So...how does this work? Will anyone ever read this?
I just need somewhere to pour my heart, soul and garbage into. So here I am. I hope I can keep this up, because generally speaking I am very good at giving up.
Introductions first I guess.
I'm Penny. And blah blah blah. I think I will do introductions another day.
What I need to get off my chest is my anosmia (I have no sense of smell). 5 senses. Sight. Hearing. Touch. Taste. Smell. The first 3 as I've listed are seen as the biggies. Not being able to smell is not tragic, it's just blah. *shrugs*.
To be honest, the most common time it bothers me is when someone says, "oh gosh...smell my wrist..new perfume...isn't it great?!" I never really know what to say. To me, that question is like asking "How are you?" - no one cares or wants to hear your answer. So usually I make a smelling noise with my nose near the wrist and say "woooow that's nice", and usually this works and the (presumably) nice smelling person starts talking about something else but occasionally I get the few who want to wax lyrical about the perfume or past perfumes or new perfumes or blah blah perfume and then I have to say, STOP!!! I can't smell. They say, WHAT?" Me: "I can't smell. Anything. Please change the subject or go talk to someone who can smell".
I don't know anyone else with anosmia personally, but my doctors says loads of people have the problem and there are worse things that I could have/lack. Yeah, tell me that when there's a gas leak.
Just to clarify, I've been anosmic since birth but I can smell random things at random times. So luckily for me, I've smelt (amongst many things) fresh cut grass, eggy farts, burnt bacon, burnt toast(I'm not a good cook - but I'll get to that in a minute), chocolate cake, coffee....etc. I don't know how it works. For example, once I was with my friend in Superdrugs and she was smelling shampoo's, she knows I can't smell but she lets me have a sniff so i don't feel left out...but anyway, bottle number 3 is waved under my nose and suddenly I'm like "wow I can smell. It's nice!" and 2 seconds later she sticks another bottle under my nose and asks which one I prefer - in those 2 seconds my smell was gone. Likewise, I can be sitting in a restaurant for 2 hours and then suddenly say "mmmhhhh that smells nice", even when the dish has been in front of me for ages. Unfortunately, this might only happen once every 3 months, sometimes longer, and it can make you feel very isolated.
Sometimes I see it as a blessing, sometimes a curse. I'm glad I miss out on farts and poo smells in public spaces *gag* But it has a terrible effect with me and food/in the kitchen. As I touched upon, when I'm cooking I can't smell if something is burning, so sometimes it can be burning for ages. If something has gone off I can't detect it, I have to depend on my eyes and obviously for foodie germs, the nose trumps eyes any day, so i suffer from food poisoning a lot. A lot a lot a lot.
I am scared of the vulnerability that anosmia can cause. Gas leaks and fires are my argh factors. So I have loads of alarms and detectors (even though I live in a tiny box of an apartment but better safe then sorry!!)
Sometimes I wish that I did have a 'normal' sense of smell - maybe it's smell envy but i think being able to smell other people can help build a bond. I'm not necessarily talking about anything wink wink nudge nudge, I just mean being families, between friends. I don't know what my parents smell like, I can't pull up a smell memory. I don't know what my closest friends smell like. Maybe they have a bad case of B.O and I should find better smelling friends - who knows?! I don't know what my friend's babies smell like. And at times like that I wish I really could, cos they look like they smell like heaven.
Oh Well. I'm glad to have got that off my chest. I've never really acknowledged this subject before, it's usually an afterthought so I am happy that for once my anosmia got first billing. My nose might be useless but it's still loved by me.
I just need somewhere to pour my heart, soul and garbage into. So here I am. I hope I can keep this up, because generally speaking I am very good at giving up.
Introductions first I guess.
I'm Penny. And blah blah blah. I think I will do introductions another day.
What I need to get off my chest is my anosmia (I have no sense of smell). 5 senses. Sight. Hearing. Touch. Taste. Smell. The first 3 as I've listed are seen as the biggies. Not being able to smell is not tragic, it's just blah. *shrugs*.
To be honest, the most common time it bothers me is when someone says, "oh gosh...smell my wrist..new perfume...isn't it great?!" I never really know what to say. To me, that question is like asking "How are you?" - no one cares or wants to hear your answer. So usually I make a smelling noise with my nose near the wrist and say "woooow that's nice", and usually this works and the (presumably) nice smelling person starts talking about something else but occasionally I get the few who want to wax lyrical about the perfume or past perfumes or new perfumes or blah blah perfume and then I have to say, STOP!!! I can't smell. They say, WHAT?" Me: "I can't smell. Anything. Please change the subject or go talk to someone who can smell".
I don't know anyone else with anosmia personally, but my doctors says loads of people have the problem and there are worse things that I could have/lack. Yeah, tell me that when there's a gas leak.
Just to clarify, I've been anosmic since birth but I can smell random things at random times. So luckily for me, I've smelt (amongst many things) fresh cut grass, eggy farts, burnt bacon, burnt toast(I'm not a good cook - but I'll get to that in a minute), chocolate cake, coffee....etc. I don't know how it works. For example, once I was with my friend in Superdrugs and she was smelling shampoo's, she knows I can't smell but she lets me have a sniff so i don't feel left out...but anyway, bottle number 3 is waved under my nose and suddenly I'm like "wow I can smell. It's nice!" and 2 seconds later she sticks another bottle under my nose and asks which one I prefer - in those 2 seconds my smell was gone. Likewise, I can be sitting in a restaurant for 2 hours and then suddenly say "mmmhhhh that smells nice", even when the dish has been in front of me for ages. Unfortunately, this might only happen once every 3 months, sometimes longer, and it can make you feel very isolated.
Sometimes I see it as a blessing, sometimes a curse. I'm glad I miss out on farts and poo smells in public spaces *gag* But it has a terrible effect with me and food/in the kitchen. As I touched upon, when I'm cooking I can't smell if something is burning, so sometimes it can be burning for ages. If something has gone off I can't detect it, I have to depend on my eyes and obviously for foodie germs, the nose trumps eyes any day, so i suffer from food poisoning a lot. A lot a lot a lot.
I am scared of the vulnerability that anosmia can cause. Gas leaks and fires are my argh factors. So I have loads of alarms and detectors (even though I live in a tiny box of an apartment but better safe then sorry!!)
Sometimes I wish that I did have a 'normal' sense of smell - maybe it's smell envy but i think being able to smell other people can help build a bond. I'm not necessarily talking about anything wink wink nudge nudge, I just mean being families, between friends. I don't know what my parents smell like, I can't pull up a smell memory. I don't know what my closest friends smell like. Maybe they have a bad case of B.O and I should find better smelling friends - who knows?! I don't know what my friend's babies smell like. And at times like that I wish I really could, cos they look like they smell like heaven.
Oh Well. I'm glad to have got that off my chest. I've never really acknowledged this subject before, it's usually an afterthought so I am happy that for once my anosmia got first billing. My nose might be useless but it's still loved by me.
Well, thank you for reading. Love your senses, whether you have just the 1 or all 5 (or 6 lol).
Bye!
Bye!
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