I lost my sense of smell four years ago. The doctors told me that it is natural and that it is not a sickness

case 0021

When I was twelve I had an accident and my nose was bleeding profusely. From that day onwards I can smell only very few things. Because of this it is difficult for me to live with people around me as they smell and I don't. If people ask me about smells I feel shy.

case 0022

My son, who is 6 years old, starting asking me this year how to smell. He is a bright child and I couldn't understand how he didn't know. I told him to just sniff in through his nose and smell will happen. Well, this was the beginning of many "smell tests" that I created. He apparently has no sense of smell at all. Interestingly, the biggest (and only) issue I've had with him is his eating. He is an extremely picky eater. I thought he might have sensory issues because he focused so much on what foods look like. However, he loved all sorts of junk food despite texture. It turns out that he loves sweet and salty tastes. I even remember noticing he never commented on smell. Unfortunately, I have no idea if/what to do at this point.

case 0023

I had a head injury and sheared my olfactory nerve three years ago. There is no chance of my sense of smell or taste returning and I am very depressed. I saw a psychologist but with no experience in this condition she wasn't much help. No attitude advice — just medication. I cannot seem to accept my fate. Not a terrible cross to bear but cooking was my hobby. I'm beginning to just eat the cheapest most nutritious foods but my husband is worried that I am purposefully denying myself pleasure. He, like most people, cannot understand what isolation this condition causes.

case 0024

I had a tumor that was wrapped around my "smeller" removed and as a consequence of the surgery I lost my sense of smell. I feel fortunate to have had this sense for 33 years but am unsure how best to establish a daily routine without it. I can only taste sweet, sour, salty, and spicy. Food in general is completely unappetizing and within six months after surgery I lost almost 20 lbs. (I've always been tall and skinny anyway) and my hair began to fall out, I assume because of the drastic weight loss. I'm currently coping by relying heavily on my family, to "be my nose", and I put a more than average amount of hot sauce and/or salt on just about everything I eat. I feel stressed about not knowing... not knowing if there's a garbage can in the house that needs attention, or if the cookies in the oven are burning, or if the house smells like "dog", or if that yogurt or sour cream is still good. However, getting satisfaction from food and keeping weight on seems to be the most challenging task for me.

case 0025

I had an extremely well developed sense of smell all my life but lost it suddenly after contracting a flu-like upper respiratory tract infection six years ago. I was diagnosed as anosmic by an ear nose throat consultant after brain scans and taking a smell test about six weeks later and told that I was unlikely ever to recover my sense of smell. My sense of taste in its strictest definition i.e. sweet, sour, salt, bitter, and umami was unaffected but I was unable to identify anything I was eating other than by texture (all cheese whether cheddar or Roquefort just tasted "salty"; all cakes just tasted "sweet"; eggs, cream, and milk had no flavor at all). I could not smell anything. Flowers, perfume, coffee, petrol, garlic, rotten fish, smoke, human or animal odors, nothing had a smell for me. Curiously, although I couldn't identify any "complete" smells, after a few weeks I began to detect a very few single odor "elements" - which I had never smelled in isolation before. The first one I noticed was something present in the peel of citrus fruits (which I normally love) which made me feel sick- I was so sensitive to this that on one occasion I touched an orange at about 9 pm, washed my hands, washed them again before filling a glass of water to put by my bedside, woke at about 2 am and took a sip of water and could still smell the "orange" element on the surface of the glass — 5 hours after touching the fruit. The second element I noticed was something which must be present in the base of a number of household cleaning products and toiletries — again a chemical smell which I had never smelled in isolation and found hard to describe but which was very unpleasant to me and seemed to be everywhere. The third smell was something in the skin of cucumber which made me feel nauseous. Although I really disliked all these smells I was somewhat reassured because it suggested that something must be still working in my olfactory system. I was very disturbed and depressed by how much I was affected by my anosmia, I lost my appetite, became very cautious about eating away from home because I knew I couldn't detect meat or fish which was off, was worried that I might have left the gas on or set fire to something without knowing it, felt extremely anxious in company unless I had just washed , cleaned my teeth and was wearing fresh clothes as I could not tell whether I had body odor or not and felt strangely distant from my family because I couldn't "smell" them. After a couple of years I gradually became aware of two more "single" odors which were "aromatic" in nature — something common to cedar and sandalwood (and petrol) and something common to lavender and rosemary but I still couldn't smell any "whole" smells — just these faint strands .However, using this limited smell vocabulary, I learned to identify more and more things. For example although I couldn't smell petrol I learned to detect the aromatic in it. I was so delighted to smell something nice that I sniffed everything eagerly for even a hint of a smell — pencil sharpenings, leaves, tomato stalks, old books. At first the smells would fade after a few seconds but gradually persisted for a few minutes. I also began to be aware that there were smells around that I couldn't actually perceive but which seemed to be pressing on an olfactory threshold. I could "feel" they were present (just outside the "smell" door) but had no idea what they were ,for example someone might walk past me and I could tell they smelled of something but couldn't tell if it was perfume or body odor, or I might be in a particular aisle in the supermarket and be aware that it had an odor but without looking not know if it was pet food, vegetables, or toiletries. When I asked other people who were with me about it they would confirm there was a smell but often that it was very faint. It was as though, in my smell deprived state, I was becoming hyper-sensitive to the very existence of odors even when they were not recognizable. Two years ago I experienced, for the first time since I lost my sense of smell, a recognizable odor. Since then I can detect more and more recognizable odors (lily of the valley, hyacinth, chrysanthemums, pine sap, cigars, onions, thyme, etc.). This has made a huge difference to me — I have regained much of my appetite for food, I drink wine again (though my appreciation of the subtle differences has not returned), I enjoy gardening more, I rejoice whenever I detect some new odor and, in general, feel much more positive about life. Unexpectedly, much of this recent improvement has taken place since I started smoking again. I have written at some length here because there seems to be a total lack of interest in the very distressing condition of anosmia — most people dismiss it as a joke: "aren't you lucky you can change babies' nappies without noticing", whereas if I had gone blind or become deaf everyone would be sympathetic. I have learned not to mention it anymore and work my way around it without letting anyone know. There also seems to be very little helpful research available so I am very grateful for the opportunity to describe my personal experience to people who may be interested.