-up-one-of-your-5-senses-for-a-month-which-would-you-pick/1004743/11 "2024-07-24T18:05:08Z")
My Daddy had a fall and got a pretty bad concussion. They had to removed a blood clot, the old fashioned way. Anywhoo he lost his sense of smell. (he said hearing in one ear, also. I was skeptical about that). His smell came back one day, several years later. Man, it distressed him. He wanted it to go away again. Smells of any kind alarmed him. Things were always burning or rotten. I reckon his brain had to relearn to classify which were bad smells or good smells. ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2024, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-to-give-up-one-of-your-5-senses-for-a-month-which-would-you-pick/1004743/12 "2024-07-24T18:10:21Z")
I once asked my co-worker if he could swallow a pill and then have a normal sense of smell, would he do it. He said that he _probably_ would just to see what he had been missing. I think it would be completely overwhelming. You’d want to start out in an environment with as few odors as possible. And even in such an environment, I wonder how many actual scents are there that we’re just nose-blind to. And the thought of smelling a public bathroom for the first time. 🤢 ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2024, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-to-give-up-one-of-your-5-senses-for-a-month-which-would-you-pick/1004743/13 "2024-07-24T18:12:54Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > More seriously, are you counting taste as only what your tongue senses? In that case I’d pick taste, since much of the eating experience is actually from your olfactory nerves. Yeah, what he said. ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2024, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-to-give-up-one-of-your-5-senses-for-a-month-which-would-you-pick/1004743/14 "2024-07-24T18:15:02Z")
That would be my second choice and it’s pretty close to first. Again, relying on what my co-worker has told me, texture of food is more important to him than just about anything else. He can’t tell when his wife makes spicy dishes. ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2024, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-to-give-up-one-of-your-5-senses-for-a-month-which-would-you-pick/1004743/15 "2024-07-24T18:15:31Z")
Taste. It would suck, but it seems harmless and non-disruptive to lose for a while. With smell, I’d be worried about not being able to detect something genuinely dangerous, like a gas leak. ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2024, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-to-give-up-one-of-your-5-senses-for-a-month-which-would-you-pick/1004743/16 "2024-07-24T18:17:48Z")
And that’s more or less how I found out he has no sense of smell. Before I knew about it, I thought I smelled smoke in the hallway and went to his office to see if he smelled it too. He didn’t. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2024, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-to-give-up-one-of-your-5-senses-for-a-month-which-would-you-pick/1004743/17 "2024-07-24T18:22:16Z")
My hearing is pretty bad as it is. I could handle a month of deafness , no problem. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2024, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-to-give-up-one-of-your-5-senses-for-a-month-which-would-you-pick/1004743/18 "2024-07-24T18:23:12Z")
Smell for sure. Usually, IIRC, such polls always have smell first and sight last. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2024, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-to-give-up-one-of-your-5-senses-for-a-month-which-would-you-pick/1004743/19 "2024-07-24T18:38:12Z")
No contest, it would be smell. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2024, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-to-give-up-one-of-your-5-senses-for-a-month-which-would-you-pick/1004743/20 "2024-07-24T18:38:26Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > Usually, IIRC, such polls always have smell first and sight last. I think “touch” is pretty important. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-to-give-up-one-of-your-5-senses-for-a-month-which-would-you-pick/1004743.md?page=2)