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Yeah instead of growing an olfactory nerve by brain just grew a little nub instead. Basically I have the sensors in my nose, I have the lobes in my brain that process smell, but there's nothing connecting them. Just a little stump where the nerve should be. The diagnosis was long and took 2 years, they cleared out everything else, put cameras up my nostrils a few times, before finally giving me an MRI, which is super uncomfortable. It's loud and you can't move at all for a very long time. The stuff they use to clean your nostrils tastes incredibly loving bad by the way, if you ever have an ENT appointment it's something to look forward too. -I still have tastebuds, and I can't tell you if I'm missing taste from smell because I've literally never experienced it. -It's really sucky when people go You're so lucky!! You don't have to smell the bad smells!! The worst version of this is telling me it's a superpower and I should work in sewage or something -I do consider myself disabled. Yeah I can walk down a street and hear you speak but also it's one of the core 5 senses. -I used to shower 2-3 times a day out of sheer paranoia
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Jun 21, 2020 02:06
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Does the fact that, depending on what you have consumed earlier, breaking wind might result in something totally undetectable by those around you or something hideously funky fill you with a deep sense of dread?
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Jun 21, 2020 09:04
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do you have a weird diet/are there common foods people like that you just dont understand
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Jun 21, 2020 11:21
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chaser lowtax posted:Yeah instead of growing an olfactory nerve by brain just grew a little nub instead. Basically I have the sensors in my nose, I have the lobes in my brain that process smell, but there's nothing connecting them. Just a little stump where the nerve should be. It's 2020 now, so having an app for this might not be that sci-fi anymore. Are there any assistant apps available on the market for this?
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Jun 21, 2020 14:59
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CleverHans posted:Does the fact that, depending on what you have consumed earlier, breaking wind might result in something totally undetectable by those around you or something hideously funky fill you with a deep sense of dread? yes. i hold them in and make an excuse to go outside or the toilet asap. when i was little my parents used to bully me for farting and i just didn't understand and it was awful. Wipfmetz posted:I'd be paranoid about body odor or other smells, too. How do you recognize rooten food, the organic waste bin being ripe or just having stepped in dog poo poo? i don't. with food im just ruthlessly paranoid. ive thrown a lot of probably okay food away so i usually don't buy much in advance, or if I do it's all stuff that lasts forever in the cupboard (rice, pasta, canned chickpeas/lentils etc). I go through a lot of milk with my coffee so I'm going to the shop all the time anyway. if I forget to put something back in the fridge, no matter what, it's in the bin. food poisoning loving sucks I'm not giving it to myself again. I'm obsessive about making sure gas stoves are off. There are things like carbon monoxide detectors that I know for sure exist, I haven't looked into general odour stuff though, and it'd probably be really expensive. I'm trans and being trans ain't cheap and that's where my priority is. Fun fact odds are there are only 10 or so trans people with complete congenital anosmia in Australia and I'm very very likely the only one with a complete lack of an olfactory nerve, they don't bother to track stats because it just never happens. Really winning that genetic lottery. In a way having anosmia helps a lot mentally with being trans but also makes dysphoria worse. Verviticus posted:do you have a weird diet/are there common foods people like that you just dont understand I don't really like chocolate and tea is just completely lost on me. stuff like parmesan cheese and most herbs literally don't have a taste. i pepper the gently caress out of my food because I can't taste the pepper but I can feel the heat of it, on a similar note anything more spicy than pepper is a no go and makes it so I can't taste anything at all and leaves a weird aftertaste on my tongue there are things that taste similar or remind me of stuff. Like honey soy chicken reminds me of peanut butter. i quite like garlic bread, even though i can't smell the garlic, i guess its mostly butter and our brains are hard wired to love those fats. i can taste garlic but it's subtle. there's also literally 0 difference between expensive and cheap alcohol. i really like cheap wines, all spirits are bad i tend to like things that have a really strong taste on your tongue that other people don't. like very strong coffee. i can't eat many sugary things though, most cakes etc are just too loving sweet.
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Jun 21, 2020 21:44
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No you smell awful
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Jun 24, 2020 14:12
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no!!!!
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Jun 24, 2020 14:13
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My grandfather acquired anosmia when he was in his 70's. It came from nowhere. He used to say, "You could fart in my face and I couldn't smell it." It sucked for him because he loved my grandmothers cooking but couldn't really enjoy it anymore. He just used his memory. My grandma on the other side also acquired anosmia in her 60's. She lived to be 100. 40 years of no smell. She started just eating sweets and plain food. No point in making something fancy. Funny thing is, after after a seizure, I acquired hyperosmia. It normally goes away for people but for me it hasn't. It means I smell everything. I can smell that there's a deer in the woods, female, being followed by a fox, male. I can even range them. I can smell myself. I'm not talking B.O. I mean I smell myself. It's a different smell. I can identify my wife and kids by smell. I can track people like a dog. I don't mind it, it's just weird. My dog smells like Taco Bell. My cat smells like fallen leaves. My dad smells like a wet dog. My mom smells like cedar. None of that is exact, it's just my closest way of describing it. My wife just smells like my wife. Nothing distinct, just her. My oldest daughter smells like damp. My youngest smells a barber shop. It's weird, but I'm used to it now.
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Jun 25, 2020 03:49
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we are as opposite as people could be. Trade?
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Jun 25, 2020 04:10
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mostlygray posted:My grandfather acquired anosmia when he was in his 70's. It came from nowhere. He used to say, "You could fart in my face and I couldn't smell it." It sucked for him because he loved my grandmothers cooking but couldn't really enjoy it anymore. He just used his memory. My grandma on the other side also acquired anosmia in her 60's. She lived to be 100. 40 years of no smell. She started just eating sweets and plain food. No point in making something fancy. thats cool as hell. i have a really good sense of smell but not that good
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Jun 25, 2020 10:57
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Miss Broccoli posted:In a way having anosmia helps a lot mentally with being trans... Could you elaborate on this, I do not understand the correlation.
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Jun 28, 2020 03:10
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Matlack Radio posted:Could you elaborate on this, I do not understand the correlation. So having no smell gives me a lot of unfounded anxiety about stank. It's analogous to dealing with anxiety about how I'm seen and if people are just being nice and are really laughing behind my back. I've lived my whole life not having smell, and having dealt with that makes it easier to accept other things I'll never have like a uterus, or just not having what my subconscious says is a "perfect" womanly body. For instance, I'm 6'2, I'm taller than most humans let alone women, but I'm already used to dealing with things that make me feel like I'll never fit in but won't actually stop me. It also helps me tell the difference between dysphoria from anxieties and dysphoria from how my body actually is. Like, height, hands, stuff like that, is from anxiety. I used to be bald (no t = hair regrowth) and I'm definitely very uncomfortable with my downstairs region and the source of my dysphoria wrt those things is identifiably different. That drastically changes how I approach it. I'm not gunna therapise myself out of pursuing surgery, but I can think my way through being bothered by my hands and feet and height. Being disabled makes you feel lesser, I used to beat myself up for only being 80% human, and the skills from dealing with that help me deal with internalised transphobia from people who would treat me as less. There are ways that it makes it worse though. I probably give it too much power because I don't have it but there are a lot of smell based things I just associate with femininity, like soaps, lotions, bath bombs, flowers, perfume, things like that. I always knew I was trans, but only once I came out did I actually allow myself to process this stuff and there are analogous concepts and ways of thinking through it that, atleast for me, carry over.
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Jun 28, 2020 03:34
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also like im missing a whole loving core sense and accepting that makes it far easier to accept something so blase as my assigned gender being wrong, especially when accepting that and living as me feels so good.
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Jun 28, 2020 03:36
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Have you ever smoked a cigarette, and if so, what is it like for someone with no sense of smell? Does second-hand smoke bother you?
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Jun 28, 2020 23:14
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mostlygray posted:
How do you know what a female deer or a male fox smells like in the first place? How do you verify that you are correct and you are in fact smelling a male fox following a female deer somewhere out there in the woods?
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Jun 29, 2020 04:36
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PT6A posted:Have you ever smoked a cigarette, and if so, what is it like for someone with no sense of smell? Does second-hand smoke bother you? I've never smoked a cigarette. I got tricked into doing shisha by someone who said it wasn't tobacco based "because they wanted to see if I was a pussy" (it was) and I took one hit and couldn't taste anything so I didn't do more. I've smoked weed a couple times, when I've done it from a bong I always end up getting ashes cause I can't taste it. I find I cough a lot around people who are smoking
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Jun 29, 2020 07:12
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Why isn't it called nonosmia? You should petition for a rename.
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Jun 29, 2020 20:49
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Randomly butting in to say that after having Covid a couple of weeks back I lost my sense of smell. It seems to be coming back but slowly, and from reading around a lot of people might have a degree of permanent loss. So you may get a lot of anosmia buddies soon, which in a way is a good thing because it might prompt a bit more consideration/development for people with this problem. I know I have a newfound appreciation for how troublesome it is. Just in the last few weeks I've gotten very frustrated with not being able to tell if milk is off, not knowing if I have BO, or how much garlic I should put in something I'm cooking. Or whether it's burning. And yeah, the amount of people telling me it's a good thing I can't smell unpleasant stuff is astounding. Like, it's an actual impairment and I'm concerned it might never come back, it's a really insensitive thing to say. Sorry you're stuck with people like that.
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Jun 29, 2020 23:13
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Imagine telling a person who has gone deaf "this is good, now you can't hear the neighbor's lovely music anymore!" Sagely wisdom indeed.
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Jun 29, 2020 23:16
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When you smell something extremely pungent like smelling salts, do you still have a reaction?
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Jul 1, 2020 18:24
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My father lost his sense of smell as a photographer apprentice. The chemicals they used back then were no joke. He has always described his sense of taste being a bit muted, but not overly much. I can certainly handle spicier food than he can 
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Jul 1, 2020 20:00
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Bioshuffle posted:When you smell something extremely pungent like smelling salts, do you still have a reaction? Literally nothing. If something's real thick like a cloud of steam then I can't breathe and thick smoke makes my throat hurt but that's not smell. One time my friends made me out hot sauce in my nose because we cooked some at home and I was bullying them because the fumes absolutely killed them and nothing happened to me. I was very confident I would be fine. I was not. Lima posted:My father lost his sense of smell as a photographer apprentice. The chemicals they used back then were no joke. Hot spicy food quickly is overpowering and makes food lose all taste but Hot Miss Broccoli fucked around with this message at 23:29 on Jul 1, 2020 |
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Jul 1, 2020 23:23
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Oh man, lacking smell is definitely more curse than blessing, I'm another recovered 'rona patient reporting in and it really messed with me mentally and emotionally. Food was purely for nutrition. I was worried that my house was going to stink of rotten garbage and I wouldn't know, despite my computer desk being six feet away from the kitchen trash. Are these bedsheets fresh? Am I fresh? Luckily it wasn't permanent and the damaged nerves regenerated after like 40 days, so rearranging your life and habits based on something you can't even perceive... dang, you're a trooper. One small silver lining, without menstruation, you don't have to ask yourself, "Do I smell fishy? Does my bathroom trash can smell like a wharf at low tide?"
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Jul 2, 2020 17:55
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i still get a period, i just don't bleed, it sucks. instead of the contraction hormones going to my non existent uterus they go to the other muscles in the area and I get period shits and a different sort of cramp. id much rather have the menstruation even if i had to think about it smelling bad lol.
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Jul 3, 2020 02:35
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Terrible!
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Jul 3, 2020 04:11
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TunaSpleen posted:
Yo, that's bacterial vaginosis and also a weird post
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Jul 3, 2020 05:48
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Yeah okay I'm glad it's not just me aaaaaaaaaaaaa
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Jul 3, 2020 07:03
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I also have anosmia and always had it. Miss Broccoli posted:i tend to like things that have a really strong taste on your tongue that other people don't. like very strong coffee. i can't eat many sugary things though, most cakes etc are just too loving sweet. The only sweet thing I really care about is Stroopwafels and it's probably mostly for the texture. Chomp8645 posted:Imagine telling a person who has gone deaf "this is good, now you can't hear the neighbor's lovely music anymore!" Imagine people going "Completely blind? Are you sure? But surely you must be able to see this, it's really, really blue! It's SO blue! Try to really look at it!"
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Jul 5, 2020 19:56
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They have flavoured milks in Australia that have a tonne of sugar and they are the only sweet things I like What type do you have? My official diagnosis is aplasia of the olfactory nerve, or nothing grew between my nose and brain when I was in the womb
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Jul 6, 2020 01:11
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Miss Broccoli posted:They have flavoured milks in Australia that have a tonne of sugar and they are the only sweet things I like I was tested about 20 years ago and don't recall the terminology - the takeaway was that it's untreatable. Anyway, I don't want to hi-jack your thread. In case you're unaware I'll just note that anosmia has some psychological effects. Realizing that has helped me personally. It may affect how you relate to the world around you, your relationships with other people and emotional states. https://www.fifthsense.org.uk/psychology-and-smell/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23178326/ It's weird and fascinating but helpful to know.
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Jul 6, 2020 06:02
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Antivehicular posted:Yo, that's bacterial vaginosis and also a weird post Ever shared a bathroom with sisters? AFAB roommates? Especially when they're either habitually messy or depressed-messy? It's a fact of life and I'm sorry if you're uncomfortable with period odors, but accusing someone of being diseased is not the way to go about responding thanks for coming to my TED talk.
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Jul 6, 2020 22:45
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TunaSpleen posted:Ever shared a bathroom with sisters? AFAB roommates? Especially when they're either habitually messy or depressed-messy? It's a fact of life and I'm sorry if you're uncomfortable with period odors, but accusing someone of being diseased is not the way to go about responding thanks for coming to my TED talk. 1) I'm a period-haver, I know there are odors, but they shouldn't be fishy 2) Fishy odors being a symptom of BV is extremely basic gynecological knowledge 3) Coming into a thread where the OP has already said that she hates "at least you don't have (weird problem)!!" comments about her physical limitations, and making another one of those comments, is a weird post regardless
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Jul 7, 2020 00:55
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Yeah combing both atleast you don't have a uterus and atleast you can smell stank into a single thing is a pretty big achievement. Don't ever make womb comments at trans women. At best it's rude at worst you're gunna make them feel othered and dysphoric
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Jul 7, 2020 05:32
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Yeah, I didn't want to speak to that element because it's not my place to do so, but it's especially crappy to say "actually, it's good that you don't have the body parts you wish you had!" to a trans person. Anyway: if you're comfortable talking about it, could you share more about your food preferences? Stories about acquired anosmia often focus on losing enjoyment of food, but I presume that's not the case for people with congenital anosmia. Are your preferences based on texture and other sensations? (I know you mentioned spice earlier.) Do you like cooking? Is cooking a challenge to learn, given how many directions involve smell/taste?
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Jul 7, 2020 08:28
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I used to date someone with this. A few stories: - She had a gas leak in her apartment for probably over 24 hours and didn't realize it until a roommate came home and told her. Everyone left the building and the problem was fixed. Phew! - For a while there was a dead mouse under her bed that she couldn't smell/didn't know about. I had to use my nose to locate and dispose of it. - She loved eating and was in an adventurous eating and dining club despite probably definitely having maybe 1/2 of the ability to enjoy food. Her friend took us to a whiskey and cigar bar one time and she LOVED IT despite the experience being like 95% olfactory. But she had never experienced smell or eating or smoking as others do in her entire life so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. I think she was also insecure about it especially in social situations so she overcompensated? - They say people with true anosmia can't tell the difference between an apple and a raw potato but I never was able to set up a scenario where I could blind check this theory. - Many rush hour subways are completely packed to the gills. Sometimes you'll see one though that's completely empty and if you're a newbie you might think hey what great luck and hop on board before realizing it smells like wet burning fecal genocide. Most new yorkers know to avoid this but she'd sometimes just hop on board. Though she was worried about smells 'sticking' to you. - I got to describe a lot of fun things I never thought about like cut grass or perfumes or walking through chinatown in the summertime. A whole new way for me to think about the world.
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Aug 5, 2020 13:09
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Avian Pneumonia posted:I used to date someone with this. A few stories: yeah I'm terrified of gas leaks, i check that stuff like 12 times when i cook. i have a similar story from my early 20s where i didn't sleep at home for a few days in a row, but i did return home, on one of the first days mum told me the cat had been chasing a mouse, anyway when i did sleep in my own bed again i was in it for about half an hour before i shifted my weight and felt something and oh god those events are still fun social things. i personally still like drinking lots of different wines. i can't taste things when i have smoked something in the past, but i still get buzzed, and the aesthetic was probably still fun for her i think i could tell a raw potato from an apple because of the juice in the apple even if i had no sense of taste either. i very much doubt raw potato tastes like apple. yeah ive done similar and not understood, and im deathly scared of smells sticking to me too i wish people did that with me more
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Aug 9, 2020 12:23
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Miss Broccoli posted:i still get a period, i just don't bleed, it sucks. instead of the contraction hormones going to my non existent uterus they go to the other muscles in the area and I get period shits and a different sort of cramp. id much rather have the menstruation even if i had to think about it smelling bad lol. Huuuh TIL that trans women get periods. I guess it makes sense now that I think about it, since for cis women steroids, being severely underweight, birth control and just generally a lot of things that modify your hormones make them stop. So I guess it makes sense that periods are a hormones thing and not literally having a uterus thing. It is super interesting to read about the problems that not smelling causes. It seems like the most trivial sense by far, but it has never even crossed my mind to think about how useful it is, even if it isn't a MVP sense like sight or hearing.
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Aug 10, 2020 13:57
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yeah it's 100% a hormones things, it's also why menopausal cis women stay on low doses of E, cause it can make things go weird. i don't get them (or atleast I haven't yet) on implants, i guess because my levels are flat and consistent instead of the changing levels you get from pills. Transphobes get real mad about us saying we can get them lol, either they use it to say TRANS MEDICINE IS DANGEROUS (periods are well known to be a function of estrogen) or WOMEN = BLEEDING (gently caress trans men I guess and way to reduce yourself to your ability to reproduce). I'm also happy to talk about trans stuff if people ask. I'm glad you found the smell stuff interesting. My 1 dream in life wouldn't be to be a cis woman, it'd be to smell the smells of nature on a hike. I live in Australia, our trails smell of eucalypt, and that's all I want to experience.
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Aug 10, 2020 14:32
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Interesting thread Miss Broccoli! How old were you when you got diagnosed? How did you/your family start to figure it out?
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Aug 14, 2020 18:18
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21st birthday I got my MRI results lol. I knew since around my eayly teen years, which is pretty usual for anosmia, that's when you start really developing a sense of self. I still don't know if my mother believes me but she's a piece of poo poo who won't accept any fault in her perfect children bar the ones she invents for her own personal glory. My family's kinda hosed, it's possible with a better pair of parents I migh've known sooner. I had to organise getting diagnosed myself, which is why it took until my 21st. I did it through Australia's public system and it took years because it was both chonic and non problematic so I was the very bottom priority. They basically rule out as many causes as they can (bacteria, polyps, etc) before sticking you in machines to check for structural problems. Having a completely absent olfactory nerve is incredibly rare, they don't even track stats for it, there's a chance I'm the only current living person (nobody else I've talked to has confirmed aplasia of the olfactory nerve) or one of a handful. Ya gurl is a shiny pokemon Miss Broccoli fucked around with this message at 06:30 on Aug 15, 2020 |
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Aug 15, 2020 06:28
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